PANIC(9)                     OpenBSD Kernel Manual                    PANIC(9)

NAME
     panic - Bring down system on fatal error

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/systm.h>

     void
     panic(const char *fmt, ...);

DESCRIPTION
     The panic() function makes the OpenBSD system terminate.  The message fmt
     is a printf(9) style format string.  The message is printed to the con-
     sole and the location pointed to by the global char pointer panicstr is
     set to the address of the message text for retrieval from the OS core
     dump.

     If the kernel debugger is installed control is passed to it, otherwise an
     attempt to save a core dump of the OS to a configured dump device is
     made.

     If panic() is called twice (from the disk sync routines, for example) the
     system is rebooted without syncing the disks.

RETURN VALUES
     The panic() function does not return.

SEE ALSO
     printf(3),  boot(9),  printf(9)

OpenBSD 2.6                     August 11, 1995                              1
