proc_kallsyms(5)

📦
version 6.20 · 10 versions
, in arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ NAME ✨

Welcome to proc_kallsyms(5) bestie — yes, from the File Formats Manual. The file is /proc/kallsyms, and it's literally about kernel exported symbols. Iconic. 💖

📖 DESCRIPTION 📖

/proc/kallsyms (since Linux 2.5.71)

Okay so /proc/kallsyms has been a thing since Linux 2.5.71. It holds the kernel exported symbol definitions used by the modules(X) tools to dynamically link and bind loadable modules. That's the whole point: dynamic linking and binding for loadable modules. No cap. ✨

In Linux 2.5.47 and earlier, a similar file with slightly different syntax was named ksyms. So if you're on an old kernel and looking for the vibe, it was ksyms, not /proc/kallsyms. 🙈

🕰️ HISTORY 🕰️

/proc/ksyms (Linux 1.1.23–2.5.47)

See /proc/kallsyms. That's the cross-reference, periodt. The old file /proc/ksyms lived from Linux 1.1.23–2.5.47, and then it got a glow-up into what we know now. 👑

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

  • proc(5) — the main character of proc docs, go read it too.

💖 from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — this was proc_kallsyms(5), bye bestie! 🫶

📦 where this page comes from
  • arch rolling: man-pages 6.20-1 · BSD-2-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause AND BSD-4.3TAHOE AND BSD-4-Clause-UC AND GPL-1.0-or-later AND GPL-2.0-only AND GPL-2.0-or-later AND GPL-3.0-or-later AND LGPL-3.0-linking-exception AND LGPL-3.0-or-later AND LicenseRef-Public-Domain AND LicenseRef-UltraPermissive AND Linux-man-pages-1-para AND Linux-man-pages-copyleft AND Linux-man-pages-copyleft-2-para AND Linux-man-pages-copyleft-var AND MIT AND Spencer-94
  • nixpkgs unstable: man-pages 6.20
  • 📜 the page's license: GPL-3.0-or-later
  • Copyright 1994-1995, Daniel Quinlan <Daniel.Quinlan@linux.org>
  • Copyright 2002-2017, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
  • 💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms