Executables

File Format
Name	Executables
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executables

Container formats for machine executable code. These often define different sections to be loaded into memory. Some formats may be compatible with different CPU architectures.

Directly executable

• a.out
• COFF — The Common Object File Format, an executable format originally designed for use in UNIX System V
• Commodore 64 binary executable (.prg)
• DOS executable (.com) — 16 bit DOS executable
• EXE — The original DOS executable format, with variants like NE (New Executable), PE (Portable Executable, actually a COFF variant), LX (Linear Executable) and others, as used in Microsoft MS-DOS and MS Windows (and some other operating systems like SkyOS)
• ELF
• Intel HEX
• iOS app (.app)

Shared libraries, chained files, etc.

(can't be run by themselves, but are used at runtime by other executables)

• Turbo Pascal chain file (.chn)
• Dynamic-link library (.dll)

See also Source code for code in a higher-level programming language that needs to be compiled, assembled, or interpreted.