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Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2002 22:25:28 +0100
From: Lionel Bouton <Lionel.Bouton@free.fr>
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To: xsebbi@gmx.de, Linux <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: system.map
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Sebastian Roth wrote:

>>Hi all
>>
> 
> hello,
> 
> 
>>Why sometimes I don't need to copy the system.map to
>>/boot when I update the kernel
>>and the system also can boot?
>>
> 
>>Is it correct?
>>
> 
> yes, this is correct. I think this System.map contains only some useful 
> information about modules for the kernel.

 > [...]

"man klogd", "man ksymoops".

Short:
System.map is an ordered (by address) list of (kernel address, ?type?, 
and syscall name).
Module syscalls are dynamic by nature so there's a kernel interface for 
exporting symbols to user utilities needing their addresses (see 
/proc/ksyms).

You don't need System.map to boot. But user space apps like ps (can show 
the current syscall used by a process), klogd (for clean GPF reports), 
ksymoops (mainly as a cross-check with vmlinux symbols) use it and 
search it in numerous places : with or without `-uname -r` appended (at 
least in / /boot /usr/src/linux).

LB.

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