About "file" output?

[Jasmin Berube]

When I get the output "s800 shared executable dynamically linked" from the "file" command, Does that mean it's a C program compiled or what kind of programmation language is it? I know "file" taking its output from /etc/magic, is there a more detail /etc/magic file we can get somewhere to have more significant message output from "file" command? And the third question.... How can I have a look at those "s800 share executable dynamically linked" to understand what they do exactly?
Thanks!

[John Palmer · Accepted solution]

Well it could be one of several languages, even a mixture. All file is telling you is that it's an executable binary program that has been built for the HP-UX loader.

There are various commands that will give you more information such as:-

what
chatr

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

For some very good discussion of some of the information returned by 'chatr' see the file: /usr/share/doc/mem_mgt.txt

This document will go a long way to answering some of your questions.

...JRF...

[Mike Stroyan]

The odump command can often tell you what compilers were used to create the .o files inside a program or shared library. It is available for 11.00 as part of patch PHSS_21947. The build options can be read with
/usr/ccs/bin/odump -compunit someprogram
odump has many other options. You can see them with "man odump" or "odump -usage".
Some compilers don't record the information that odump uses. Stripping the symbols from a program will also remove much of the information odump needs.