Comparison of executable file formats

This is a comparison of executable file formats.

	a.out	COFF	ELF	PE	Mach-O	SOM	Hunk	DOS MZ	DOS COM	PEF	ECOFF	XCOFF
Icon	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Un­known	Un­known
Metadata	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes[1]	No	Yes	No	No	No	Un­known	Un­known
Digital signature	No	No	No	Yes[2]	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Un­known	Un­known
String table	Yes[3]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Yes	Yes
Symbol table	Yes[3]	Yes	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes[1]	Yes	Un­known	Un­known	No	Yes	Yes	Yes[5]
64-bit	Un­known	Un­known	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Support for multiple architectures in single file	Un­known	Un­known	Yes[6]	Yes	Yes[7]	Un­known	No	No	No	No	Un­known	Un­known

References

1. Mac OS X ABI Mach-O File Format Reference
2. Windows Authenticode Portable Executable Signature Format
3. a.out(5) - FreeBSD Man Pages
4. (3elf) - Elf library routines
5. Files Reference – XCOFF Object File Format
6. FatELF: Universal Binaries for Linux
7. Fat binary