Can you freeze a C/C++ process and continue it on a different host?

Question

I was wondering if it is possible to generate a \"core\" file, copy if to another machine and then continue execution of the a core file on that machine?

I have seen the

Answer 1

I don't believe this is possible. However, you might want to look into virtualization software - e.g. Xen - which make it possible to freeze and move entire system images fromone machine to another.

Answer 2

On modern systems, not from a core file, no you can't. For freezing and restoring an individual process on Linux, CryoPID and the new Kernel-based checkpoint and restart are in the works, but their abilities are currently quite limited. OpenVZ and other virtualization-like softwares can freeze and restore an entire system.

Answer 3

This won't, in general, be sufficient to let an arbitrary process continue on another machine. In addition to the heap and stack state, there may also also open I/O handles, allocated hardware resources, etc. etc.

Your options are either to explicitly write your software in a way that lets it dump state on a signal and later resume from the dumped state, or to run your software in a virtual machine and migrate that to the alternate host - Xen and Vmware both support freeze/restore as well as live migration.

That said, CryoPID attempts to do precisely this and occasionally succeeds.