Executable Formats
The number of different executable file types is as many and varied as the number of different image and sound file formats. Every Operating System seems to have one or more executable file types unique to itself.
A few terms
- TEXT is the actual executable code area,
- DATA is "initialized" data,
- BSS is "un-initialized" data.
The BSS (Block Started by Symbol) needn't to be present in an executable file. At load-time, the loader will still allocate memory for it and wipes this memory with zeros (this is assumed by C programs, for instance).
Related Pages
Articles
External Links
- Wotsit's Programmer's File Format Collection
- The Linkers and Loaders online book...
- Pierre's Library