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#### 2.7.1 Reading symbols

There are two stages to reading a symbol table from a BFD: allocating storage, and the actual reading process. This is an excerpt from an application which reads the symbol table:

                  long storage_needed;
                  asymbol **symbol_table;
                  long number_of_symbols;
                  long i;

                  storage_needed = bfd_get_symtab_upper_bound (abfd);

                  if (storage_needed < 0)
                    FAIL

                  if (storage_needed == 0)
                    return;

                  symbol_table = xmalloc (storage_needed);
                    ...
                  number_of_symbols =
                     bfd_canonicalize_symtab (abfd, symbol_table);

                  if (number_of_symbols < 0)
                    FAIL

                  for (i = 0; i < number_of_symbols; i++)
                    process_symbol (symbol_table[i]);

All storage for the symbols themselves is in an objalloc connected to the BFD; it is freed when the BFD is closed.