powerctl(8)

⚡ powerctl(8) — control power management states ⚡

okay bestie, welcome to the System Manager's Manual corner of the group chat — this is the page for powerctl(8) in section 8, and it's literally your remote for Linux power states. 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

powerctl — control power management states. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

powerctl [-qDIM] <desired state>

that's the exact shape, no cap.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

powerctl is a tool that manages power states on Linux. Real talk: users of this tool must be root or a member of the "power" group. When you run it with no options, it sets the system's sleep state to the specified state, which causes the system to immediately enter a sleep state (e.g. suspend). 😴

The -D, -I, and -M options configure the system's sleep states and behavior. The -q option takes no argument and prints the current system sleep configuration, and it does not require root access or membership in the power group. ✨

👑 USAGE 👑

🍓 powerctl <disk|freeze|standby|mem> 🍓

When you execute it with no options, the sleep state you picked is entered right away — immediately putting the system into some level of suspension. The options have these meanings:

• disk — enter the "hibernation" state. A system memory image is written to disk, and the system enters the state associated with the disk configuration (peep powerctl -D). 💾
• freeze — enter the "suspend to idle" state. It's a software-supported low-power state which is always supported, but it achieves the worst power performance. 😭
• standby — enter the "standby" state, in which more system resources are powered down or placed into a low-power mode than s2idle. This offers improved power savings over s2idle, but it increases system resume latency. ⏳
• mem — enter the mem state (see powerctl -M). 🌈

🎀 powerctl -q 🎀

Query the current system power management configuration and supported options, and print them to stdout. This operation does not require elevated permissions. 🫶

🦋 powerctl -D <platform|shutdown|reboot|suspend|test_resume> 🦋

Configures the behavior following a suspend-to-disk operation. The options have these meanings:

• platform — enter the platform-specific suspended state, if supported, e.g. ACPI S4. 💤
• shutdown — power off the system. 🔌
• reboot — reboot the system. Useful for diagnostics and testing. 🔁
• suspend — enter the "hybrid" suspend mode. This state enters the sleep mode specified by the mem state, then, if the system successfully wakes up from this state, the hibernation state is discarded. Otherwise, the system resumes as if from the normal hibernation state. 🌀
• test_resume — immediately resume from the hibernation state and perform a full system resume. Useful for diagnostics and testing. 🧪

🌈 powerctl -I <size in bytes> 🌈

Configure the desired maximum hibernation image size. The kernel interprets this value as a best-effort target, and, if necessary, a larger image will be produced. Setting this value to zero will always produce the smallest possible image. 🎯

🔥 powerctl -M <s2idle|shallow|deep> 🔥

Configures the desired system suspend behavior for the mem state. The options have these meanings:

• s2idle — use the "suspend to idle" state, a software-supported low-power state which is always supported but achieves the worst power performance. 😴
• shallow — use the "standby" state, in which more system resources are powered down or placed into a low-power mode than s2idle. This offers improved power savings over s2idle, but increases system resume latency. 🦋
• deep — use the "suspend to RAM" state, in which all system resources are powered off except for RAM. This mode offers the best power savings among these options, but has the highest resume latency and requires re-initializing all I/O devices. 🔥

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that's the whole page, bestie — every flag and state accounted for, no cap. This cut is dated 2026-02-04 and it's the powerctl(8) page from the System Manager's Manual. 🎀✨