Index: llvm/test/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/add-symbol-no-symtab.test
===================================================================
--- llvm/test/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/add-symbol-no-symtab.test
+++ llvm/test/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/add-symbol-no-symtab.test
@@ -105,3 +105,15 @@
     Binding: STB_GLOBAL
 Symbols: []
 ...
+
+## Show that llvm-objcopy can handle a case when we wanted to remove all symbols
+## and add a brand new one.
+# RUN: llvm-objcopy --allow-broken-links -R .symtab --add-symbol foo=1234 %t %t2
+# RUN: llvm-readelf --sections %t2 | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=SECTIONS
+#
+# SECTIONS: There are 4 section headers
+# SECTIONS:      [Nr] Name      Type   Address Off    Size   ES     Flg Lk Inf
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 0] NULL
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 1] .strtab
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 2] .shstrtab
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 3] .symtab   {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}}      1  {{.+}}
Index: llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
===================================================================
--- llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
+++ llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
@@ -738,6 +738,25 @@
     Obj.addSection<GnuDebugLinkSection>(Config.AddGnuDebugLink,
                                         Config.GnuDebugLinkCRC32);
 
+  // If the symbol table was previously removed, we need to create a new one
+  // before adding new symbols.
+  if (!Obj.SymbolTable && !Config.ELF->SymbolsToAdd.empty()) {
+    switch (OutputElfType) {
+    case ELFT_ELF32LE:
+      ELFBuilder<ELF32LE>::createSymbolTable(&Obj);
+      break;
+    case ELFT_ELF64LE:
+      ELFBuilder<ELF64LE>::createSymbolTable(&Obj);
+      break;
+    case ELFT_ELF32BE:
+      ELFBuilder<ELF32BE>::createSymbolTable(&Obj);
+      break;
+    case ELFT_ELF64BE:
+      ELFBuilder<ELF64BE>::createSymbolTable(&Obj);
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+
   for (const NewSymbolInfo &SI : Config.ELF->SymbolsToAdd) {
     SectionBase *Sec = Obj.findSection(SI.SectionName);
     uint64_t Value = Sec ? Sec->Addr + SI.Value : SI.Value;
Index: llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.h
===================================================================
--- llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.h
+++ llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.h
@@ -949,6 +949,7 @@
         ExtractPartition(ExtractPartition) {}
 
   void build(bool EnsureSymtab);
+  static void createSymbolTable(Object *Obj);
 };
 
 class BinaryReader : public Reader {
Index: llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
===================================================================
--- llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
+++ llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
@@ -1426,6 +1426,31 @@
   }
 }
 
+template <class ELFT> void ELFBuilder<ELFT>::createSymbolTable(Object *Obj) {
+  // Reuse an existing SHT_STRTAB section if it exists.
+  StringTableSection *StrTab = nullptr;
+  for (auto &Sec : Obj->sections()) {
+    if (Sec.Type == ELF::SHT_STRTAB && !(Sec.Flags & SHF_ALLOC)) {
+      StrTab = static_cast<StringTableSection *>(&Sec);
+
+      // Prefer a string table that is not the section header string table, if
+      // such a table exists.
+      if (Obj->SectionNames != &Sec)
+        break;
+    }
+  }
+  if (!StrTab)
+    StrTab = &Obj->addSection<StringTableSection>();
+
+  SymbolTableSection &SymTab = Obj->addSection<SymbolTableSection>();
+  SymTab.Name = ".symtab";
+  SymTab.Link = StrTab->Index;
+  SymTab.initialize(Obj->sections());
+  SymTab.addSymbol("", 0, 0, nullptr, 0, 0, 0, 0);
+
+  Obj->SymbolTable = &SymTab;
+}
+
 template <class ELFT>
 static void getAddend(uint64_t &ToSet, const Elf_Rel_Impl<ELFT, false> &Rel) {}
 
@@ -1588,27 +1613,7 @@
     Obj.SymbolTable->initialize(Obj.sections());
     initSymbolTable(Obj.SymbolTable);
   } else if (EnsureSymtab) {
-    // Reuse an existing SHT_STRTAB section if it exists.
-    StringTableSection *StrTab = nullptr;
-    for (auto &Sec : Obj.sections()) {
-      if (Sec.Type == ELF::SHT_STRTAB && !(Sec.Flags & SHF_ALLOC)) {
-        StrTab = static_cast<StringTableSection *>(&Sec);
-
-        // Prefer a string table that is not the section header string table, if
-        // such a table exists.
-        if (Obj.SectionNames != &Sec)
-          break;
-      }
-    }
-    if (!StrTab)
-      StrTab = &Obj.addSection<StringTableSection>();
-
-    SymbolTableSection &SymTab = Obj.addSection<SymbolTableSection>();
-    SymTab.Name = ".symtab";
-    SymTab.Link = StrTab->Index;
-    SymTab.initialize(Obj.sections());
-    SymTab.addSymbol("", 0, 0, nullptr, 0, 0, 0, 0);
-    Obj.SymbolTable = &SymTab;
+    createSymbolTable(&Obj);
   }
 
   // Now that all sections and symbols have been added we can add