'&&' vs. '&' with the 'test' command in Bash

Question

Consider:

gndlp@ubuntu:~$ test -x examples.desktop  && echo $?
gndlp@ubuntu:~$ test -x examples.desktop  & echo $?
[1] 2992
0

W

Answer 1

Look at what your commands are:

test -x examples.desktop  && echo $?

This means check to see if examples.desktop is executable and if it is then execute echo $?.

test -x examples.desktop  & echo $?

means check to see if examples.desktop is executable and start running it in the "background". Then execute echo $?.