Checkpointing

Table of Contents

• • How to Checkpoint

Sparta supports Checkpoint of its functional components. Objects in the Sparta framework as well as user derived objects of sparta::ArchData are automatically checkpointable. Objects that are not derivatives of sparta::ArchData can still be checkpointed – see below.

Checkpoints are binary files and are not expected to be human readable.

How to Checkpoint

Checkpointing is performed through the model and not from the command line (unless added by the modeler). Modelers using checkpoints usually trigger the saving/restoring of a checkpoint by an event or an activity in the model. For example, saving a checkpoint after the model detects that Linux has booted to its login prompt. Restoring can be performed via the model directly, a command line option supplied by the modeler, a python shell command (if the model is embedded into a python environment), or possibly from a parameter if the modeler defines one:

./mymodel -p top.mysim.params.restore_from_checkpoint cp1

There is really only one type of checkpointer – the sparta::serialization::checkpoint::FastCheckpointer. This checkpointer class implements the sparta::serialization::checkpoint::Checkpointer interface providing in memory checkpointing. If the modeler desires to save checkpoints to disk, the modeler should use sparta::serialization::checkpoint::PersistentFastCheckpointer, which derives from sparta::serialization::checkpoint::FastCheckpointer.