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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers What are the executable file formats in Solaris and Linux? Post 302785389 by verdepollo on Monday 25th of March 2013 01:35:17 PM
Old 03-25-2013
"exe" is just an extension name used by Windows to identify executable files but has nothing to do with its internal constitution.

Linux does not rely on extension names but a "Magic Number" database that helps identify the type of any given file by reading the first bytes of its data and comparing it to a pre-defined "signature". You can check the full database on your Linux system by taking a look at "/usr/share/magic".

Regardless of the format in Linux, a file won't run unless it has the "execute" permission on.

As far as I know Windows does not use magic numbers at all -- Although the last version of Windows I used was Windows 2K so it may have changed by now.

Most SystemV-based operating systems (such as Linux) use ELF binary format and do not append any extension to the file name.

For the record, back in the DOS days executables used to be in COM format and later in MZ format under Win 9x and its variants.

Nowadays Windows uses PE format to pack its executables.
 

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IS_EXECUTABLE(3)							 1							  IS_EXECUTABLE(3)

is_executable - Tells whether the filename is executable

SYNOPSIS
bool is_executable (string $filename) DESCRIPTION
Tells whether the filename is executable. PARAMETERS
o $filename - Path to the file. RETURN VALUES
Returns TRUE if the filename exists and is executable, or FALSE on error. EXAMPLES
Example #1 is_executable(3) example <?php $file = '/home/vincent/somefile.sh'; if (is_executable($file)) { echo $file.' is executable'; } else { echo $file.' is not executable'; } ?> ERRORS
/EXCEPTIONS Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted. NOTES
Note The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache(3) for more details. Tip As of PHP 5.0.0, this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to "Supported Protocols and Wrappers" to determine which wrappers support stat(3) family of functionality. SEE ALSO
is_file(3), is_link(3). PHP Documentation Group IS_EXECUTABLE(3)
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