Linux shell script test syntax

All of the shell script tests that follow should be performed between the bracket characters [ and ], like this:

if [ true ]
then
  # do something here
fi

Very important: Make sure you leave spaces around the bracket characters.

I'll show more detailed tests as we go along.

Linux shell file-related tests

To perform tests on files use the following comparison operators:

-d file    Test if file is a directory
-e file    Test if file exists
-f file    Test if file is an ordinary file
-r file    Test if file is readable
-w file    Test if file is writable
-x file    Test if file is executable

As an example, assuming you have a file named foo, here's how you would test to see if that file is readable:

if [ -r foo ]
then
  # do something here
fi

Linux shell string comparison tests

Here are the operators for performing string comparison tests:

s1          Test if s1 is not the empty string
s1 = s2     Test if s1 equals s2
s1 != s2    Test if s1 is not equal to s2
-n s1       Test if s1 has non-zero size
-z s1       Test if s1 has zero size

Here's an example of how to see if two strings are equal:

if [ $foo = $bar ]
then
  # do something
fi

This script echoes TRUE:

s1=

if [ -n $s1 ]
then
  echo "TRUE"
else
  echo "FALSE"
fi

This script echoes FALSE:

s1=bar

if [ -z "$s1" ]
then
  echo "TRUE"
else
  echo "FALSE"
fi

Those tests also showed the else syntax of the if statement.

Linux shell script math/number equality tests

Here's how you perform math/number/arithmetic tests using the Bourne and Bash shells:

n1 -eq n2    Test if n1 equals n2
n1 -ne n2    Test if n1 is not equal to n2
n1 -lt n2    Test if n1 is less than n2
n1 -le n2    Test if n1 is less than or equal to n2
n1 -gt n2    Test if n1 is greater than n2
n1 -ge n2    Test if n1 is greater than or equal to n2

Here's an example of how to test whether two numbers are equal:

if [ $n1 -eq $n2 ]
then
  # do something
fi

Linux shell boolean and/or/not operators

The following boolean and/or/not operators can also be used in your tests:

-a    and
-o    or
!     not

Here's an example of how to test perform a test using the and operator:

if [ $num -gt 0 -a $num -lt 10 ]
then
  # do something here
fi

More powerful grouping operators

If you need to perform multiple tests at one time you can use grouping operators, as shown in the example below.

a=5
b=20

if test \( $a -gt 0 -a $a -lt 10 \) -o \( $b -gt 0 -a $b -lt 20 \)
then
   echo "TRUE"
else
  echo "FALSE"
fi

That script echoes "TRUE".

Linux Bourne shell arithmetic

In the Bourne shell math/arithmetic is performed using the expr command, like this:

sum=`expr $foo + $bar`
half=`expr $foo / 2`
times=`expr $foo \* 2`

Note that you can't have any spaces before or after the equal sign in those (or any) shell script assignment statements.

A few other common Linux shell tricks

Here are a few other tricks/techniques you will often see in Unix shell scripts:

cmd1 && cmd2   Run cmd1; if it returns 0 (success), run cmd2
cmd1 || cmd2   Run cmd1; if it returns non-zero, run cmd2
cmd1 & cmd2    Run cmd1 and also cmd2
(ls -1)        Run the command "ls -1" in a subshell