glenda.party
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$home/manuals/9front/1/test
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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 sta‐
       tus 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 let‐
                  ter, it represents seconds since epoch.  You can  also  con‐
                  catenate  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 under‐
       stands 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
       /sys/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)