vboxmanage:tldr:a1a59

The VBoxManage controlvm command is used to control a virtual machine in VirtualBox. savestate is one of the control options provided by this command.

When you run the command VBoxManage controlvm ${select} savestate, it will save the current state of the selected virtual machine (${select}).

The savestate option is different from the regular shutting down or powering off the virtual machine. It creates a "saved state" file that allows you to resume the virtual machine from where it left off at a later time. This means that when the virtual machine is started again, it will be in the exact same state as it was when it was saved, with all the running programs and open files intact.

This can be useful if you need to pause a virtual machine temporarily without losing your work, or if you want to save the current state before making any potentially risky changes or updates to the virtual machine.