gelf_getsym(3)

gelf_getsym3

Read and update symbol information

Usage

#include <gelf.h>

GElf_Sym *

gelf_getsym(Elf_Data *data, int ndx, GElf_Sym *sym);

int

gelf_update_sym(Elf_Data *data, int ndx, GElf_Sym *sym);

Library

library “libelf”

Overview

These convenience functions are used to retrieve and update class-dependent Elf32_Sym and Elf64_Sym structures in an ELF object.

Argument data is an Elf_Data descriptor associated with a section of type SHT_SYMTAB, SHT_DYNSYM or SHT_GNU_versym. Argument ndx is the index of the symbol being retrieved or updated. The class-independent GElf_Sym structure is described in gelf(3).

Function gelf_getsym() retrieves class-dependent symbol information at index ndx in data buffer data and copies it to the destination pointed to by argument sym after translation to class-independent form.

Function gelf_update_sym() converts the class-independent symbol information pointed to by argument sym to class-dependent form, and writes it to the symbol entry at index ndx in the data buffer described by argument data. Function gelf_update_sym() signals an error if any of the values in the class-independent representation exceeds the representable limits of the target type.

Return values

Function gelf_getsym() returns the value of argument sym if successful, or NULL in case of an error. Function gelf_update_sym() returns a non-zero value if successful, or zero in case of an error.

Errors

These functions may fail with the following errors:

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

Arguments data or sym were NULL.

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

Argument ndx was less than zero or larger than the number of symbols in the data descriptor.

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

Data descriptor data was not associated with a section containing symbol information.

[ELF_E_RANGE]

A value was not representable in the target type.

[ELF_E_VERSION]

The Elf_Data descriptor denoted by argument data is associated with an ELF object with an unsupported version.

Releases

44 releases since FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE; the text changed 21 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
  22. 12.2–16.0

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