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TEST(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 TEST(1)

NAME
     test - set status according to condition

SYNOPSIS
     test expr

DESCRIPTION
     Test  evaluates  the expression expr.  If the value is true the exit status
     is null; otherwise the exit status is non-null.  If there are no  arguments
     the exit status is non-null.

     The following primitives are used to construct expr.

     -r file	True if the file exists (is accessible) and is readable.

     -w file	True if the file exists and is writable.

     -x file	True if the file exists and has execute permission.

     -e file	True if the file exists.

     -f file	True if the file exists and is a plain file.

     -d file	True if the file exists and is a directory.

     -s file	True if the file exists and has a size greater than zero.

     -t fildes	True  if the open file whose file descriptor number is fildes (1
		by default) is the same file as /dev/cons.

     -A file	True if the file exists and is append-only.

     -L file	True if the file exists and is exclusive-use.

     -Tfile	True if the file exists and is temporary.

     s1 = s2	True if the strings s1 and s2 are identical.

     s1 != s2	True if the strings s1 and s2 are not identical.

     s1 	True if s1 is not the null string.  (Deprecated.)

     -n s1	True if the length of string s1 is non-zero.

     -z s1	True if the length of string s1 is zero.

     n1 -eq n2	True if the integers n1 and n2 are arithmetically equal.  Any of
		the comparisons -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, or -le may be used in  place
		of  -eq.   The	(nonstandard)  construct  -l string, meaning the
		length of string, may be used in place of an integer.

     a -nt b	True if file a is newer than (modified after) file b.

     a -ot b	True if file a is older than (modified before) file b.

     f -older t
		True if file f is older than (modified before) time t.	If t  is
		a  integer followed by the letters y(years), M(months), d(days),
		h(hours), m(minutes), or s(seconds), it represents current  time
		minus  the specified time.  If there is no letter, it represents
		seconds since epoch.  You can also concatenate mixed units.  For
		example, 3d12h means three days and twelve hours ago.

     These primaries may be combined with the following operators:

     !	       unary negation operator

     -o        binary or operator

     -a        binary and operator; higher precedence than -o

     ( expr )  parentheses for grouping.

     The primitives -b, -u, -g, and -s return false;  they  are  recognized  for
     compatibility with POSIX.

     Notice  that  all	the  operators and flags are separate arguments to test.
     Notice also that parentheses and equal signs are meaningful to rc and  must
     be enclosed in quotes.

EXAMPLES
     Test  is  a  dubious way to check for specific character strings: it uses a
     process to do what an rc((1)) match or switch statement can do.  The  first
     example  is  not  only  inefficient but wrong, because test understands the
     purported string "-c" as an option.

	    if (test $1 '=' "-c") echo OK # wrong!

     A better way is

	    if (~ $1 -c) echo OK

     Test whether is in the current directory.

	    test -f abc -o -d abc

SOURCE
     /src/cmd/test.c

SEE ALSO
     rc(1)

BUGS
     Won't complain about extraneous arguments since there may be arguments left
     unprocessed by short-circuit evaluation of -a or -o.

									 TEST(1)

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