*?
 

what does it mean when there is a * at the end of a filename?

e.g.

darkstar@Laptop:~/cpp/projects$ ls
project1.cc*

I believe it means that its executable or has executable permissions set.

This is caused by 1 of the /etc/DIR_COLORS setting and tells you the file is executable.

The part of DIR_COLORS I'm talking about should look something like this:
# Extra command line options for ls go here.
# Basically these ones are:
# -F = show '/' for dirs, '*' for executables, etc.
# -T 0 = don't trust tab spacing when formatting ls output.
OPTIONS -F -T 0

Hope this helps.

hrm.. that is strange since it is only a source file
oh well thanks anyway guys

If it has execute permissions, the * will show.
It doesn't look inside the file, just at the permissions and sets the flag accordingly.

Personally I don't see the point for setting this flag.