What is the purpose of --file-type in ls command

Question

I'm trying to understand the purpose of the --file-type argument of the UNIX ls command.

I didn't find any example using ls --file-type on the web – neither was I able to make sense of the --file-type argument by issuing ls --file-type myself.

What's the purpose of ls --file-type? Would anyone please give me a helpful example of ls --file-type making the purpose of this argument more clear to me?

Answer 1

Quoting from info ls:

-F

Append a character to each file name indicating the file type. Also, for regular files that are executable, append *. The file type indicators are / for directories, @ for symbolic links, | for FIFOs, = for sockets, > for doors, and nothing for regular files.

--file-type is just like -F, except that it doesn't append * for executable files:

$ ln -s /etc/passwd foo
$ touch bar; chmod +x bar
$ ls
foo  bar
$ ls -F
foo@  bar*
$ ls --file-type
foo@  bar
...
...