What is the "systemd --system --deserialize 83" process doing?

[mzuniga]

When running htop, the first process listed on my system is always
systemd --system --deserialize 83.
Does anyone here know what this process is doing?

[zbe]

No idea, because I can’t be arsed to look at this small stupid picture. Learn to use preformatted text.

[mzuniga]

As written above:

@mzuniga

systemd --system --deserialize 83

[bogdancovaciu]

@mzuniga

systemd --system --deserialize 83

For each user/system and probably boot time will be different. Also, others might encounter it as
/usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize and can have (i guess) any number.

Mine is
/usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 31
From what i understand (not my words tho)

–deserialize is used to restore saved internal state that a previous invocation of systemd, exec()ing this one, has written out to a file.

but are internal parts of systemd that will remain undocumented:
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2013-September/013008.html

[Aragorn]

It’s an undocumented option of systemd because it’s not intended to be invoked by the user. A quick search — which you could just as easily have done yourself — reveals that…

--deserialize is used to restore saved internal state that a previous invocation of systemd, exec()ing this one, has written out to a file. Its option argument is an open file descriptor for that process.