[(1)

💖 NAME 💖

[ — the little bracket that checks file types and compares values. That's the whole job, bestie. No cap.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

[ [-h|--help] [-V|--version]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so, [ checks file types and compares values. She's giving very much the same energy as test, just wearing a bracket costume and standing at the door of your shell script like a bouncer. 🫶

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -h, --help — prints the help. iconic behavior, honestly. ✨
• -V, --version — prints the version. 💅

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🔥 EXTRA 🔥

She exits with the status determined by EXPRESSION. That's the vibe check — exit status is the answer.

An omitted EXPRESSION defaults to false. Otherwise, EXPRESSION is true or false and sets the 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

🦋 String operations 🦋

• -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

🌈 Integer comparisons 🌈

• 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

💜 File operations 💜

• 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 is set-group-ID
• -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 read permission is granted
• -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 write permission is granted
• -x FILE — FILE exists and execute (or search) permission is granted

Except for -h and -L, all FILE-related tests dereference (follow) 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.

NOTE: Binary -a and -o are inherently ambiguous. Use test EXPR1 && test EXPR2 or test EXPR1 || test EXPR2 instead. fr fr, don't do the ambiguous thing.

NOTE: [ honors the --help and --version options, but test does not. test treats each of those as it treats any other nonempty STRING. not me getting caught out by that 💀

NOTE: 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. she's got her own rules, iykyk.

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

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And that's the whole page, bestie — this was [ (uutils coreutils) 0.7.0, the General Commands Manual edition of [(1). Go forth and bracket responsibly. 💖✨🎀