Question

A file can be recognized as an ordinary file or directory by ____ symbol.

(a) $

(b) –

(c) *

(d) /

I have been asked this question in an interview for internship.

This intriguing question comes from File Ownership and Permissions in division Basic File Attributes of Unix

Answer 1

The correct option is (b) –

For explanation: When ls command is used with -l option its displays attributes of a file in the multi-columnar form. The first column defines the file types and permissions associated with a file. If the permissions are preceded by a (-), then it is an ordinary file otherwise it is a directory.