Linux 'ls' - what does the * mean?

Question

When I do a ls in a folder, I sometimes get entries like:

a.txt*
b.txt
b.txt~

I believe:

~ means that it's a swap copy, however what does the * mean?

Answer 1

Your ls seems to have an alias to ls -F. It shows the filetype:

* for executable
/ for directory
@ for symlink
| for fifo
= for socket

Answer 2

It means that the file has execute permission.

See the "-F, --classify" option in the ls(1) man page. Depending on the shell configuration this info may be printed by "default" (say, if you have an alias ls="ls -F").

Answer 3

ls -F appends a single character to a file name -

* executable
@ link 
/ directory