A string table stores names as zero-terminated byte sequences. Symbol and section records refer to those names by byte offset rather than storing a separate pointer or fixed-width name in every entry.

The beginning of .strtab for the reference object is:

Byte offset    String
0              ""
1              ".strtab"
9              ".symtab"
17             "target"
24             "my_data"
32             "slot"
37             ".relamy_data"

Each next offset includes the preceding string's terminating zero. For example, target occupies seven bytes including its terminator, so the following name begins at offset twenty-four.

ivss uses Elf_AddUniqueString() to reuse a name already present and append it otherwise. Elf_Sym.st_name and section-header sh_name values select entries from this shared storage.

The human-readable string dump numbers strings by ordinal position; those printed numbers are not their byte offsets. Thus target can appear as string number three while its symbol record contains st_name = 17. Distinguishing these indices avoids interpreting the name field as a symbol number or memory address.

Source: elf.c.