101.3. Change runlevels / boot targets and shutdown or reboot system
101.3 Change runlevels / boot targets and shutdown or reboot system
Weight:3
Description: Candidates should be able to manage the SysVinit runlevel or systemd boot target of the system. This objective includes changing to single user mode, shutdown or rebooting the system. Candidates should be able to alert users before switching runlevels / boot targets and properly terminate processes. This objective also includes setting the default SysVinit runlevel or systemd boot target. It also includes awareness of Upstart as an alternative to SysVinit or systemd.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Set the default runlevel or boot target
Change between runlevels / boot targets including single user mode
Shutdown and reboot from the command line
Alert users before switching runlevels / boot targets or other major system events
Properly terminate processes
Terms and Utilities:
/etc/inittab
shutdown
init
/etc/init.d/
telinit
systemd
systemctl
/etc/systemd/
/usr/lib/systemd/
wall
In previous lesson we explain the sequence of system boot in liunx, then we get introduced to Sysv, Upstart and system as different service managers in linux world. In this lesson we learn how to take control over our linux system services using these service managers.
Lets start with SysV. SysV is is nothing more than many executable scripts which are run after init process. How we can define which service should be run when computer starts ? I'm glad you asked. It seems that huge text configuration files would be needed, there is where runlevels come to play.
runlevels
A runlevel is one of the modes that a Unix -based operating system will run in. Each runlevel has a certain number of services stopped or started, giving the user control over the behavior of the machine. runlevels avoid of having a few large files to edit by hand.
Conventionally, seven runlevels exist, numbered from zero to six. And there are some differences between Debian and RedHat based systems:
Runlevel
Debian
RedHat
0
Halt
Halt
1
Single User Mode
Single User Mode
2
Full,Multi-User,GUI
Multi-User, No Net
3
Nothing
Multi-User, with Net, No GUI
4
Nothing
Not used
5
Nothing
Full,Multi-User,GUI
6
Reboot
Reboot
CentsOS 5 was the last version which used SysV and from CentOS 7 Systemd is used.
runlevel
To find the current and previous runlevels , the runlevel command is used:
[root@centos5-1 ~]# runlevel
N 5
In the above output, the letter ‘N’ indicates that the runlevel has not been changed since the system was booted. And, 5 is the current runlevel.
Now that we now about runlevels, How we can switch between them? well just tell 'init' what runlevel you like.
telinit
telinit is used to change the SysV system runlevel.
telinit RUNLEVEL
Lets try it on a CentOS5 machine:
[root@centos5-1 ~]# runlevel
N 5
[root@centos5-1 ~]# telinit 3
and system goes to runlevel 3 lets go back to runlevel 5:
[root@centos5-1 ~]# telinit 5
init
init (as a command) is a process control initialization like telinit.
[root@centos5-1 ~]# init 3
telinit vs init
telinit is a smaller tool that informs init when it needs to switch runlevels. So we can use "telinit" to "tell init" that it needs to switch runlevel. telinit is actually linked to init command and it is possible to use init command instead but it is not recommanded.
[root@centos5-1 ~]# ls -l /sbin/telinit
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Aug 26 23:20 /sbin/telinit -> init
There are several ways to change runlevels. To make a permanent change, we can edit /etc/inittab and change the default level that we just saw above.
/etc/inttab
After the Linux kernel has booted, the init program reads the /etc/inittab file to determine the behavior for each runlevel. Unless the user specifies another value as a kernel boot parameter, the system will attempt to enter (start) the default runlevel.(CentOs5)
[root@centos5-1 ~]# cat /etc/inittab
#
# inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up
# the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
# Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#
# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:5:initdefault:
# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6
# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now
# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"
# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"
# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
the default runlevel is determined from theid:entry in /etc/inittab. How run levels are set up by default and how they are configured depends in part on the particular distribution you are running.
The format of each line in inittab file is as follows:
id:runlevel:action:process
Here is a description of these fields:
id (identification code) – consists of a sequence of one to four characters that identifies its function.
runlevels – lists the run levels to which this entry applies.
action – specific codes in this field tell init how to treat the process. Possible values include: initdefault, sysinit, boot, bootwait, wait, and respawn.
process – defines the command or script to execute.
