/usr/bin/[ from coreutils

[chainofflowers]

Hi,

I have just found out that I have an executable file called [ (open-square-bracket), which appears to come from coreutils 8.32-1:

$ pacman -Qo /usr/bin/\[
/usr/bin/[ is owned by coreutils 8.32-1

Is that intentional?

[xabbu]

Yes and it is the same as test

check out

man test

[Aragorn]

And both [ and test are also internal commands in bash, but the POSIX specification demands that they be also available as separate executables, in case one were to use a shell where they are not internal.

[chainofflowers]

Thanks @xabbu and @Aragorn!