What does “LSB” mean when referring to executable files in the output of /bin/file

elfexecutablefile formatterminology

I have found the term "LSB executable" or "LSB shared object" in the output of the file command in Linux. For example:

$ file /bin/ls
/bin/ls: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=4637713da6cd9aa30d1528471c930f88a39045ff, stripped

What does "LSB" mean in this context?

Best Answer

“LSB” here stands for “least-significant byte” (first), as opposed to “MSB”, “most-significant byte”. It means that the binary is little-endian.

file determines this from the sixth byte of the ELF header.

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What does “magic tests” mean for the file command

That refers to the "magic bytes" which many file formats have at the beginning of a file which show what kind of file this is.

E.g. if a file starts with #! then it is considered a script.

Linux – Executable Fails with ‘File Not Found’ Even in PATH

This:

$ file /usr/bin/wine
/usr/bin/wine: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), 
dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, 
BuildID[sha1]=eaf6de433d8196e746c95d352e0258fe2b65ae24, stripped

Combined with this:

$ ldd /usr/bin/wine
/usr/bin/ldd: line 117: /usr/bin/wine: No such file or directory

Strongly suggests that the system does not have the /lib/ld-linux.so.2 ELF interpreter. That is, this 64-bit system does not have any 32-bit compatibility libraries installed. Thus, @user1334609's answer is essentially correct.

Best Answer

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Linux – Executable Fails with ‘File Not Found’ Even in PATH

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