Comparison of executable file formats

This is a comparison of executable file formats.

	Icon	Metadata	Digital signature	String table	Symbol table	64-bit	Multiple architectures in single file
a.out	No	No	No	Yes[1]	Yes[1]	Un­known	Un­known
COFF	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Un­known	Un­known
ELF	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[2]	Yes	Some[3]
PE	Yes	Yes	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Mach-O	No	Yes[5]	Yes	Yes	Yes[5]	Yes	Yes[6]
SOM	No	No	No	Un­known	Yes	No	Un­known
Hunk	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
DOS MZ	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DOS COM	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PEF	No	No	No	Un­known	Yes	No	No
ECOFF	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Yes	Yes	Yes	Un­known
XCOFF	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Yes	Yes[7]	Yes	Un­known
LX	Yes	Un­known	Un­known	No	Yes[8]	No	No

References

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