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The -ef (equivalent file) operator is a binary file test operator in Bash that evaluates whether two paths refer to the identical physical file on the filesystem. It returns a true (0) exit status if and only if both files exist and possess the exact same device number (st_dev) and inode number (st_ino). 
[ FILE1 -ef FILE2 ]
[[ FILE1 -ef FILE2 ]]
test FILE1 -ef FILE2

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Technical Behavior

  • System-Level Evaluation: The operator relies on the underlying stat() system call. It does not perform byte-by-byte content comparison or string-based path comparison. It strictly compares the filesystem metadata (st_dev and st_ino fields).
  • Symbolic Link Dereferencing: The -ef operator automatically resolves (dereferences) symbolic links. If FILE1 is a symlink pointing to FILE2, the operator evaluates the inode of the resolved target, resulting in a true evaluation.
  • Hard Link Resolution: Because hard links are multiple directory entries pointing to the same inode on the same filesystem, comparing two distinct hard link paths of the same file with -ef will evaluate to true.
  • Non-Existent Files: If either FILE1 or FILE2 does not exist, or if either path resolves to a broken symbolic link, the operator evaluates to false (1) without throwing a syntax error.
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