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

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5 Answers

For shutdown:

sudo poweroff

For restart:

sudo reboot

Appendix: If your keyword is "lockup" 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.

6

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

4

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

3

On 16.04 no need of sudo

To shutdown/poweroff:

poweroff

To reboot:

reboot

1

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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