Date:        Wed, 29 Oct 2003 11:40:27 +0200
    From:        Mihai CHELARU <kefren@netbastards.org>
    Message-ID:  <200310291140.27759.kefren@netbastards.org>

  | Well, I was thinking that changing this option in sysctl.conf or in 
  | rc.local may come too late in some cases. See also the DDB_ONPANIC 
  | option that already exists and was put there for the same reason.

rc.local would be too late, but the sysctl settings in sysctl.conf are
performed before any network applications get to start (other than
mounting a root filesystem - which is a client activity, and unaffected).

On the other hand, panics can occur before init even gets started, so
to alter what happens on an early panic, there needs to be something
which requires no user level code to run at all.

kre