elf_getarsym(3)

elf_getarsym3

Retrieve the symbol table of an archive

Usage

#include <libelf.h>

Elf_Arsym *

elf_getarsym(Elf *elf, size_t *ptr);

Library

library “libelf”

Overview

The function elf_getarsym() retrieves the symbol table for an ar(1) archive, if one is available.

Argument elf should be a descriptor for an ar(1) archive opened using elf_begin() or elf_memory().

If the archive elf contains a symbol table with n entries, this function returns a pointer to an array of n+1 Elf_Arsym structures. An Elf_Arsym structure has the following elements:

char * as_name

This structure member is a pointer to a null-terminated symbol name.

off_t as_off

This structure member contains the byte offset from the beginning of the archive to the header for the archive member. This value is suitable for use with elf_rand(3).

unsigned long as_hash

This structure member contains a portable hash value for the symbol name, as computed by elf_hash(3).

The last entry of the returned array will have a NULL value for member as_name, a zero value for member as_off and an illegal value of ~0UL for as_hash.

If argument ptr is non-null, the elf_getarsym() function will store the number of table entries returned (including the sentinel entry at the end) into the location it points to.

Return values

Function elf_getarsym() returns a pointer to an array of Elf_Arsym structures if successful, or a NULL pointer if an error was encountered.

If argument ptr is non-null and there was no error, the library will store the number of archive symbol entries returned into the location it points to. If argument ptr is non-null and an error was encountered, the library will set the location pointed to by it to zero.

Errors

Function elf_getarsym() may fail with the following errors:

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

Argument elf was NULL.

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

Argument elf was not a descriptor for an ar(1) archive.

Releases

44 releases since FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE; the text changed 20 times.

  1. 7.0
  2. 7.1
  3. 7.2
  4. 7.3
  5. 7.4
  6. 8.0
  7. 8.1
  8. 8.2
  9. 8.3
  10. 8.4
  11. 9.0
  12. 9.1
  13. 9.2
  14. 9.3
  15. 10.0
  16. 10.1
  17. 10.2
  18. 10.3
  19. 10.4
  20. 11.0–12.0
  21. 12.1–16.0

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.