test(1) User Commands test(1)
NAME
test - check file types and compare values
SYNOPSIS
test EXPRESSION
test
[ EXPRESSION ]
[ ]
[ OPTION
DESCRIPTION
Exit with the status determined by EXPRESSION.
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
An omitted EXPRESSION defaults to false. Otherwise, EXPRESSION is true
or false and sets exit status. It is one of:
( EXPRESSION ) EXPRESSION is true
! EXPRESSION EXPRESSION is false
EXPRESSION1 -a EXPRESSION2 both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION2 are true
EXPRESSION1 -o EXPRESSION2 either EXPRESSION1 or EXPRESSION2 is true
-n STRING the length of STRING is nonzero
STRING equivalent to -n STRING
-z STRING the length of STRING is zero
STRING1 = STRING2 the strings are equal
STRING1 != STRING2 the strings are not equal
STRING1 > STRING2 STRING1 is greater than STRING2 in the current
locale
STRING1 < STRING2 STRING1 is less than STRING2 in the current locale
INTEGER1 -eq INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ge INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is greater than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -gt INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is greater than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -le INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is less than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -lt INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is less than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ne INTEGER2 INTEGER1 is not equal to INTEGER2
FILE1 -ef FILE2 FILE1 and FILE2 have the same device and inode
numbers
FILE1 -nt FILE2 FILE1 is newer (modification date) than FILE2
FILE1 -ot FILE2 FILE1 is older than FILE2
-b FILE FILE exists and is block special
-c FILE FILE exists and is character special
-d FILE FILE exists and is a directory
-e FILE FILE exists
-f FILE FILE exists and is a regular file
-g FILE FILE exists and its set-group-ID bit is set
-G FILE FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID
-h FILE FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
-k FILE FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
-L FILE FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -h)
-N FILE FILE exists and has been modified since it was last
read
-O FILE FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID
-p FILE FILE exists and is a named pipe
-r FILE FILE exists and the user has read access
-s FILE FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
-S FILE FILE exists and is a socket
-t FD file descriptor FD is opened on a terminal
-u FILE FILE exists and its set-user-ID bit is set
-w FILE FILE exists and the user has write access
-x FILE FILE exists and the user has execute (or search)
access
Except for -h and -L, all FILE-related tests dereference symbolic
links. Beware that parentheses need to be escaped (e.g., by
backslashes) for shells. INTEGER may also be -l STRING, which
evaluates to the length of STRING.
Binary -a and -o are ambiguous. Use 'test EXPR1 && test EXPR2' or
'test EXPR1 || test EXPR2' instead.
'[' honors --help and --version, but 'test' treats them as STRINGs.
Your shell may have its own version of test and/or [, which usually
supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's
documentation for details about the options it supports.
AUTHOR
Written by Kevin Braunsdorf and Matthew Bradburn.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
access(2)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/test>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.12 September 2026 test(1)
coreutils 9.12 - Generated Wed Sep 23 13:41:53 CDT 2026