On Mon, 11 Nov 2024, David Wright wrote: > On Tue 12 Nov 2024 at 02:47:21 (+0000), fxkl4...@protonmail.com wrote: >> i down loaded super_program.appimage >> on the command line i type ./super_program.appimage >> how does my debian powered device know what to do > > It looks at the file signature, or "magic number", in the first few > bytes of the file. For example, type: > > $ hexdump -C /bin/cat | head -n 1 > 00000000 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 > |.ELF............| > $ > > and the 7f 45 4c 46 sequence means Executable and Linkable Format. > OTOH, in: > > $ hexdump -C /bin/firefox | head -n 1 > 00000000 23 21 2f 62 69 6e 2f 73 68 0a 0a 46 49 52 45 46 > |#!/bin/sh..FIREF| > $ > > the first two bytes, 23 21, indicate that the file should be passed > to the program whose name immediately follows, ie /bin/sh, which is > normally the dash shell in Debian. > > See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures for > loads more magic numbers. > > Cheers, > David. >
i don't see anything in that about appimage
