Detect executable file arch
For the simplest execution and best performance, an executable file binary architecture should generally correspond to the CPU architecture of the operating system it runs on. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a proliferation of CPU architectures including SPARC, PowerPC, DEC Alpha, MIPS, Itanium, and x86. From the late 2000s through about 2020, the dominant CPU architecture for personal computers was x86_64. The 2020s saw the rise of ARM64 across operating systems including Windows on ARM, Apple Silicon, and Linux.
Given the development time and maintenance burdern of supporting multiple CPU architectures, there are in general situations where a user needs to run an executable file on a different CPU architecture than the executable file was built for. It’s a nice practice for program developers to print their native CPU architecture in their program’s about dialog to help users be aware of the CPU architecture of their executable files such that they can seek a native executable if available. For example, a 32-bit x86 executable might run on a 64-bit x86_64 operating system (via API thunking and environment emulation like WoW64), but a 64-bit x86_64 executable generally cannot natively run on a 32-bit x86 operating system.
With some performance overhead and compatibility limitations, executable JIT translation like macOS Rosetta 2, Windows Prism emulation, or Linux FEX emulation can allow executables of one architecture to run on a different CPU architecture. The operating system level translation or emulation development is typically a large investment in software development and optimization, and is not universally available for all architecture combinations. Apple Rosetta 2 translates x86-64 instructions to ARM64 on Apple Silicon, allowing x86-64 executables to run on ARM64 macOS. On Windows, Prism emulation generally allows x86-64 executables to run on ARM64 Windows. On Linux, FEX emulation allows x86-64 executables to run on ARM64 Linux with real-time API call forwarding.
The LIEF library can be used to detect the CPU architecture of Windows executable files from Python.