[ILUG] saving a process to a file

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:05:12 +0000
  | From: deccy at csn.ul.ie (Declan Houlihan)
  | 
  | I'm wondering if there's any way to save a process to a file in Linux?
  | 
  | Is there any application out there that I could supply with a PID
  | and it would stop that process from executing, take all the info
  | for that running process, memory, register values etc, save it
  | all out to a file so that at a later time / date I could just resume
  | that process?

 very unlikely (for the general case).
 a “process” is more than memory+registers,
 but also things like file descriptors which
 cannot be restored (in the general case).
 facilities like mutable shared memory would
 also be a problem (in the general case).

 specific programs sometimes can sometimes
 checkpoint themselves, either so they can
 be restarted if the world blows up during
 a long computation;  or so that some bit
 of expensive (time-consuming) processing
 need only be done once (e.g., an interpretor
 parsing a script).  but that is all very
 specific to those programs.

 this subject has been discussed to death
 over the years; I remember talking about
 it in University in the context of 7th
 Edition Unix in the early 1980s!  I am
 sure a Google™ search will find lots of
 hints, but noting much in terms of a
 general, or even “acceptable”, solution.

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
Experienced (20+ yrs) kernel/software Eng: | Brian Foster   Montpellier,
 • Unix, embedded, &tc;  • Linux;  • doc;  | blf at utvinternet.ie   FRANCE
 • IDL, automated testing, process, &tc.   |  Stop E$$o (ExxonMobile)!
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