redefine symbol names in shlib?

[Peter Samuelson]

[elf32-i386, binutils 2.10pre3, Linux]

`objcopy --redefine-sym' doesn't work for a stripped shared library.
It thinks the library has no symbols, which is clearly false because
`nm --dynamic' has no trouble finding them.

Is this correct behavior?

If so, is there an alternate way to "cleanse" the namespace exported by
a shared library, short of relinking it?

(I recently saw a symbol conflict where libreadline exports a function
privately used in an application.  I already reported it as a readline
bug but I was hoping there was a workaround with objcopy.)

Peter