Editing Execution (computing) (section)

{{Short description|Running of a program by a computer}}
{{Program execution}}

'''Execution''' in [[computer engineering|computer]] and software engineering is the process by which a [[computer]] or [[virtual machine]] interprets and acts on the instructions of a [[computer program]]. Each instruction of a program is a description of a particular action which must be carried out, in order for a specific problem to be solved. Execution involves repeatedly following a "[[Instruction cycle|fetch–decode–execute]]" cycle for each instruction done by the [[control unit]]. As the executing machine follows the instructions, specific effects are produced in accordance with the [[Formal semantics of programming languages|semantics]] of those instructions. 

Programs for a computer may be executed in a [[Batch processing|batch process]] without human interaction or a [[User (computing)|user]] may type [[Command (computing)|commands]] in an [[Session (computer science)|interactive session]] of an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]]. In this case, the "commands" are simply program instructions, whose execution is chained together. 

The term '''run''' is used almost synonymously. A related meaning of both "to run" and "to execute" refers to the specific action of a user starting (or ''launching'' or ''invoking'') a program, as in "Please run the application."