Linear Executable
From Just Solve the File Format Problem
Linear Executable is an executable file format in the EXE family. It was used by 32-bit OS/2, by some DOS extenders, and by Microsoft Windows VxD files. It is an extension of MS-DOS EXE, and a successor to NE (New Executable).
There are two main varieties of it: LX (32-bit), and LE (mixed 16/32-bit).
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Identification
A Linear Executable file begins with the ASCII signature "MZ". At offset 60 is a 4-byte integer pointing to an "extended" header that begins with "LX" or "LE". For more information, see MS-DOS EXE.
Specifications
- LX Format Description (1992 edition)
- IBM OS/2 16/32-bit Object Module Format (OMF) and Linear executable Module Format (LX) (Revision 8, 1994)
- IBM OS/2 16/32-bit Linear eXecutable Module Format (LX) (Revision 11, 2001)
- (.vxd) LINEAR-EXECUTABLE File Header Layout (LE)
Software
- An OS/2 font resource extractor reads resources from LX-format executable, including decompressing compressed pages
Sample files
- http://cd.textfiles.com/hobbesos29411/BIN/ → *.EXE (LX, OS/2 console)
- http://cd.textfiles.com/hobbesos2/2_X/GAMES/ → *.ZIP → *.EXE (LX, OS/2 GUI)
- http://cd.textfiles.com/silvercollection/disc4/DRIVERS/ - The *.386 files inside the archive files (for example, 19GXE.ARJ → VDDS3.386) use MS Windows LE / VxD format.
- DOOM.EXE - Example of the format used by some DOS extenders. Technically this is an MS-DOS EXE file, with an embedded LE file.
