Backup File (autosave.ser)

Cosmos records its state at regular intervals during a run, so that in the event of a run being stopped prematurely, it can be restarted from the last saved position. The time period between saves is set by the parameter backup_period. The data is recorded to the file autosave.ser. Should a run need to be restarted from this file, it should be placed in the input directory, and the system started with the parameter restart set to yes. The format of the saved data is somewhat complicated, but the user should not need to worry about this. Occasionally, however, it may be desirable to extract data from this file, as it contains a complete snapshot of the run at the given time. If this is necessary, the format can be ascertained by studying the Serialise method of the class CM_Process, in the source file Process.cc.