@ARGV = ('--restart', Data::Dumper::Dumper(\%whatever));
exec( $^X, $0, @ARGV );
RESUME: #only if you really need to!

##</code><code>##

if ($ARV[0] eq '--restart') {
  %whatever = %{ eval $ARGV[1] };
  goto RESUME; #only if you really need to!
}