Is “/bin/[.exe” a legitimate file? [Cygwin, Windows 10] [duplicate]





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  • What is the purpose of square bracket executable

    3 answers




I can not find anything about this, is it a known file?
I am using a CYGWIN based terminal on windows 10



Here are their locations and the commands I used.



$ find -name [*
./bin/[.exe
./usr/bin/[.exe



$ ls -l -a -r /* | grep [-.*>]
...all other files that match this...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 67134 Nov 6 14:22 [.exe
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Apr 2 18:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Jan 26 03:20 .


I would like more information on this file and whether or not I can remove it.










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marked as duplicate by roaima, Thomas Dickey, Michael Homer, Rui F Ribeiro, muru Apr 3 at 2:47


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.



















  • Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

    – Joe
    Apr 3 at 0:24




















2
















This question already has an answer here:




  • What is the purpose of square bracket executable

    3 answers




I can not find anything about this, is it a known file?
I am using a CYGWIN based terminal on windows 10



Here are their locations and the commands I used.



$ find -name [*
./bin/[.exe
./usr/bin/[.exe



$ ls -l -a -r /* | grep [-.*>]
...all other files that match this...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 67134 Nov 6 14:22 [.exe
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Apr 2 18:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Jan 26 03:20 .


I would like more information on this file and whether or not I can remove it.










share|improve this question















marked as duplicate by roaima, Thomas Dickey, Michael Homer, Rui F Ribeiro, muru Apr 3 at 2:47


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.



















  • Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

    – Joe
    Apr 3 at 0:24
















2












2








2


1







This question already has an answer here:




  • What is the purpose of square bracket executable

    3 answers




I can not find anything about this, is it a known file?
I am using a CYGWIN based terminal on windows 10



Here are their locations and the commands I used.



$ find -name [*
./bin/[.exe
./usr/bin/[.exe



$ ls -l -a -r /* | grep [-.*>]
...all other files that match this...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 67134 Nov 6 14:22 [.exe
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Apr 2 18:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Jan 26 03:20 .


I would like more information on this file and whether or not I can remove it.










share|improve this question

















This question already has an answer here:




  • What is the purpose of square bracket executable

    3 answers




I can not find anything about this, is it a known file?
I am using a CYGWIN based terminal on windows 10



Here are their locations and the commands I used.



$ find -name [*
./bin/[.exe
./usr/bin/[.exe



$ ls -l -a -r /* | grep [-.*>]
...all other files that match this...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 67134 Nov 6 14:22 [.exe
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Apr 2 18:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 X 197121 0 Jan 26 03:20 .


I would like more information on this file and whether or not I can remove it.





This question already has an answer here:




  • What is the purpose of square bracket executable

    3 answers








shell cygwin






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share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Apr 3 at 1:45









Rui F Ribeiro

42k1483142




42k1483142










asked Apr 2 at 22:24









JoeJoe

1195




1195




marked as duplicate by roaima, Thomas Dickey, Michael Homer, Rui F Ribeiro, muru Apr 3 at 2:47


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.









marked as duplicate by roaima, Thomas Dickey, Michael Homer, Rui F Ribeiro, muru Apr 3 at 2:47


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.















  • Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

    – Joe
    Apr 3 at 0:24





















  • Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

    – Joe
    Apr 3 at 0:24



















Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:24







Not necessarily, I didn't know what it was, all the times I've ls'ed into /bin/ No google searches for things close to and the title would provide much to the direct answer here below. Updated the title for relevance

– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:24












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















8














You should not remove that file. In general, don't remove random files that you have not created yourself.



It's the executable file for the [ utility. This utility is exactly the same as the test utility but requires that the last operand is ].



See man [ and man test.



Example of use:



[ -n "hello" ] && echo '"hello" is a non-empty string'


You would also be able to use



/bin/[.exe -n "hello" ] && echo 'That works too'


(though you don't need to specify the .exe suffix on the command line)



Note that /bin/[.exe is the executable file for the external [ utility. This utility is very often also available as a built-in utility in your shell. If your shell is bash, then man bash (and help [) would document it.



The external [ in /bin or /usr/bin is used by shells that don't have this utility as a built-in, or when executing a test from something that is not a shell (e.g. with -exec through find).



Related:




  • How exactly does "/bin/[" work?






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    Searching for punctuation is problematic...

    – stolenmoment
    Apr 3 at 1:51






  • 1





    Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

    – roaima
    Apr 3 at 8:05








  • 1





    @roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

    – Kusalananda
    Apr 3 at 8:14






  • 2





    /bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Apr 3 at 8:28








  • 1





    The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

    – Alex Bender
    Apr 3 at 9:40


















1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









8














You should not remove that file. In general, don't remove random files that you have not created yourself.



It's the executable file for the [ utility. This utility is exactly the same as the test utility but requires that the last operand is ].



See man [ and man test.



Example of use:



[ -n "hello" ] && echo '"hello" is a non-empty string'


You would also be able to use



/bin/[.exe -n "hello" ] && echo 'That works too'


(though you don't need to specify the .exe suffix on the command line)



Note that /bin/[.exe is the executable file for the external [ utility. This utility is very often also available as a built-in utility in your shell. If your shell is bash, then man bash (and help [) would document it.



