Files ending with a '*'

[Simon R Wootton]

Many of my files are ending with a '*' - any reason why ??

[Balaji N · Accepted solution]

hi
how are u saying that. by doing an ls. that is an option of ls to list executable files. check out man ls for more info.
-balaji

[Paul Sperry]

ls -F After each file name, put one of:

+ A slash (/) if the file is a directory or a symbolic link
to a directory.
+ An asterisk (*) if the file is executable;
+ An at-sign (@) if the file is a symbolic link to a file;
+ A vertical bar (|) if the file is a fifo.

[Alex Jenner]

Paul S is correct. I assume you mean they end with an "*" when using the ls command?

Is it possible that your environment has an alias for ls? For example (depending on your shell), there might be an alias setup in your .bashrc file like this:

alias ls='ls -F'

If you issue the command "unalias ls", does this problem (?) go away, at least for that login session?

Or just use the "alias" command to get a list of aliases.

If you don't like the "*" and want to get rid of it for future login sessions, you must find where this alias has been setup. e.g. .bashrc, .kshrc etc.

[Joe Steele]

not really relevant, but a clever way of deleting files with ilogical names is:
rm -i *
or
rm -i *

which lets you reach the ilogically named file, and then simply type 'y' to delete it.