--- name: "dmtcp" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "dmtcp" version: "4.2.0-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/dmtcp" --- # dmtcp(1) Distributed MultiThreaded Checkpointing ## NAME dmtcp - Distributed MultiThreaded Checkpointing ## SYNOPSIS **dmtcp\_coordinator** \[port\]\ **dmtcp\_launch** command \[args...\]\ **dmtcp\_restart** ckpt\_FILE1.dmtcp \[ckpt\_FILE2.dmtcp...\] **dmtcp\_command** coordinatorCommand ## DESCRIPTION **DMTCP** is a tool to transparently checkpointing the state of an arbitrary group of programs spread across many machines and connected by sockets. It does not modify the user's program nor the operating system. **MTCP** is a standalone component of DMTCP available as a checkpointing library for a single process. ## OPTIONS For each command, the --help or -h flag will show the command-line options. Most command line options can also be controlled through environment variables. These can be set in bash with "export NAME=value" or in tcsh with "setenv NAME value". - DMTCP\_CHECKPOINT\_INTERVAL=integer Time in seconds between automatic checkpoints. Checkpoints can also be initiated manually by typing 'c' into the coordinator. (default: 0, disabled; dmtcp\_coordinator only) - DMTCP\_HOST=string Hostname where the cluster-wide coordinator is running. (default: localhost; dmtcp\_launch, dmtcp\_restart only) - DMTCP\_PORT=integer The port the cluster-wide coordinator listens on. (default: 7779) - DMTCP\_GZIP=(1\|0) Set to "0" to disable compression of checkpoint images. (default: 1, compression enabled; dmtcp\_launch only) WARNING: gzip adds seconds. Without gzip, ckpt/restart is often less than 1 s - DMTCP\_CHECKPOINT\_DIR=path Directory to store checkpoint images in. (default: ./) - DMTCP\_SIGCKPT=integer Internal signal number to use for checkpointing. Must not be used by the user program. (default: SIGUSR2; dmtcp\_launch only) ## DMTCP\_COORDINATOR Each computation to be checkpointed must include a DMTCP coordinator process. One can explicitly start a coordinator through dmtcp\_coordinator, or allow one to be started implicitly in background by either dmtcp\_launch or dmtcp\_restart to operate. The address of the unique coordinator should be specified by dmtcp\_launch, dmtcp\_restart, and dmtcp\_command either through the --host and --port command-line flags or through the the DMTCP\_HOST and DMTCP\_PORT environment variables. If neither is given, the host-port pair defaults to localhost-7779. The host-port pair associated with a particular coordinator is given by the command-line flags used in the dmtcp\_coordinator command, or the environment variables then in effect, or the default of localhost-7779. The coordinator is stateless and is **not** checkpointed. On restart, one can use an existing or a new coordinator. Multiple computations under DMTCP control can coexist by providing a unique coordinator (with a unique host-port pair) for each such computation. The coordinator initiates a checkpoint for all processes in its computation group. Checkpoints can be: performed automatically on an interval (see DMTCP\_CHECKPOINT\_INTERVAL above); or initiated manually on the standard input of the coordinator (see next paragraph); or initiated directly under program control by the computation through the plugin API (see below). The coordinator accepts the following commands on its standard input. Each command should be followed by the \ key. The commands are: \ \ l : List connected nodes\ \ s : Print status message\ \ c : Checkpoint all nodes\ \ f : Force a restart even if there are missing nodes (debugging)\ \ k : Kill all nodes\ \ q : Kill all nodes and quit\ \ ? : Show this message Coordinator commands can also be issued remotely using **dmtcp\_command**. ## EXAMPLE USAGE - 1\. In a separate terminal window, start the dmtcp\_coordinator. (See previous section.) dmtcp\_coordinator - 2\. In separate terminal(s), replace each command(s) with "dmtcp\_launch \[command\]". The checkpointed program will connect to the coordinator specified by DMTCP\_HOST and DMTCP\_PORT. New threads will be checkpointed as part of the process. Child processes will automatically be checkpointed. Remote processes started via *ssh* will automatically checkpointed. (Internally, DMTCP modifies the *ssh* command line to call dmtcp\_launch on the remote host.) dmtcp\_launch ./myprogram - 3\. To manually initiate a checkpoint, either run the command below or type "c" followed by \ into the coordinator. Checkpoint files for each process will be written to DMTCP\_CHECKPOINT\_DIR. The dmtcp\_coordinator will write "dmtcp\_restart\_script.sh" to its working directory. This script contains the necessary calls to dmtcp\_restart to restart the entire computation, including remote processes created via *ssh*. dmtcp\_command -c\ OR: dmtcp\_command --checkpoint - 4\. To restart, one should execute dmtcp\_restart\_script.sh, which is created by the dmtcp\_coordinator in its working directory at the time of checkpoint. One can optionally edit this script to migrate processes to different hosts. By default, only one restarted process will be restarted in the foreground and receive the standard input. The script may be edited to choose which process will be restarted in the foreground. ./dmtcp\_restart\_script.sh ## DMTCP PLUGIN The source distribution includes a top-level *plugin* directory, with examples of how to write a plugin for DMTCP. Plugins allow a checkpointed application to disconnect from an external resource, and then reconnect to it at the time of restart. Further examples are in the *test/plugin* directory. In particular, *test/plugin/applic-initiated* demonstrates how an application can request a checkpoint under program control. The plugin feature adds three new user-programmable capabilities. A plugin may: add wrappers around system calls; take special actions at during certain events (e.g. pre-checkpoint, resume/post-checkpoint, restart); and may insert key-value pairs into a database at restart time that is then available to be queried by the restarted processes of a computation. (The events available to the plugin feature form a superset of the events available with the dmtcpaware interface.) One or more plugins are invoked via a list of colon-separated absolute pathnames. dmtcp\_launch --with-plugin PLUGIN1\[:PLUGIN2\]... ## DMTCPAWARE API This API is now deprecated in favor of DMTCP plugins (see above). DMTCP provides a programming interface to allow checkpointed applications to interact with dmtcp. In the source distribution, see dmtcpaware/dmtcpaware.h for the functions available. See test/dmtcpaware\[123\].c for three example applications. For an example of its usage, try: cd test; rm dmtcpaware1; make dmtcpaware1; ./autotest -v dmtcpaware1 The user application should link with libdmtcpaware.so (-ldmtcpaware) and use the header file dmtcp/dmtcpaware.h. ## RETURN CODE A target program under DMTCP control normally returns the same return code as if executed without DMTCP. However, if DMTCP fails (as opposed to the target program failing), DMTCP returns a DMTCP-specific return code, rc (or rc+1, rc+2 for two special cases), where rc is the integer value of the environment variable DMTCP\_FAIL\_RC if set, or else the default value, 99. ## SEE ALSO Full documentation is available at the DMTCP home page:\ http://dmtcp.sourceforge.net/\ FAQ: http://dmtcp.sourceforge.net/FAQ.html\ Plugins: https://github.com/dmtcp/dmtcp/blob/master/doc/plugin-tutorial.pdf\ (DMTCP-2.x)\ \ examples: https://github.com/dmtcp/dmtcp/tree/master/test/plugin ## AUTHORS DMTCP and its standalone single-process component MTCP (MultiThreaded CheckPointing) were created by the long-term contributors, Jason Ansel, Kapil Arya, Gene Cooperman, Rohan Garg, Artem Y. Polyakov, Mike Rieker, and a series of additional contributors including Alex Brick, Tyler Denniston, William Enright, Gregory Kerr, Ana-Maria Visan, and others. For support, see DMTCP home page.