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

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5 Answers 5

1193

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/

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  • 17
    sudo might not be needed, actually. Oct 20, 2016 at 9:28
  • 3
    On Armbian, just reboot is not found. instead, /sbin/reboot works. Dec 19, 2016 at 14:28
  • 1
    @MarkJeronimus It depends on your PATH variable, and your SECURE_PATH in the /etc/sudoers file.
    – Will
    Mar 12, 2017 at 10:25
  • 8
    what about shutdown now and shutdown -r now?
    – Post Self
    Jan 8, 2018 at 15:55
  • 1
    @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. Jul 15, 2019 at 17:30
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
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103

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
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  • 21
    I always wondered how the GUI shutdown the system without needing sudo. I assume this is it. Jul 28, 2015 at 14:23
  • Today I found an advantage to systemd. Sep 25, 2018 at 23:38
  • @systemd And what is that?!
    – Pranav
    May 25, 2020 at 16:47
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On 16.04 no need of sudo

To shutdown/poweroff:

poweroff

To reboot:

reboot
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  • 3
    Failed to set wall message, ignoring: Interactive authentication required. from ssh
    – kyb
    Sep 6, 2018 at 20:11
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. :)

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  • 1
    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, 2020 at 16:50

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