[Boost-users] [random] saving state of generator

Subject: [Boost-users] [random] saving state of generator
From: Thomas Mang (thomasmang.ng_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-01-31 02:20:47

Hi,

Consider an application intended to run for weeks and where a 
deterministic sequence of random numbers is needed (deterministic in 
order to make results 100% reproduceable).
For hardware-related reasons that application might get halted (killed). 
In order to smoothly restart the application I would like to regularly 
save the complete system state and can hence use that as restore point. 
That complete save works for everything except the random number 
generator - I am using boost::random::mt19937.
The mt199937 class does not seem to offer such an option (full state 
save). Using serialization also does not sound great in my eyes as I am, 
of course, not familiar with the internal representation of mt19937.
So what is the best option? Dissecting mt19937 (intrusive changes to 
class template mersenne_twister_engine) and making my own serialization 
routine? Any other / more straightforward ideas?

thanks
Thomas