kvbox.sh
Guides

Stop, pause, hibernate

Three ways to put a box away, and what each does with its memory.

A box that is not in use can be put away three ways. They differ in what happens to its memory:

filesmemoryhost RAMcomes back
kvbox stopkeptgonefreedstart: a fresh boot, a few seconds
kvbox pausekeptkept in RAMstill usedresume: instant, processes and connections intact
kvbox hibernatekeptwritten to diskfreedwake: well under a second, processes intact

pause is for a short break: nothing is lost and nothing has to be written, but the box still holds its RAM on the host.

hibernate is a snapshot the box takes of itself: its memory goes into a file next to its disk (only the pages it used, a few hundred MB for a fresh box) and the VM process ends. The box survives a server restart or a host reboot in that state, and wake brings it back exactly where it was, clock included.

stop is pulling the plug: processes are gone, files stay. stop on a hibernated box throws that saved memory away.

connect and exec resume or wake a sleeping box on their own, the way connect starts a stopped one. kvbox ls shows which state each box is in.