/proc/ksyms and /proc/kallsyms relationship?

/proc/ksyms and /proc/kallsyms relationship?

[John K]

/ newbie question below, if not interested, please ignore /

Hello,

In kernel 2.4, there was a /proc/ksyms file. This file, if I understand
correctly, was a method to access the kernel's public symbol table. What
was displayed had all the public kernel's symbols (variables,
functions..) and its associated global addresses, along with some other
usefull stuff, like a CRC value, and the module exporting every specific
symbol.
Fine until this point.

In 2.6 kernels, /proc/ksyms disappeared. Many sources suggest that it
was replaced by the /proc/kallsyms file.
BUT this file seems to be something completely different, and I haven't
figured out in what way it is different. It seems that it's not the
kernels public symbols table.

So, some questions to anyone that knows more on this:

1. Is my description of the functionality of /proc/ksyms in 2.4 kernels
correct?

2. What exactly the /proc/kallsyms file contains? Why does this file
exist and how is it used?

3. Why was there this change in name and behavior of the file?

4. If one wants to find out what are the exported symbols from some
module, so to know which symbols can he use in a future module, how can
he achieve this?

>From what I understand about /proc/kallsyms, it contains even the
symbols that are not exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL(symbol_name).
/proc/ksyms, contained every symbol except those that were not
exported (considering the export all default policy in 2.4, in contrast
with the export none policy of 2.6)

/I've already asked about this in kernelnewbies mailing list, but did
not get any useful answer. I also could not find any usefull answers
anywhere on new (and in kernel books). Most references say "just use
/proc/kallsyms instead of /proc/ksyms.

Sorry for the extra long post
Thanks & regards

Re: /proc/ksyms and /proc/kallsyms relationship?

[Arjan van de Ven]

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:00:16 +0200
John K <trv@freemail.gr> wrote:

> 4. If one wants to find out what are the exported symbols from some
> module, so to know which symbols can he use in a future module, how
> can he achieve this?

you as developer can do a grep on the kernel source for
EXPORT_SYMBOL ...

and the module loader will also tell you if you use a symbol that's not
exported....

but realistically if you use the standard APIs you're not going to find
symbols that aren't exported... what kind of driver are you trying to
write?

-- 
Arjan van de Ven 	Intel Open Source Technology Centre
For development, discussion and tips for power savings, 
visit http://www.lesswatts.org

Re: /proc/ksyms and /proc/kallsyms relationship?

[Keith Owens]

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:00:16 +0200, 
John K <trv@freemail.gr> wrote:
>In kernel 2.4, there was a /proc/ksyms file. This file, if I understand
>correctly, was a method to access the kernel's public symbol table. What
>was displayed had all the public kernel's symbols (variables,
>functions..) and its associated global addresses, along with some other
>usefull stuff, like a CRC value, and the module exporting every specific
>symbol.
>Fine until this point.
>
>In 2.6 kernels, /proc/ksyms disappeared. Many sources suggest that it
>was replaced by the /proc/kallsyms file.
>BUT this file seems to be something completely different, and I haven't
>figured out in what way it is different. It seems that it's not the
>kernels public symbols table.
>
>So, some questions to anyone that knows more on this:
>
>1. Is my description of the functionality of /proc/ksyms in 2.4 kernels
>correct?

Yes.

>2. What exactly the /proc/kallsyms file contains? Why does this file
>exist and how is it used?

kallsyms contains (as the name suggests) all the global symbols in the
kernel and the loaded modules.  It was originally added for kernel
debugging but it became so useful that it supplanted ksyms.

>4. If one wants to find out what are the exported symbols from some
>module, so to know which symbols can he use in a future module, how can
>he achieve this?

nm <path_to_module.ko> | grep __ksymtab