This is what would happen if you double click on a. The other aspect that can happen when you want to 'run' a file is to have the file explorer tool that you use register extensions to be able to launch a program that will open these files. exe extension as a convention coming from the Windows/.Net world. exe file found on Linux could be a mono application, getting the. The naming convention has nothing to do with the executable status of a file (except when it's used for binfmt_misc registration). If you fancy doing a bit of kernel programming, you can even write your own.Īlthough not directly related, the file command should tell you whether a file is an ELF executable or something else. (For full technical details, binfmt_elf.c is where to look.)Īnother common mechanism is the 'Shebang' system, handled by binfmt_script, which looks for #!/path/to/interpreter at the beginning of the file.īinfmt_misc allows for the registration of other handlers, as documented here. The most common format for executable is ELF, although some kernels can be compiled for support of the old a.out format. Any file can potentially be executed, provided that it's handled by the kernel's binfmt mechanism (and that its executable permissions are set). js (JScript, not to be confused with JavaScript) via the Windows Script Host (WSH).įile execution on Linux isn't related at all to the file name or extension. Linux is capable of running any file that it has an interpreter for.Ī line at the top of the file called the shebang specifies what interpreter to run the file with. Installer package for RedHat/CentOS releases.Ĭompressed files that can contain a program or any other data, like images, documents, etcĭrivers and kernel modules are loaded into the Linux kernel and have more hardware access than other programs. tar archive with a special control file, a special file order, and a different extension. deb is much more powerful with native support for dependencies and repos). Installer package for Debian/Ubuntu releases Object that can be loaded at runtime (Similar to DLL)

Run exe file on linux