What do the symbols displayed by ls -F mean?

I noticed that if I run ls -F on a directory, some of the entries have a * or a @ after them. spuder@ubuntu:~$ ls -F /sbin acpi_available* getpcaps* lvmconf* ntfscp* start-stop-daemon* agetty* getty* lvmdiskscan@ ntfslabel* status@ alsa* halt@ lvmdump* ntfsresize* stop@ alsactl* hdparm* lvmsadc@ spuder@ubuntu:~$ ls -F ~ daq-0.6.1/ examples.desktop noname-cache.lib snort-2.9.1/ Templates/ Desktop/

[tmsanrinsha]

indicator @ means symbolic link (or that the file has extended attributes). * means executable. = means socket. | means named pipe. > means door. / means directory. http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/General-output-formatting.html