With the -F option,
ls will append some special characters to the end of certain files, including appending "@" to the end of symbolic links and "*" to the end of executable files. It sounds like the distro you are using has defined an alias for
ls. To find out, type:
alias ls
The
ls command has a long history and many options. You might want to browse through its info file by typing:
info ls
If you need to find out how to navigate inside the
info command, type:
info info
EDIT: Also, LQ has a
wiki entry for ls that you might want to take a look at, or even contribute to.