extension of executable file

[anon10042]

hi,
can you please tell me what is the extension of the executable file of in unix? i.e in what extension type a executable file is saved on the drive?

[anup]

Anon10042,

Please see the first few slides of section on files on windows and UNIX. In UNIX extensions are meaningless as it works based off magic numbers. The conventions typically are to have a interpreter specific extension for at least the shell-scripts e.g. .sh for bash (sh etc.), .rb for ruby, .pl for perl. For executables there is no such convention, rather these files will typically not have any extension at all.

Thanks,

Anup

[anon10257]

I think that there would not be any issue in opening file without extension as the program read the file type by magic number but what about opening the same file (without extension) in Windows platform. It may create some sort of problem in Windows platform like one may try to open the file with notepad. Please clarify.

[basant]

Anon10257,

Please include header and footers in your posts to keep it more readable. As an example, please see how we post replies.

Your question is not clear. What kind of problem are you referring to? So far as notepad is concerned, it is an editor. It would open the file for you to edit. It is not going to execute a binary.

-- Basant