SERIALIZE.html -- ACL2 Version 6.3

# SERIALIZE

routines for saving ACL2 objects to files, and later restoring them

    Major Section:  ACL2 Documentation

This documentation topic relates to an experimental extension of ACL2 that supports `hons`, memoization, and fast alists. See hons-and-memoization. Thanks to Jared Davis for contributing the ``serialization'' routines for saving ACL2 objects in files for later loading.

We implement some routines for writing arbitrary ACL2 objects to files, and for loading those files later. We usually call these ".sao" files, which stands for (S)erialized (A)CL2 (O)bject.

Our serialization scheme uses a compact, binary format that preserves structure sharing in the original object. We optimize for read performance.

## Some Related Topics

- ### SERIALIZE-ALTERNATIVES -- alternatives to the serialize routines

- ### SERIALIZE-IN-BOOKS -- using serialization efficiently in books

- ### SERIALIZE-READ -- read a serialized ACL2 object from a file

- ### SERIALIZE-WRITE -- write an ACL2 object into a file

- ### SET-SERIALIZE-CHARACTER -- See with-serialize-character.

- ### WITH-SERIALIZE-CHARACTER -- control output mode for `print-object$`