Index: llvm/test/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/add-symbol-new-symtab.test
===================================================================
--- /dev/null
+++ llvm/test/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/add-symbol-new-symtab.test
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+## Show that llvm-objcopy can handle a case when we wanted to remove all symbols
+## and add a brand new one.
+
+# RUN: yaml2obj %s -o %t
+
+--- !ELF
+FileHeader:
+  Class:   ELFCLASS64
+  Data:    ELFDATA2LSB
+  Type:    ET_DYN
+  Machine: EM_X86_64
+Sections:
+  - Name:            .text
+    Type:            SHT_PROGBITS
+    Flags:           [ SHF_ALLOC, SHF_EXECINSTR ]
+    Address:         0x1000
+    AddressAlign:    0x0000000000000010
+    Size:            64
+Symbols:
+  - Name:     foo
+    Type:     STT_FUNC
+    Section:  .text
+    Value:    0x1000
+    Size:     8
+  - Name:     bar
+    Type:     STT_FUNC
+    Section:  .text
+    Value:    0x1008
+    Size:     8
+  - Name:     baz
+    Type:     STT_FUNC
+    Section:  .text
+    Value:    0x1010
+    Size:     8
+
+# RUN: llvm-readelf -s %t | FileCheck --check-prefix=SYMBOLS %s
+
+# SYMBOLS: Symbol table '.symtab' contains 4 entries:
+# SYMBOLS-NEXT:   Num:    Value          Size Type    Bind   Vis       Ndx Name
+# SYMBOLS-NEXT:     0: 0000000000000000     0 NOTYPE  LOCAL  DEFAULT   UND
+# SYMBOLS-NEXT:     1: 0000000000001000     8 FUNC    LOCAL  DEFAULT   1   foo
+# SYMBOLS-NEXT:     2: 0000000000001008     8 FUNC    LOCAL  DEFAULT   1   bar
+# SYMBOLS-NEXT:     3: 0000000000001010     8 FUNC    LOCAL  DEFAULT   1   baz
+
+# RUN: llvm-objcopy -R .symtab --add-symbol newsym=1234 %t %t2
+
+# RUN: llvm-readelf -s %t2 | FileCheck --check-prefix=UPD-SYMBOLS %s
+
+# SECTIONS: There are 5 section headers
+# SECTIONS:      [Nr] Name      Type   Address Off    Size   ES     Flg Lk Inf
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 0] NULL
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 1] .text
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 2] .strtab
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 3] .shstrtab
+# SECTIONS-NEXT: [ 4] .symtab   {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}} {{.+}}      3  {{.+}}
+
+# RUN: llvm-readelf --sections %t2 | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=SECTIONS
+
+# UPD-SYMBOLS: Symbol table '.symtab' contains 2 entries:
+# UPD-SYMBOLS-NEXT:   Num:    Value          Size Type    Bind   Vis       Ndx Name
+# UPD-SYMBOLS-NEXT:     0: 0000000000000000     0 NOTYPE  LOCAL  DEFAULT   UND
+# UPD-SYMBOLS-NEXT:     1: 00000000000004d2     0 NOTYPE  GLOBAL DEFAULT   ABS newsym
Index: llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
===================================================================
--- llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
+++ llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/ELFObjcopy.cpp
@@ -738,6 +738,12 @@
     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()) {
+    Obj.createSymbolTable();
+  }
+
   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
@@ -1039,6 +1039,8 @@
   SymbolTableSection *SymbolTable = nullptr;
   SectionIndexSection *SectionIndexTable = nullptr;
 
+  void createSymbolTable();
+
   void sortSections();
   SectionTableRef sections() { return SectionTableRef(Sections); }
   ConstRange<SectionBase> sections() const {
Index: llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
===================================================================
--- llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
+++ llvm/tools/llvm-objcopy/ELF/Object.cpp
@@ -1588,27 +1588,7 @@
     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;
+    Obj.createSymbolTable();
   }
 
   // Now that all sections and symbols have been added we can add
@@ -1900,6 +1880,31 @@
   return Error::success();
 }
 
+void Object::createSymbolTable() {
+  // Reuse an existing SHT_STRTAB section if it exists.
+  StringTableSection *StrTab = nullptr;
+  for (auto &Sec : 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 (SectionNames != &Sec)
+        break;
+    }
+  }
+  if (!StrTab)
+    StrTab = &addSection<StringTableSection>();
+
+  SymbolTableSection &SymTab = addSection<SymbolTableSection>();
+  SymTab.Name = ".symtab";
+  SymTab.Link = StrTab->Index;
+  SymTab.initialize(sections());
+  SymTab.addSymbol("", 0, 0, nullptr, 0, 0, 0, 0);
+
+  SymbolTable = &SymTab;
+}
+
 void Object::sortSections() {
   // Use stable_sort to maintain the original ordering as closely as possible.
   llvm::stable_sort(Sections, [](const SecPtr &A, const SecPtr &B) {