7

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?

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2
  • Could you run alias ls and send the output?
    – Benjamin Goodacre
    Jun 25, 2014 at 10:42
  • Even better type ls (just in case it was a function and not an alias).
    – Hastur
    Apr 23, 2015 at 15:57

3 Answers 3

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17

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

* for executable
/ for directory
@ for symlink
| for fifo
= for socket
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  • 3
    @Thariq S: You might notice ~ is not listed here. It is a part of the file name, not just an indicator of type.
    – choroba
    Dec 20, 2011 at 21:04
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").

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  • 1
    Find out whether ls is aliased using type ls.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Dec 20, 2011 at 19:52
2

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

* executable
@ link 
/ directory
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