Index: coreparse.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/sbcl/sbcl/src/runtime/coreparse.c,v
retrieving revision 1.42
diff -u -r1.42 coreparse.c
--- coreparse.c	3 Jan 2009 15:59:44 -0000	1.42
+++ coreparse.c	27 Aug 2009 20:04:21 -0000
@@ -83,12 +83,16 @@
 void
 maybe_initialize_runtime_options(int fd)
 {
+    struct runtime_options *new_runtime_options;
     off_t end_offset = sizeof(lispobj) +
         sizeof(os_vm_offset_t) +
         (RUNTIME_OPTIONS_WORDS * sizeof(size_t));
 
     lseek(fd, -end_offset, SEEK_END);
-    runtime_options = read_runtime_options(fd);
+
+    if (new_runtime_options = read_runtime_options(fd)) {
+        runtime_options = new_runtime_options;
+    }
 }
 
 /* Search 'filename' for an embedded core.  An SBCL core has, at the