Index: sys/conf/options
===================================================================
--- sys/conf/options
+++ sys/conf/options
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@
 EARLY_PRINTF	opt_global.h
 TEXTDUMP_PREFERRED	opt_ddb.h
 TEXTDUMP_VERBOSE	opt_ddb.h
+NUM_CORE_FILES	opt_global.h
 
 # Miscellaneous options.
 ADAPTIVE_LOCKMGRS
Index: sys/kern/kern_sig.c
===================================================================
--- sys/kern/kern_sig.c
+++ sys/kern/kern_sig.c
@@ -3142,8 +3142,12 @@
  * We only have 1 character for the core count in the format
  * string, so the range will be 0-9
  */
-#define MAX_NUM_CORES 10
-static int num_cores = 5;
+#define	MAX_NUM_CORES 10
+#ifndef NUM_CORE_FILES
+#define	NUM_CORE_FILES 5
+#endif
+CTASSERT(NUM_CORE_FILES >= 0 && NUM_CORE_FILES <= MAX_NUM_CORES);
+static int num_cores = NUM_CORE_FILES;
 
 static int
 sysctl_debug_num_cores_check (SYSCTL_HANDLER_ARGS)