ls creates symlinks and hardlinks (use the -s flag for a symlink) symlinks are identified by the ‘l’ in the attributes of a file (random example from my current machine): lrwxrwxrwx. 1 riley riley 33 Oct 3 08:29 .xbindkeysrc -> /home/riley/dotfiles/.xbindkeysrc drwxrwxr-x. 4 riley riley 4096 Mar 24 08:42 xdrive -rw-rw-r--. 1 riley riley 26918 Oct 9 08:31 .xfce4-session.verbose-log Notice the first one has an ‘l’ in it, that means it’s a symlink (but also the stuff on the far right makes it obvious).