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What is the meaning of "t" in ls output?

ls reports the following:

# ls -ld /var/lib/puppet/state/
drwxr-xr-t 3 puppet puppet 4096 Jan  8 16:53 /var/lib/puppet/state/

What does the "t" mean for other? What tool reports the symbolic names for the permissions? ls has the --numeric-uid-gid option, but is there another one for permissions?

Solution

  • man ls is your friend:

    t The sticky bit is set (mode 1000), and is searchable or executable.
    (See chmod(1) or sticky(8).)

    About sticky bit:

    When set, it instructed the operating system to retain the text segment of the program in swap space after the process exited. This speeds up subsequent executions by allowing the kernel to make a single operation of moving the program from swap to real memory. Thus, frequently-used programs like editors would load noticeably faster.