Linux Permissions – What Does a Dot After File Permission Bits Mean?

linuxlspermissions

I performed an ls -la on directory on my CentOS 6.4 server here and the permissions for a given file came out as:

-rwxr-xr-x.

I understand what -rwxr-xr-x means, what I don't understand is the . after the last attribute.

Can someone explain it to me? Is it harmful in any way? Can it be removed?

Best Answer

GNU ls uses a . character to indicate a file with an SELinux security context, but no other alternate access method.

-- From ls man page (info coreutils 'ls invocation').