Linux and Unix Shell Programming

1.2. Types of files

Remember I said to exclude the first dash when looking at the file permissions? Well, here’s what the first dash means. A file can be one of seven types, designated by the first character when you do a ls -l command. The types are as follows:

d	This is a directory.
l	This is a symbolic link (a pointer to another file).
s	This is a domain socket.
b	This is a special block file.
c	This is a character special file.
p	This is a named pipe file.
-	This is a normal file or, more accurately, none of the above.