# shutdown

systemd

shutdown

8

shutdown

Halt, power off or reboot the machine

shutdown

OPTIONS

TIME

WALL

# Description

`shutdown` may be used to halt, power off, or reboot the machine.

The first argument may be a time string (which is usually `now`). Optionally, this may be followed by a wall message to be sent to all logged-in users before going down.

The time string may either be in the format `hh:mm` for hour/minutes specifying the time to execute the shutdown at, specified in 24h clock format. Alternatively it may be in the syntax `+m` referring to the specified number of minutes m from now. `now` is an alias for `+0`, i.e. for triggering an immediate shutdown. If no time argument is specified, `+1` is implied.

The time string specifies the earliest point in time the shutdown may take place; it is a lower bound only: the shutdown is executed as soon as possible, but not before the specified time. Specifying a time that already elapsed (for example an `hh:mm` time earlier today) is not an error and results in an immediate shutdown. See the discussion of `--when=` in `systemctl(1)` for details.

Note that to specify a wall message you must specify a time argument, too.

If the time argument is used, 5 minutes before the system goes down the `/run/nologin` file is created to ensure that further logins shall not be allowed.

# Options

The following options are understood:

`--help`  

`-H`; `--halt`  
Halt the machine.

`-P`; `--poweroff`  
Power the machine off (the default).

`-r`; `--reboot`  
Reboot the machine.

`-h`  
The same as `--poweroff`, but does not override the action to take if it is "halt". E.g. `shutdown --reboot -h` means "poweroff", but `shutdown --halt -h` means "halt".

`-k`  
Do not halt, power off, or reboot, but just write the wall message.

`--no-wall`  
Do not send wall message before halt, power off, or reboot.

`-c`  
Cancel a pending shutdown. This may be used to cancel the effect of an invocation of `shutdown` with a time argument that is not `+0` or `now`.

`--show`  
Show a pending shutdown action and time if there is any.

# Exit status

On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

# Compatibility

The `shutdown` command in previous init systems (including sysvinit) defaulted to single-user mode instead of powering off the machine. To change into single-user mode, use `systemctl rescue` instead.

# See Also

`systemd(1)`, `systemctl(1)`, `halt(8)`, `wall(1)`