1test [ arg ... ] 2[ [ arg ... ] ] 3 Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use 4 conditional expressions instead (see the section `Conditional 5 Expressions'). The main differences between the conditional 6 expression syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these com- 7 mands are not handled syntactically, so for example an empty 8 variable expansion may cause an argument to be omitted; syntax 9 errors cause status 2 to be returned instead of a shell error; 10 and arithmetic operators expect integer arguments rather than 11 arithmetic expressions. 12 13 The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where 14 these are specified. Unfortunately there are intrinsic ambigui- 15 ties in the syntax; in particular there is no distinction 16 between test operators and strings that resemble them. The 17 standard attempts to resolve these for small numbers of argu- 18 ments (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility 19 cannot be relied on. Users are urged wherever possible to use 20 the `[[' test syntax which does not have these ambiguities. 21