Shell IF

test command or [ expr ]

test command or [ expr ] is used to see if an expression is true, and if it is true it return zero(0), otherwise returns nonzero for false.
Syntax:
test expression OR [ expression ]

Example:
Following script determine whether given argument number is positive.

$ cat > ispostive   
#!/bin/sh   
#   
# Script to see whether argument is positive   
#   
if test $1 -gt 0   
then   
echo "$1 number is positive"   
fi

Run it as follows
$ chmod 755 ispostive

$ ispostive 5 5 number is positive

$ispostive -45 Nothing is printed

$ispostive ./ispostive: test: -gt: unary operator expected

Detailed explanation The line, if test $1 -gt 0 , test to see if first command line argument($1) is greater than 0. If it is true(0) then test will return 0 and output will printed as 5 number is positive but for -45 argument there is no output because our condition is not true(0) (no -45 is not greater than 0) hence echo statement is skipped. And for last statement we have not supplied any argument hence error ./ispostive: test: -gt: unary operator expected, is generated by shell , to avoid such error we can test whether command line argument is supplied or not.

test or [ expr ] works with
1.Integer ( Number without decimal point)
2.File types
3.Character strings

For Mathematics, use following operator in Shell Script

Mathematical Operator in Shell Script	Meaning	Normal Arithmetical/ Mathematical Statements	But in Shell
		For test statement with if command	For [ expr ] statement with if command
-eq	is equal to	5 == 6	if test 5 -eq 6
-ne	is not equal to	5 != 6	if test 5 -ne 6
-lt	is less than	5 < 6	if test 5 -lt 6
-le	is less than or equal to	5 <= 6	if test 5 -le 6
-gt	is greater than	5 > 6	if test 5 -gt 6
-ge	is greater than or equal to	5 >= 6	if test 5 -ge 6

NOTE: == is equal, != is not equal.

For string Comparisons use

Operator	Meaning
string1 = string2	string1 is equal to string2
string1 != string2	string1 is NOT equal to string2
string1	string1 is NOT NULL or not defined
-n string1	string1 is NOT NULL and does exist
-z string1	string1 is NULL and does exist

Shell also test for file and directory types

Test	Meaning
-s file	Non empty file
-f file	Is File exist or normal file and not a directory
-d dir	Is Directory exist and not a file
-w file	Is writeable file
-r file	Is read-only file
-x file	Is file is executable

Logical Operators

Logical operators are used to combine two or more condition at a time

Operator	Meaning
! expression	Logical NOT
expression1 -a expression2	Logical AND
expression1 -o expression2	Logical OR