What does the System.map file do?

[Kurt Wall]

An unnamed Administration source, James McDonald, wrote:
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% Folks,
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% I have been compiling kernels for the last week or so and I was looking 
% inside the System.map to see a list of ? I have no idea.
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% What is the System.map file for?

System.map is a map, literally, of kernel symbols (functions and data).
If you get a kernel oops, the oops spews out a lot of hex and CPU
register information. Using ksymoops, you can decrypt the oops and
see what the kernel was doing when it hurled, because the data and
register information in the oops "map" directly to the addresses
and entry points (function names) in the System.map file.

Kurt
-- 
Somewhere, just out of sight, the unicorns are gathering.