How do I shut down or reboot from a terminal?

Question

How can I shut down or reboot Ubuntu using terminal commands?

Related (but not a duplicate): Shutting down the system using a virtual console — Eliah Kagan, Oct 16 '17 at 09:12

score 1196 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 28 '22 at 19:58

1196

For shutdown:

sudo poweroff

For restart:

sudo reboot

Appendix: If your keyboard is "locked up", so you can't enter a command like "reboot" which would run from "su" anyway, use the keyboard: hold down Alt + PrintScreen/SysRq, buttons and type "REISUB". It doesn't have to be capital letters. It will restart your computer gently. http://blog.kember.net/articles/reisub-the-gentle-linux-restart/

edited Jul 28 '22 at 19:58

FedKad

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answered Sep 12 '12 at 18:17

Saeed Zarinfam

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sudo might not be needed, actually. – Nicolas Raoul Oct 20 '16 at 09:28
3

On Armbian, just reboot is not found. instead, /sbin/reboot works. – Mark Jeronimus Dec 19 '16 at 14:28
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@MarkJeronimus It depends on your PATH variable, and your SECURE_PATH in the /etc/sudoers file. – Will Mar 12 '17 at 10:25
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what about shutdown now and shutdown -r now? – Post Self Jan 08 '18 at 15:55
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@NicolasRaoul nopes, for me i see this without sudo. Failed to set wall message, ignoring: Interactive authentication required. Failed to reboot system via logind: Interactive authentication required. Failed to open /dev/initctl: Permission denied Failed to talk to init daemon. – Paramvir Singh Karwal Jul 15 '19 at 17:30
On both there is no need for sudo. shutdown will give you 1 minute. REI (from REISUB) is now disabled by default. – Pablo Bianchi Oct 14 '19 at 03:37

score 247 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 04 '14 at 15:59

247

Open your terminal with CTRL+ALT+T and do these following commands

To shutdown the system:

sudo shutdown -h now

To restart:

sudo reboot

& one more command for restart:

sudo shutdown -r now

Another way as one of the user mentioned.

For shutdown:

sudo halt

or:

sudo init 0

For restart:

sudo init 6

You can get more info on the shutdown command by using one of the following:

shutdown --help
man shutdown

edited Mar 04 '14 at 15:59

Wilf

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answered Sep 12 '12 at 18:09

Raja G

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@jai the target is to offer the op and everyone else alternative ways of doing what he has asked. – fromnaboo Apr 23 '13 at 15:21
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It seems shutdown -r now is preferable to reboot as the second can put you into maintenance mode – ubiquibacon May 11 '14 at 11:44
2

FYI What is the difference between the shutdown, halt and reboot commands? – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 08 '17 at 20:52
Can anyone explain why sudo halt might not perform shutdown in some cases, whereas sudo halt -p does? – Hee Jin Apr 11 '18 at 23:48

score 103 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 16 '19 at 02:26

Hate passwords (sudo) and love one-liners?

For Ubuntu 15.04 and later

This is due to Ubuntu's shift in using systemd instead of Upstart

systemctl poweroff
systemctl reboot
systemctl suspend
systemctl hibernate
systemctl hybrid-sleep

Since hibernate is normally disabled by default in Ubuntu systems, you can enable this by checking this answer.

For Ubuntu 14.10 or earlier

Shutdown:

/usr/bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit" /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Manager org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.Stop

Restart:

/usr/bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit" /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Manager org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.Restart

Other commands you may like:

Suspend:

/usr/bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend

Hibernate: (if enabled on your system)

/usr/bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Hibernate

I always wondered how the GUI shutdown the system without needing sudo. I assume this is it. — triunenature, Jul 28 '15 at 14:23

score 44 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 14 '19 at 03:41

44

On 16.04 no need of `sudo`

To shutdown/poweroff:

poweroff

To reboot:

reboot

edited Oct 14 '19 at 03:41

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Jun 15 '16 at 10:17

Severus Tux

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Failed to set wall message, ignoring: Interactive authentication required. from ssh – kyb Sep 06 '18 at 20:11

score 21 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 14 '19 at 03:44

21

Use

sudo shutdown -h (time) (message)

This will shutdown your computer and halt it. That is what the -h is for. Then, in the time area you can choose the shutdown delay (in minutes) and if you want you can send a broadcast message in the message area (like goodbye, or I'm shutting the thing down :P).

To restart the computer, type

sudo shutdown -r (time) (message)

Now, instead of shutting it down and halting it, you will restart your computer once it's shutdown. :)

edited Oct 14 '19 at 03:44

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Jun 28 '14 at 05:23

Jatttt

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What do mean by, "This will shutdown your computer and halt it. That is what the -h"? What is the difference if we only use "shutdown" or "poweroff" command? What is so special about "halt"!? – Pranav May 25 '20 at 16:50

How do I shut down or reboot from a terminal?

5 Answers5

For Ubuntu 15.04 and later

For Ubuntu 14.10 or earlier

On 16.04 no need of `sudo`

Linked

Related

How do I shut down or reboot from a terminal?

5 Answers5

For Ubuntu 15.04 and later

For Ubuntu 14.10 or earlier

On 16.04 no need of sudo

Linked

Related

On 16.04 no need of `sudo`