access Linux Command Reference Example: access command man page

Name

access - determine whether a file can be accessed

Synopsis

access -mode file

Description

Exit successfully if file can be accessed with the specified mode. mode is one or more letters of rwx, where r is for readable, w is for writable, and x is for executable.

The difference between access and test is that the latter looks at the permission bits, while the former checks using the access(2) system call. This makes a difference when file systems have been mounted read-only.

Options

access accepts the following additional options:

--help
Print help message and exit.

--version
Print version information and exit.