# checkpoint-restore/criu

Checkpoint/Restore tool

Repository: https://github.com/checkpoint-restore/criu
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/criu
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: checkpoint, restore, linux, migration, containers, criu, blcr, dmtcp, container, post-copy, userfaultfd, snapshot, parasite, suspend, zero-downtime, highly-available, memory-tracking
Last push: 2026-08-26T21:00:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4611, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3965, forks 773 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:30.667726+00:00)

## What it is
CRIU (Checkpoint/Restore In Userspace) is a Linux utility that freezes running applications and checkpoints their state to disk, then restores them from that point later. It is the core technology behind live migration in OpenVZ, LXC/LXD, Docker, and other container software.

## Use cases
- checkpoint and restore a running linux process
- live migrate containers with zero downtime
- snapshot application state to disk and resume later
- save and restore tcp connections across restarts
- migrate docker or lxc containers between hosts
- create highly available services by checkpointing state
- dump process memory for debugging or forensics

## When to choose
- you need to freeze and resume linux processes or containers without losing state
- you want live migration of containers between hosts
- you need process-level snapshots for fault tolerance or fast startup

## When to avoid
- you are not on linux, as CRIU depends on linux kernel features
- your application uses kernel features that cannot be checkpointed
- you only need virtual machine migration rather than process-level checkpointing

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: cli, developer-tools, container-runtime, concurrency
- domain: operating-systems, developer-tools, microservices
- platform: cli, self-hosted
- tags: checkpoint-restore, live-migration, process-snapshot, containers, c, system-programming, tcp-restore, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- checkpoint-restore/criu (main) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:30.667726+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:24:25.194197+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/checkpoint-restore/criu (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:30.667726+00:00, sha 4a49e3a463c2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.