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Expert Shell Scripting
book

Expert Shell Scripting

by Ron Peters
December 2008
Intermediate to advanced
320 pages
6h 45m
English
Apress
Content preview from Expert Shell Scripting

APPENDIX ATest Switches

One of the fundamental elements of programming is the ability to make comparisons: you test for certain conditions to be able to make decisions. You can use the test command to evaluate many items, such as variables, strings, and numbers. I keep the information in this appendix close at hand since I haven't memorized all of the parameters. I often use these switches for checking files and strings, and this is a simple quick reference for easy lookup. Note that in Table A-1 the "test" column refers to the system command test such as /usr/bin/test. The "bash" and "ksh" columns refer to the built-in test command for those shells.

Table A-1. Test Switches

Switch test bash ksh Definition
-a FILE FILE simply ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781430218418Purchase book