Usage: # perl filetest.pl filetest.pl

filetest.pl

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

my %X = (
    -r => 'File is readable by effective uid/gid.',
    -w => 'File is writable by effective uid/gid.',
    -x => 'File is executable by effective uid/gid.',
    -o => 'File is owned by effective uid.',

    -R => 'File is readable by real uid/gid.',
    -W => 'File is writable by real uid/gid.',
    -X => 'File is executable by real uid/gid.',
    -O => 'File is owned by real uid.',

    -e => 'File exists.',
    -z => 'File has zero size (is empty).',
    -s => 'File has nonzero size (returns size in bytes).',

    -f => 'File is a plain file.',
    -d => 'File is a directory.',
    -l => 'File is a symbolic link.',
    -p => 'File is a named pipe (FIFO), or Filehandle is a pipe.',
    -S => 'File is a socket.',
    -b => 'File is a block special file.',
    -c => 'File is a character special file.',
    -t => 'Filehandle is opened to a tty.',

    -u => 'File has setuid bit set.',
    -g => 'File has setgid bit set.',
    -k => 'File has sticky bit set.',

    -T => 'File is an ASCII text file (heuristic guess).',
    -B => 'File is a "binary" file (opposite of -T).',

    -M => 'Script start time minus file modification time, in days.',
    -A => 'Same for access time.',
    -C => 'Same for inode change time (Unix, may differ for other platforms)',
);

for my $file (@ARGV) {
    for my $X (qw/-r -w -x -o  -R -W -X -O  -e -z -s  -f -d -l -p -S -b -c -t  -u -g -k  -T -B  -M -A -C/) {
        print qq|$X $file == @{[eval "$X '$file'" or 0]}: $X{$X}\n|;
    }
}

1;