diff -r 693c6b883b54 -r 8c1e3dd5fe1b hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp
--- a/hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp	Fri Mar 18 15:52:42 2011 -0700
+++ b/hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp	Fri Mar 18 16:00:34 2011 -0700
@@ -1221,6 +1221,11 @@
           "Decay time (in milliseconds) to re-enable bulk rebiasing of a "  \
           "type after previous bulk rebias")                                \
                                                                             \
+  develop(bool, JavaObjectsInPerm, false,                                   \
+          "controls whether Classes and interned Strings are allocated"     \
+          "in perm.  This purely intended to allow debugging issues"        \
+          "in production.")                                                 \
+                                                                            \
   /* tracing */                                                             \
                                                                             \
   notproduct(bool, TraceRuntimeCalls, false,                                \