| Revision as of 14:58, 27 April 2003 editDominus (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers14,582 editsm Stub boilerplate← Previous edit | Revision as of 21:49, 27 May 2003 edit undoCoren (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users18,492 edits Stub replacement for 'Executable'Next edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| An ''executable'' or ''executable file'', in computer science, is a file whose contents are meant to be interpreted as a ] by a computer. | |||
| ''This article is a ]. You can help Misplaced Pages by ].'' | |||
| Most often, they contain the binary representation of machine instructions of a specific ], but can also contain and intermediate form that will require the services of an interpreter to be run. | |||
| Wether a file is an executable or not is mostly a matter of convention; some ] designate executable files by specific naming convention (such as the name ending in .exe) or noted alongside the file in its meta-information (such as the execute permission bits under ]-like operating systems). | |||
| An executable is a file that can be run on a OS. | |||
| On most modern architectures, an executable file contains much information which is not part of the program itself, such as information on the environment required to run the program, debugging and symbolic information, or other housekeeping information used by the operating system to prepare the program to be run. | |||
| Typically extensions are: | |||
| .exe - Windows, DOS | |||
| .com - DOS | |||
| Nowadays, the distinction between a program in ] form (ultimately meant to be human readable) and in executable form (ultimately meant to be machine readable) is getting less distinct since the act of transforming the former into the latter (by ]) or interpreting it may be performed implicitely. | |||
| An executable file is often a program. | |||
| Thus, the meaning for the term executable has been usualy extended from a file containing machine instruction to any file that can ultimately be executed by the environment without requiring an explicit transformation. | |||
| Files containing interpreted language, however, are usually named script files or scripts rather than executables. | |||
Revision as of 21:49, 27 May 2003
An executable or executable file, in computer science, is a file whose contents are meant to be interpreted as a program by a computer.
Most often, they contain the binary representation of machine instructions of a specific central processing unit, but can also contain and intermediate form that will require the services of an interpreter to be run.
Wether a file is an executable or not is mostly a matter of convention; some operating systems designate executable files by specific naming convention (such as the name ending in .exe) or noted alongside the file in its meta-information (such as the execute permission bits under unix-like operating systems).
On most modern architectures, an executable file contains much information which is not part of the program itself, such as information on the environment required to run the program, debugging and symbolic information, or other housekeeping information used by the operating system to prepare the program to be run.
Nowadays, the distinction between a program in source form (ultimately meant to be human readable) and in executable form (ultimately meant to be machine readable) is getting less distinct since the act of transforming the former into the latter (by compilation) or interpreting it may be performed implicitely.
Thus, the meaning for the term executable has been usualy extended from a file containing machine instruction to any file that can ultimately be executed by the environment without requiring an explicit transformation.
Files containing interpreted language, however, are usually named script files or scripts rather than executables.