kexec
Sign in to savekexec (kernel execute), analogous to the Unix/Linux kernel call exec, is a mechanism of the Linux kernel that allows booting of a new kernel from the currently running one.
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kexec (kernel execute), analogous to the Unix/Linux kernel call exec, is a mechanism of the Linux kernel that allows booting of a new kernel from the currently running one.
==Details== Essentially, kexec skips the bootloader stage and hardware initialization phase performed by the system firmware (BIOS or UEFI), and directly loads the new kernel into main memory and starts executing it immediately. This avoids the long times associated with a full reboot, and can help systems to meet high-availability requirements by minimizing downtime.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “kexec” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.