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test Cheat Sheet

This guide is the test man page nearly verbatim with formatting.

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An blank EXPRESSION is false.

Expression combinations:

  • ( EXPRESSION ) - EXPRESSION grouping (is true)
  • ! EXPRESSION - Invert EXPRESSION
  • EXPRESSION1 -a EXPRESSION2 - both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION2 are true
  • EXPRESSION1 -o EXPRESSION2 - either EXPRESSION1 or EXPRESSION2 is true

Strings

  • -n STRING - the length of STRING is nonzero
  • -z STRING - the length of STRING is zero
  • STRING1 = STRING2 - the strings are equal
  • STRING1 != STRING2 - the strings are not equal

Integers

  • 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

Files

  • 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

File types

  • -e FILE - FILE exists
  • -b FILE - FILE exists and is block special
  • -c FILE - FILE exists and is character special
  • -d FILE - FILE exists and is a directory
  • -f FILE - FILE exists and is a regular file
  • -p FILE - FILE exists and is a named pipe
  • -L FILE - FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -h)
  • -h FILE - FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
  • -S FILE - FILE exists and is a socket

File bits

  • -k FILE - FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
  • -g FILE - FILE exists and is set-group-ID
  • -u FILE - FILE exists and its set-user-ID bit is set

File permissions

  • -G FILE - FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID
  • -O FILE - FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID
  • -r FILE - FILE exists and the user has read access
  • -w FILE - FILE exists and the user has write access
  • -x FILE - FILE exists and the user has execute (or search) access

File is not empty

  • -s FILE - FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
  • -N FILE - FILE exists and has been modified since it was last read

Test if a file descriptor is a terminal

  • -t FD - file descriptor FD is opened on a terminal

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.

Binary -a and -o are ambiguous. Use test EXPR1 && test EXPR2 or test EXPR1 || test EXPR2 instead.

Source