Now lets see how SysV implements the concept of run levels.
/etc/init.d
/etc/init.d contains scripts used by the System V init tools (SysVinit).
As we said, in SysV, init program is the first process that is run and consequently some infrastructure services are started. Files in /etc/init.d are shell scripts that respond to start, stop, restart, and (when supported) reload commands to manage a particular service. But how SysV determine which services inside /etc/init.d should be started or stopped depend on default runlevel ?Lets draw a picture:
/etc/rc.d/
SysV uses grouping. Scripts of each runlevel are grouped and placed in /etc/rc{runlevel}.d/ where runlevel is the runlevel.
As many services might be existed in different runlevels, the real script files are hold in /etc/init.d and /etc/rc{runlevel}.d/just point to required ones.
[root@centos5-1 etc]# ls -l rc5.d/
total 288
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:21 K01dnsmasq -> ../init.d/dnsmasq
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Aug 26 23:21 K02avahi-dnsconfd -> ../init.d/avahi-dnsconfd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Aug 26 23:23 K02NetworkManager -> ../init.d/NetworkManager
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:23 K02oddjobd -> ../init.d/oddjobd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 26 23:20 K05conman -> ../init.d/conman
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Aug 26 23:21 K05saslauthd -> ../init.d/saslauthd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:20 K05wdaemon -> ../init.d/wdaemon
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 26 23:20 K10psacct -> ../init.d/psacct
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Aug 26 23:21 K15httpd -> ../init.d/httpd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Aug 26 23:22 K15svnserve -> ../init.d/svnserve
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Aug 26 23:23 K20nfs -> ../init.d/nfs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Aug 26 23:23 K24irda -> ../init.d/irda
<output has been truncated>
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Aug 26 23:20 S00microcode_ctl -> ../init.d/microcode_ctl
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 26 23:28 S03vmware-tools -> ../init.d/vmware-tools
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Aug 26 23:20 S04readahead_early -> ../init.d/readahead_early
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Aug 26 23:23 S05kudzu -> ../init.d/kudzu
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 26 23:20 S07iscsid -> ../init.d/iscsid
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Aug 26 23:19 S08ip6tables -> ../init.d/ip6tables
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Aug 26 23:19 S08iptables -> ../init.d/iptables
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Aug 26 23:21 S08mcstrans -> ../init.d/mcstrans
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:21 S10network -> ../init.d/network
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 26 23:20 S11auditd -> ../init.d/auditd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Aug 26 23:21 S12restorecond -> ../init.d/restorecond
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 26 23:21 S12syslog -> ../init.d/syslog
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Aug 26 23:19 S13cpuspeed -> ../init.d/cpuspeed
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Aug 26 23:21 S13irqbalance -> ../init.d/irqbalance
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Aug 26 23:20 S13iscsi -> ../init.d/iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:21 S13portmap -> ../init.d/portmap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Aug 26 23:23 S14nfslock -> ../init.d/nfslock
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Aug 26 23:21 S15mdmonitor -> ../init.d/mdmonitor
<output has been truncated>
Each script in each runlevel is run with its startup or shutdown functions depending on if that runlevel is going up or going down. S means starting script and K shows that it is a killing script .The sequence of actions is defined by the numbers. try cat command to see what is inside :