The external [ in /bin or /usr/bin is used by shells that don't have this utility as a built-in, or when executing a test from something that is not a shell (e.g. with -exec through find).



Related:




  • How exactly does "/bin/[" work?






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    Searching for punctuation is problematic...

    – stolenmoment
    Apr 3 at 1:51






  • 1





    Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

    – roaima
    Apr 3 at 8:05








  • 1





    @roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

    – Kusalananda
    Apr 3 at 8:14






  • 2





    /bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Apr 3 at 8:28








  • 1





    The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

    – Alex Bender
    Apr 3 at 9:40
















8














You should not remove that file. In general, don't remove random files that you have not created yourself.



It's the executable file for the [ utility. This utility is exactly the same as the test utility but requires that the last operand is ].



See man [ and man test.



Example of use:



[ -n "hello" ] && echo '"hello" is a non-empty string'


You would also be able to use



/bin/[.exe -n "hello" ] && echo 'That works too'


(though you don't need to specify the .exe suffix on the command line)



Note that /bin/[.exe is the executable file for the external [ utility. This utility is very often also available as a built-in utility in your shell. If your shell is bash, then man bash (and help [) would document it.



The external [ in /bin or /usr/bin is used by shells that don't have this utility as a built-in, or when executing a test from something that is not a shell (e.g. with -exec through find).



Related:




  • How exactly does "/bin/[" work?






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    Searching for punctuation is problematic...

    – stolenmoment
    Apr 3 at 1:51






  • 1





    Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

    – roaima
    Apr 3 at 8:05








  • 1





    @roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

    – Kusalananda
    Apr 3 at 8:14






  • 2





    /bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Apr 3 at 8:28








  • 1





    The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

    – Alex Bender
    Apr 3 at 9:40














8












8








8







You should not remove that file. In general, don't remove random files that you have not created yourself.



It's the executable file for the [ utility. This utility is exactly the same as the test utility but requires that the last operand is ].



See man [ and man test.



Example of use:



[ -n "hello" ] && echo '"hello" is a non-empty string'


You would also be able to use



/bin/[.exe -n "hello" ] && echo 'That works too'


(though you don't need to specify the .exe suffix on the command line)



Note that /bin/[.exe is the executable file for the external [ utility. This utility is very often also available as a built-in utility in your shell. If your shell is bash, then man bash (and help [) would document it.



The external [ in /bin or /usr/bin is used by shells that don't have this utility as a built-in, or when executing a test from something that is not a shell (e.g. with -exec through find).



Related:




  • How exactly does "/bin/[" work?






share|improve this answer















You should not remove that file. In general, don't remove random files that you have not created yourself.



It's the executable file for the [ utility. This utility is exactly the same as the test utility but requires that the last operand is ].



See man [ and man test.



Example of use:



[ -n "hello" ] && echo '"hello" is a non-empty string'


You would also be able to use



/bin/[.exe -n "hello" ] && echo 'That works too'


(though you don't need to specify the .exe suffix on the command line)



Note that /bin/[.exe is the executable file for the external [ utility. This utility is very often also available as a built-in utility in your shell. If your shell is bash, then man bash (and help [) would document it.



The external [ in /bin or /usr/bin is used by shells that don't have this utility as a built-in, or when executing a test from something that is not a shell (e.g. with -exec through find).



Related:




  • How exactly does "/bin/[" work?







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Apr 3 at 9:47

























answered Apr 2 at 22:30









KusalanandaKusalananda

140k17261436




140k17261436








  • 2





    Searching for punctuation is problematic...

    – stolenmoment
    Apr 3 at 1:51






  • 1





    Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

    – roaima
    Apr 3 at 8:05








  • 1





    @roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

    – Kusalananda
    Apr 3 at 8:14






  • 2





    /bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Apr 3 at 8:28








  • 1





    The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

    – Alex Bender
    Apr 3 at 9:40














  • 2





    Searching for punctuation is problematic...

    – stolenmoment
    Apr 3 at 1:51






  • 1





    Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

    – roaima
    Apr 3 at 8:05








  • 1





    @roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

    – Kusalananda
    Apr 3 at 8:14






  • 2





    /bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Apr 3 at 8:28








  • 1





    The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

    – Alex Bender
    Apr 3 at 9:40








2




2





Searching for punctuation is problematic...

– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51





Searching for punctuation is problematic...

– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51




1




1





Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

– roaima
Apr 3 at 8:05







Kusalanada, Cygwin is a pretty good reimplementation of the Linux/UNIX shell environment for Windows. Shell, GNU tools, even an X Windows display server. (Far better than WSL, in my opinion.) You don't specify the .exe suffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you would ls -l rather than ls.exe -l (although you can do the second if you insist).

– roaima
Apr 3 at 8:05






1




1





@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

– Kusalananda
Apr 3 at 8:14





@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.

– Kusalananda
Apr 3 at 8:14




2




2





/bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

– Stéphane Chazelas
Apr 3 at 8:28







/bin/[ is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, like csh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"' or in things like find ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...

– Stéphane Chazelas
Apr 3 at 8:28






1




1





The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

– Alex Bender
Apr 3 at 9:40





The man is your friend! Read man man before reading other manpages, you will get a lot of interesting stuff

– Alex Bender
Apr 3 at 9:40



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