The
/dev/ksyms character device provides a read-only interface to the current kernel symbol table. It can be accessed either as a sequential file, where it looks like an executable file but with zero-sized text and data segments, or via
ioctl(2).
/dev/ksyms represents the symbol table at the time when the device is opened, and may not change until it is closed.
The in-kernel symbol manager is designed to be able to handle any type of symbol table. However, only
elf(5) symbol tables are currently dealt with.