Executables
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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.
Contents | 
Directly executable
- a.out
 - Atari ST executable (.prg)
 - 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 — MS-DOS, MS Windows, and others
- MS-DOS EXE
 - New Executable (NE)
 - Linear Executable
 - Portable Executable (PE, actually a COFF variant)
 
 - Executable and Linkable Format (ELF)
 - Intel HEX
 - iOS app (.app) (see also IPA for archived version, and Mobile Provision file for provision file accompanying apps)
 - Mach-O
 - Psion IMG/APP
 - Psion OPO/OPA
 
(can't be run by themselves, but are used at runtime by other executables)
- DOS device driver (.sys)
 - Dynamic library (OS X or iOS) (.dylib)
 - Dynamic-link library (Windows) (.dll)
 - Turbo Pascal chain file (.chn)
 
Meta-info files used in execution of programs/packages
- Assembly manifest (Windows) (.manifest)
 - Mobile Provision file
 - Program information file (PIF)
 
Virtual machine code
(see Wikipedia:UVC-based preservation for use of virtual machines in archival preservation)
- ART (Android Runtime)
 - BEAM (Erlang)
 - Bytecode (or p-code) — programs "compiled" into machine-independent code that loads or runs more quickly than raw interpreted source code; runs in an interpreter
 - Dalvik Executable (DEX; virtual machine used in Android)
 - Olive (executable archive embedding a virtual machine emulating original environment)
 - Universal Machine (ICFP programming contest 2006)
 - Z-code
 
Macros or automated scripting
See also
See also Source code for code in a higher-level programming language that needs to be compiled, assembled, or interpreted, and Development for other files used in the development process, including object and library files that get linked into a finished executable. See Archiving for some forms of self-extracting archives and installer packages.
