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### read_restart command

Syntax:

    read_restart file

- file = name of binary restart file to read in

Examples:

    read_restart save.10000
    read_restart restart.*
    read_restart poly.*.%

Description:

Read in a previously saved simulation from a restart file. This allows continuation of a previous run. Information about what is stored in a restart file is given below.

Restart files are saved in binary format to enable exact restarts, meaning that the trajectories of a restarted run will precisely match those produced by the original run had it continued on. Several things can prevent exact restarts due to round-off effects, in which case the trajectories in the 2 runs will slowly diverge. These include running on a different number of processors or changing certain settings such as those set by the newton or processors commands. LAMMPS will issue a WARNING in these cases. Certain fixes will also not restart exactly, though they should provide statistically similar results. These include fix shake and fix langevin. If a restarted run is immediately different than the run which produced the restart file, it could be a LAMMPS bug, so consider reporting it if you think the behavior is wrong.

Because restart files are binary, they may not be portable to other machines. They can be converted to ASCII data files using the restart2data tool in the tools sub-directory of the LAMMPS distribution.

Similar to how restart files are written (see the write_restart and restart commands), the restart filename can contain two wild-card characters. If a "*" appears in the filename, the directory is searched for all filenames that match the pattern where "*" is replaced with a timestep value. The file with the largest timestep value is read in. Thus, this effectively means, read the latest restart file. It's useful if you want your script to continue a run from where it left off. See the run command and its "upto" option for how to specify the run command so it doesn't need to be changed either.

If a "%" character appears in the restart filename, LAMMPS expects a set of multiple files to exist. The restart and write_restart commands explain how such sets are created. Read_restart will first read a filename where "%" is replaced by "base". This file tells LAMMPS how many processors created the set. Read_restart then reads the additional files. For example, if the restart file was specified as save.% when it was written, then read_restart reads the files save.base, save.0, save.1, ... save.P-1, where P is the number of processors that created the restart file. Note that only a single processor reads all the files, so the input does not use parallel I/O. The number of processors which created the set can be different the number of processors in the current LAMMPS simulation.

A restart file stores the following information about a simulation: units and atom style, simulation box size and shape and boundary settings, group definitions, atom type settings such as mass and particle shape, individual atoms and their group assignments and molecular topology attributes, force field styles and coefficients, and special_bonds settings. This means that commands for these quantities do not need to be re-specified in the input script that reads the restart file, though you can redefine settings after the restart file is read.

One exception is that some pair styles do not store their info in restart files. The doc pages for individual pair styles note if this is the case. This is also true of bond_style hybrid (and angle_style, dihedral_style, improper_style hybrid).

Information about kspace_style settings are not stored in the restart file. Hence if you wish to use an Ewald or PPPM solver, these commands must be re-issued after the restart file is read.

The list of fixes used for a simulation is not stored in the restart file. This means the new input script should specify all fixes it will use. Note that some fixes store an internal "state" which is written to the restart file. This allows the fix to continue on with its calculations in a restarted simulation. To re-enable such a fix, the fix command in the new input script must use the same fix-ID and group-ID as was used in the input script that wrote the restart file. If a match is found, LAMMPS prints a message indicating that the fix is being re-enabled. If no match is found before the first run or minimization is performed by the new script, the "state" information for the saved fix is discarded. See the doc pages for individual fixes for info on which ones can be restarted in this manner.

Bond interactions (angle, etc) that have been turned off by the fix shake or delete_bonds command will be written to a restart file as if they are turned on. This means they will need to be turned off again in a new run after the restart file is read.

Bonds that are broken (e.g. by a bond-breaking potential) are written to the restart file as broken bonds with a type of 0. Thus these bonds will still be broken when the restart file is read.

IMPORTANT NOTE: No other information is stored in the restart file. This means that an input script that reads a restart file should specify settings for quantities like timestep size, thermodynamic and dump output, geometric regions, etc.

Restrictions: none

Related commands:

read_data, write_restart, restart

Default: none