What does a question mark after the file name mean using ls terminal command?

Question

What does a question mark after the file name mean using ls terminal command? I am using a Mac running OS X Yosemite (v.10.10.5)

When I do ls command at terminal, I get back a list of files (the same files I see when using finder) plus one additional file (named Icons?).

This file does not appear in Finder.

I removed it the normal way: rm Icon?

But what happened? How did the file get there? And why the ? file extension?

Possible duplicate of [Icon? file on OS X desktop](http://superuser.com/questions/298785/icon-file-on-os-x-desktop) — kenorb, May 03 '16 at 16:36

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '16 at 16:34

0

? is a single character wild card, so Icon? will match any filename that starts with Icon and contains only one more character such as Icon2.

answered May 03 '16 at 16:34

Julie Pelletier

2

True. But not the correct explanation in this case. See the duplicate answer. – DavidPostill May 03 '16 at 16:41

1 Answers1