I don't know if this is the right forum, but I am concerned about security. Yesterday I came across this file: /bin/[ ... yes, a left bracket. There is a link to this file from /usr/bin. I've never noticed this file before. This is a recent Gentoo instalation, about three weeks old. I checked a Debian installation I did a couple years ago, and it has the file as well, but only in /usr/bin. A previous Gentoo installation from a little further back has the file, but an LFS installation from about four years ago does not. The file is an ELF 32-bit LSB exec. Can someone tell me what this file is for? ... point me to some documentation?

Thanks.

The file ([) should be there if youw ant to comply to the FHS standard. It's as link to test.

LFS (4.X and 5.X) have it, suse (8.x) does not.

You don't need to be concerned about it, and if the standard isn't your thing, you could remove it. I would not delete it, but that's my personal decision.

Hope this helps.

Thank you! I looked up FHS, and it is all there. Appreciate the help.