[root@centos5-1 rc5.d]# cat S55sshd
#!/bin/bash
#
# Init file for OpenSSH server daemon
#
# chkconfig: 2345 55 25
# description: OpenSSH server daemon
#
# processname: sshd
# config: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
# config: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub
# config: /etc/ssh/ssh_random_seed
# config: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# pidfile: /var/run/sshd.pid
# source function library
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
# pull in sysconfig settings
[ -f /etc/sysconfig/sshd ] && . /etc/sysconfig/sshd
RETVAL=0
prog="sshd"
# Some functions to make the below more readable
KEYGEN=/usr/bin/ssh-keygen
SSHD=/usr/sbin/sshd
RSA1_KEY=/etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
RSA_KEY=/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
DSA_KEY=/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
PID_FILE=/var/run/sshd.pid
runlevel=$(set -- $(runlevel); eval "echo \$$#" )
do_rsa1_keygen() {
if [ ! -s $RSA1_KEY ]; then
echo -n $"Generating SSH1 RSA host key: "
rm -f $RSA1_KEY
if $KEYGEN -q -t rsa1 -f $RSA1_KEY -C '' -N '' >&/dev/null; then
chmod 600 $RSA1_KEY
chmod 644 $RSA1_KEY.pub
if [ -x /sbin/restorecon ]; then
/sbin/restorecon $RSA1_KEY.pub
fi
success $"RSA1 key generation"
echo
else
failure $"RSA1 key generation"
echo
exit 1
fi
fi
}
do_rsa_keygen() {
if [ ! -s $RSA_KEY ]; then
echo -n $"Generating SSH2 RSA host key: "
rm -f $RSA_KEY
if $KEYGEN -q -t rsa -f $RSA_KEY -C '' -N '' >&/dev/null; then
chmod 600 $RSA_KEY
chmod 644 $RSA_KEY.pub
if [ -x /sbin/restorecon ]; then
/sbin/restorecon $RSA_KEY.pub
fi
success $"RSA key generation"
echo
else
failure $"RSA key generation"
echo
exit 1
fi
fi
}
do_dsa_keygen() {
if [ ! -s $DSA_KEY ]; then
echo -n $"Generating SSH2 DSA host key: "
rm -f $DSA_KEY
if $KEYGEN -q -t dsa -f $DSA_KEY -C '' -N '' >&/dev/null; then
chmod 600 $DSA_KEY
chmod 644 $DSA_KEY.pub
if [ -x /sbin/restorecon ]; then
/sbin/restorecon $DSA_KEY.pub
fi
success $"DSA key generation"
echo
else
failure $"DSA key generation"
echo
exit 1
fi
fi
}
do_restart_sanity_check()
{
$SSHD -t
RETVAL=$?
if [ ! "$RETVAL" = 0 ]; then
failure $"Configuration file or keys are invalid"
echo
fi
}
start()
{
# Create keys if necessary
do_rsa1_keygen
do_rsa_keygen
do_dsa_keygen
cp -af /etc/localtime /var/empty/sshd/etc
echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
$SSHD $OPTIONS && success || failure
RETVAL=$?
[ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/sshd
echo
}
stop()
{
echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
if [ -n "`pidfileofproc $SSHD`" ] ; then
killproc $SSHD
else
failure $"Stopping $prog"
fi
RETVAL=$?
# if we are in halt or reboot runlevel kill all running sessions
# so the TCP connections are closed cleanly
if [ "x$runlevel" = x0 -o "x$runlevel" = x6 ] ; then
killall $prog 2>/dev/null
fi
[ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/sshd
echo
}
reload()
{
echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
if [ -n "`pidfileofproc $SSHD`" ] ; then
killproc $SSHD -HUP
else
failure $"Reloading $prog"
fi
RETVAL=$?
echo
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart)
stop
start
;;
reload)
reload
;;
condrestart)
if [ -f /var/lock/subsys/sshd ] ; then
do_restart_sanity_check
if [ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] ; then
stop
# avoid race
sleep 3
start
fi
fi
;;
status)
status -p $PID_FILE openssh-daemon
RETVAL=$?
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload|condrestart|status}"
RETVAL=1
esac
exit $RETVAL
And all of these places were places that SysV uses to manage scripts and runlevels. In Sysv system we can manage services with servicecommand andchkconfigcommand to define how and when services are started. We will talk about them later.
rc.local
But what about /etc/rc.local ? This file runs after all other init level scripts have run, so it's safe to put various commands that you want to have issued upon startup.This is also a good place to place "troubleshooting" scripts in. But do not forget rc.local may not work properly in Upstart and Systemd. Test it, search it and do required configuration before using in production environment.
