The paper gives a characterization of all linear systems such that when restarted GMRES is applied, prescribed admissible residual norms and (harmonic) Ritz values for all iterations inside the individual cycles are generated. Additionally, the system matrices can have any nonzero eigenvalues.
The total number of GMRES iterations inside all cycles considered is assumed to be smaller than the system size. It is shown that stagnation at the end of a restart cycle must be mirrored at the beginning of the next cycle and that this is the only restriction for prescribed residual norms of restarted GMRES.
The relation between prescribed residual norms of restarted GMRES and those of the corresponding full GMRES process is studied and linear systems are given where full and restarted GMRES give the same convergence history.