POWEROFF(8)

💖 POWEROFF, REBOOT, HALT — the girlies of shutdown 💖

okay so real talk, this is page POWEROFF(8) from the poweroff manual, and it's genuinely the most "am I done with my homework or am I done with my whole computer" energy in the whole systemd family. stay with me bestie, it's gonna slay 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

poweroff, reboot, halt — power off, reboot, or halt the machine. three icons, one destiny, no cap 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

poweroff [OPTIONS...]

reboot [OPTIONS...]

halt [OPTIONS...]

look at them. three little besties standing in a row. same [OPTIONS...] energy for all three, because they're literally the same command wearing different outfits ✨

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so poweroff, reboot, and halt may be used to power off, reboot, or halt the machine. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 💀

and the best part? all three commands take the same options. so you don't have to memorize three separate flag lists like some kind of 2011 sysadmin. one list, three commands, we love an efficient queen 👑

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

the following options are understood:

• --help — prints a short help text and exits. the "hi bestie, here's what I do, bye" option 🫶

Added in version 253.

• --halt — halts the machine, regardless of which one of the three commands is invoked. so like, even if you typed reboot, this says "no babe, we're halting." main character behavior fr fr 🔥

Added in version 253.

• -p, --poweroff — powers off the machine, when either halt or poweroff is invoked. this option is ignored when reboot is invoked. so reboot is out here like "not listening 💅"

Added in version 253.

• --reboot — reboots the machine, regardless of which one of the three commands is invoked. the "have you tried turning it off and on again, but make it only the on again" option 🌈

Added in version 253.

• -f, --force — forces immediate power-off, halt, or reboot. if specified, the command does not contact the init system. in most cases, filesystems are not properly unmounted before shutdown 😭 for example, the command reboot -f is mostly equivalent to systemctl reboot -ff, instead of systemctl reboot -f.

🚨 bestie please read that again: -f skips the init system and in most cases your filesystems are not properly unmounted before shutdown. that is not a vibe. that is a "hope you saved your essay" situation. ngl this is the chaotic option and it knows it 💀

Added in version 253.

• -w, --wtmp-only — only writes the wtmp shutdown entry. does not actually power off, reboot, or halt. it's giving "I filled out the form but I'm not actually going" 🙈

Added in version 253.

• -d, --no-wtmp — do not write wtmp shutdown entry. the opposite girlie of the one above. she does the thing but leaves no receipts 🦋

Added in version 253.

• -n, --no-sync — do not sync hard disks/storage media before power-off, reboot, or halt. your storage media is out here living on a prayer. lowkey scary, highkey iconic 😭

Added in version 253.

• --no-wall — do not send wall message before power-off, reboot, or halt. so nobody gets the "hey everyone we're shutting down" announcement. stealth mode unlocked 🤫

Added in version 253.

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✨ EXIT STATUS ✨

on success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise. classic. clean. exactly what you'd expect from a well-behaved lil utility 💖

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✨ NOTES ✨

these commands are implemented in a way that preserves basic compatibility with the original SysV commands. so they speak fluent Old Unix while still living in the modern era 🧚

systemctl(1) verbs poweroff, reboot, halt provide the same functionality with some additional features. so like, same energy, more features. a glow-up, honestly ✨

⚠️ bestie this part is important: note that on many SysV systems halt used to be synonymous to poweroff, i.e. both commands would equally result in powering the machine off. systemd is more accurate here, and halt results in halting the machine only (leaving power on), and poweroff is required to actually power it off. so if you're on an old SysV box and you type halt expecting the power to go off, surprise! the machine is just sitting there. power on. staring at you. 🫠 periodt.

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

systemd(1), systemctl(1), shutdown(8), wall(1)

the whole friend group. go read them, they're all slay 💜

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okay that's the whole page, no skips, no gatekeeping 🌸 and for the credits portion of our group chat: this beauty comes from systemd 259.10 and it's POWEROFF(8) — that's the manual name right there near the top, and it's the same one holding it down at the bottom. mwah 💋 bye bestie, go shut down responsibly 🎀✨