Process Resurrection and /proc/pid
 

Hey all. Trying to save/serialize/freeze a process, much like what http://linas.org/linux/persistance.html describes. As far as I know, nobody has done this successfully.

Here are some of the probing steps I've taken so far, to find the best approach:

1.) Implemented a kernel module to read through the task_struct for a given process

2.) Implemented a system call to do the same (messy ... so messy)

3.) Checked out google's coredumper app

4.) Looked through the /proc/pid files

It seems like reading through /proc is going to yield the most standard and easiest approach. My question is though, where can I find the docs on that? I really don't want to have to wade through the source to find the meaning of each value. For example, what does /proc/<pid>/oom_score mean? I get a value of 903, but that's not helpful. Also:

Anyone know why I'm getting that? The process is running, but I can't view mem, which I assume lists the allocated virtual memory for the process?

All in all, this project is a lot to take on. Any guidance/pointers in the right direction would be helpful. Thanks.

I'm quite skeptical with this project.

Is the goal to have a process being able to freeze before and resume after a reboot ?

That would be considered a success, yes. A lesser success would be to simply stop the process, then bring it back up. A greater success would be to stop the process, send it to you, and have you open it up where it left off.

For those intrested in the solution: http://cryopid.berlios.de/