FILE -nt FILE (conditional operator)

true if file1 is newer than file2, based on the modification date.

-nt is not included in POSIX. Avoid it if you want to stay compatible with POSIX shells.

Links

• Bash manual
• POSIX specification of test

Examples

Different ways to test if a file is newer than another file:

1 2 3 4

test ~/file1.txt -nt ~/file2.txt && echo "file1 is newer" [ ~/file1.txt -nt ~/file2.txt ] && echo "file1 is newer" # Bash [[ ~/file1.txt -nt ~/file2.txt ]] && echo "file1 is newer"