How do I list the symbols in a .so file

The standard tool for listing symbols is nm, you can use it simply like this:

nm -gD yourLib.so

If you want to see symbols of a C++ library, add the "-C" option which demangle the symbols (it's far more readable demangled).

nm -gDC yourLib.so

If your .so file is in elf format, you have two options:

Either objdump (-C is also useful for demangling C++):

$ objdump -TC libz.so

libz.so:     file format elf64-x86-64

DYNAMIC SYMBOL TABLE:
0000000000002010 l    d  .init  0000000000000000              .init
0000000000000000      DF *UND*  0000000000000000  GLIBC_2.2.5 free
0000000000000000      DF *UND*  0000000000000000  GLIBC_2.2.5 __errno_location
0000000000000000  w   D  *UND*  0000000000000000              _ITM_deregisterTMCloneTable

Or use readelf:

$ readelf -Ws libz.so
Symbol table '.dynsym' contains 112 entries:
   Num:    Value          Size Type    Bind   Vis      Ndx Name
     0: 0000000000000000     0 NOTYPE  LOCAL  DEFAULT  UND
     1: 0000000000002010     0 SECTION LOCAL  DEFAULT   10
     2: 0000000000000000     0 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND free@GLIBC_2.2.5 (14)
     3: 0000000000000000     0 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND __errno_location@GLIBC_2.2.5 (14)
     4: 0000000000000000     0 NOTYPE  WEAK   DEFAULT  UND _ITM_deregisterTMCloneTable

objdump -TC /usr/lib/libexample.so

You can use the nm -g tool from the binutils toolchain. However, their source is not always readily available. and I'm not actually even sure that this information can always be retrieved. Perhaps objcopy reveals further information.

/EDIT: The tool's name is of course nm. The flag -g is used to show only exported symbols.

Try adding -l to the nm flags in order to get the source of each symbol. If the library is compiled with debugging info (gcc -g) this should be the source file and line number. As Konrad said, the object file / static library is probably unknown at this point.

If you just want to know if there are symbols present you can use

objdump -h /path/to/object

or to list the debug info

objdump -g /path/to/object