$ help test
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary. Unary
expressions are often used to examine the status of a file. There
are string operators and numeric comparison operators as well.
The behavior of test depends on the number of arguments. Read the
bash manual page for the complete specification.
File operators:
-a FILE True if file exists.
-b FILE True if file is block special.
-c FILE True if file is character special.
-d FILE True if file is a directory.
-e FILE True if file exists.
-f FILE True if file exists and is a regular file.
-g FILE True if file is set-group-id.
-h FILE True if file is a symbolic link.
-L FILE True if file is a symbolic link.
-k FILE True if file has its `sticky' bit set.
-p FILE True if file is a named pipe.
-r FILE True if file is readable by you.
-s FILE True if file exists and is not empty.
-S FILE True if file is a socket.
-t FD True if FD is opened on a terminal.
-u FILE True if the file is set-user-id.
-w FILE True if the file is writable by you.
-x FILE True if the file is executable by you.
-O FILE True if the file is effectively owned by you.
-G FILE True if the file is effectively owned by your group.
-N FILE True if the file has been modified since it was last read.
FILE1 -nt FILE2 True if file1 is newer than file2 (according to
modification date).
FILE1 -ot FILE2 True if file1 is older than file2.
FILE1 -ef FILE2 True if file1 is a hard link to file2.
All file operators except -h and -L are acting on the target of a symbolic
link, not on the symlink itself, if FILE is a symbolic link.
String operators:
-z STRING True if string is empty.
-n STRING
STRING True if string is not empty.
STRING1 = STRING2
True if the strings are equal.
STRING1 != STRING2
True if the strings are not equal.
STRING1 < STRING2
True if STRING1 sorts before STRING2 lexicographically.
STRING1 > STRING2
True if STRING1 sorts after STRING2 lexicographically.
Other operators:
-o OPTION True if the shell option OPTION is enabled.
-v VAR True if the shell variable VAR is set.
-R VAR True if the shell variable VAR is set and is a name
reference.
! EXPR True if expr is false.
EXPR1 -a EXPR2 True if both expr1 AND expr2 are true.
EXPR1 -o EXPR2 True if either expr1 OR expr2 is true.
arg1 OP arg2 Arithmetic tests. OP is one of -eq, -ne,
-lt, -le, -gt, or -ge.
Arithmetic binary operators return true if ARG1 is equal, not-equal,
less-than, less-than-or-equal, greater-than, or greater-than-or-equal
than ARG2.
See the bash manual page bash(1) for the handling of parameters (i.e.
missing parameters).
Exit Status:
Returns success if EXPR evaluates to true; fails if EXPR evaluates to
false or an invalid argument is given.