Is “/bin/[.exe” a legitimate file? [Cygwin, Windows 10] [duplicate]
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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.
shell cygwin
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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.
add a comment |
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.
shell cygwin
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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
add a comment |
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.
shell cygwin
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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
shell cygwin
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
edited Apr 3 at 1:45
Rui F Ribeiro
41.9k1483142
41.9k1483142
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
asked Apr 2 at 22:24
JoeJoe
1195
1195
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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
add a comment |
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
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
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?
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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.exesuffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you wouldls -lrather thanls.exe -l(although you can do the second if you insist).
– roaima
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
/bin/[is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, likecsh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"'or in things likefind ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...
– Stéphane Chazelas
2 days ago
|
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
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?
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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.exesuffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you wouldls -lrather thanls.exe -l(although you can do the second if you insist).
– roaima
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
/bin/[is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, likecsh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"'or in things likefind ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...
– Stéphane Chazelas
2 days ago
|
show 1 more comment
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?
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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.exesuffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you wouldls -lrather thanls.exe -l(although you can do the second if you insist).
– roaima
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
/bin/[is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, likecsh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"'or in things likefind ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...
– Stéphane Chazelas
2 days ago
|
show 1 more comment
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?
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
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?
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
edited 2 days ago
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
answered Apr 2 at 22:30
Kusalananda♦Kusalananda
140k17261434
140k17261434
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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.exesuffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you wouldls -lrather thanls.exe -l(although you can do the second if you insist).
– roaima
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
/bin/[is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, likecsh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"'or in things likefind ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...
– Stéphane Chazelas
2 days ago
|
show 1 more comment
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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.exesuffix when using a Cygwin tool. So you wouldls -lrather thanls.exe -l(although you can do the second if you insist).
– roaima
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
/bin/[is typically called when invoked from non-Bourne-like shells, likecsh -c '"[" a -nt b "]"'or in things likefind ... -exec [ -f {} ] ; ...
– Stéphane Chazelas
2 days ago
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
This is ironically enough, hilarious. I did not know that was a legitimate executable. I thought it as a potential security risk through a regex related attack. Thank you very much for this information, it was thoroughly explained well,... formerly not, (now should be for others), provided through google/forum indexing.
– Joe
Apr 3 at 0:14
1
1
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
Searching for punctuation is problematic...
– stolenmoment
Apr 3 at 1:51
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
2 days ago
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
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
@roaima Thanks. I last used Cygwin in early 2000 so my memory was a bit foggy.
– Kusalananda♦
2 days ago
1
1
/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
2 days ago
/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
2 days ago
|
show 1 more comment
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