---
title: "Checkpoints and Recovery"
canonical: "https://rmanwiki-25.pixar.com/space/RFH25/22642821/Checkpoints%20and%20Recovery"
format: markdown
---
> ℹ️ For Rendering to Disk only. Checkpoints and recovery are ignored for interactive rendering.

### Recovery

Recovery allows us to resume/recover from the previously paused or incomplete stopped render.  To turn it on, check **Recover Render**<span style="color: #000000"> in RenderMan RIS ROP's </span>**Advanced **<span style="color: #000000">Tab. </span>

![image](media://74d6f2d2-24ee-4152-864d-221a6cdf7ac3)

 

### Checkpoints

Render recovery is often used with checkpointing.  To turn it on, check **Recover Render**<span style="color: #000000"> in RenderMan RIS ROP's </span>**Advanced** > **Render **Tab<span style="color: #000000">.</span>

![image](media://1e1aa374-1de5-4fac-bf4f-d6da9c3e7fb1)


- Interval - the time between checkpoint saves
- Exit At - Exit the render at this time and render no more
- As Final - Even if the render completes, save the data necessary to pick up the render. This will result in a larger file
- Keep Files - Name and preserve all the past checkpoints instead of only the more recent one
- Command - Command for the RIB file location (if one is generated)

 

**Incremental Renders**

> ❌ Incremental renders are not recoverable without checkpointing enabled. With incremental on and checkpoints off, the buckets are not written out until the end of the render. See table below:

 

 

| **incremental** | **checkpoints** | **recoverable** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| On | Disabled | No |
| On | Enabled | Yes |
| Off | Disabled | Yes |
| Off | Enabled | Yes |

*Recoverable Render Settings*

 

 

**Recovery and 'keepfiles'**

> ❌ Do not enable the keepfiles option for checkpointing if you want to use the recover capability.
> ❌ 
> ❌ `Option "checkpoint" "uniform int keepfiles" [0]`

 

The keepfiles option causes prman to save a sequence of checkpoints for debugging purposes giving each checkpoint image a unique file name tagged with increment and elapsed render time. However, when attempting to recover a file, prman won't scan your directory for checkpointed files or try to choose one. It will only look for the file by the original render output name.

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