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)

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

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