Lets go back to our topic and get familiar with runlevels equivalent in systemd. Although /etc/inittab still exist in Systemd systems but that is not part of configuration, we have something called "Targets".
systemd targets
Like runlevels there are some modes in systemd system that our system can run in, systemd runlevels are referred to as "targets". "targets" are described as a collection of services. Look at the equivalents:
In order to switch between Boot Targets we use systemctl tool.
systemctl
Systemctl is a systemd utility which is responsible for Controlling the systemd system and service manager. It can does lots of thing but what we need here and use it for is changing boot targets.
To see the current boot target use systemctl get-default command:
To set the default target, run systemctl set-default xxxxxx.target command :
[root@centos7-1 ~]# systemctl set-default graphical.target
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/default.target to /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.
But how systemd knows what to do and how to do things ? We have something called "Unit". The concept of "Unit Files" replaces the SysV init scripts for services.
systemd unit files
There are different types of unit files and the best way to describe unit files, is 'that is a thing which should be started'.Yes that is a thing because there are different kinds of unit files. Each unit file is a simple text file describing a unit, what it does, what needs to run before or afterward, and other details
Unit files can be stored in a few different places on your system. systemd looks for system unit files in this order:
/etc/systemd/system:directory stores unit files that extend a service. This directory will take precedence over unit files located anywhere else in the system.
/run/systemd/system:directory is the runtime location for unit files.
/usr/lib/systemd/system:directory is the default location where unit files are installed by packages. Unit files in the default directory should not be altered.
Unit files in the earlier directories override later ones. Lets take a look at them:
1./etc/systemd/system
[root@centos7-1 ~]# ls -l /etc/systemd/system
total 4
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 31 Oct 28 2017 basic.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 31 Oct 28 2017 bluetooth.target.wants
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 41 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.bluez.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 41 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/avahi-daemon.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/ModemManager.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 46 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 57 Oct 28 2017 dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-dispatcher.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 36 Oct 28 2017 default.target -> /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 87 Oct 28 2017 default.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 38 Oct 28 2017 dev-virtio\x2dports-org.qemu.guest_agent.0.device.wants
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 35 Oct 28 2017 display-manager.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 32 Oct 28 2017 getty.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 65 Oct 28 2017 graphical.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Oct 28 2017 multi-user.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 26 Oct 28 2017 printer.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 31 Oct 28 2017 remote-fs.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 188 Oct 28 2017 sockets.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 36 Oct 28 2017 spice-vdagentd.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 26 Oct 28 2017 sssd.service.d
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 169 Oct 28 2017 sysinit.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 44 Oct 28 2017 system-update.target.wants
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 29 Oct 28 2017 vmtoolsd.service.requires
2./run/systemd/system
[root@centos7-1 ~]# ls -l /run/systemd/system/
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 Jan 2 2019 session-1.scope
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 160 Jan 2 2019 session-1.scope.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 Jan 2 2019 user-1000.slice
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jan 2 2019 user-1000.slice.d
lets follow one of target unit files.Try ls -al *.target to see all of target files. As an instance default.target:
[root@centos7-1 ~]# ls -al /usr/lib/systemd/system/default.target
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Oct 28 2017 /usr/lib/systemd/system/default.target -> graphical.target
Lets take a look at that graphical.target:
[root@centos7-1 ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target
# This file is part of systemd.
#
# systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
[Unit]
Description=Graphical Interface
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Requires=multi-user.target
Wants=display-manager.service
Conflicts=rescue.service rescue.target
After=multi-user.target rescue.service rescue.target display-manager.service
AllowIsolate=yes
And what it requires is multi-user.target, lets see:
[root@centos7-1 ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target
# This file is part of systemd.
#
# systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
[Unit]
Description=Multi-User System
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Requires=basic.target
Conflicts=rescue.service rescue.target
After=basic.target rescue.service rescue.target
AllowIsolate=yes
and it requires basic.target :
[root@centos7-1 ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/basic.target
# This file is part of systemd.
#
# systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
[Unit]
Description=Basic System
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Requires=sysinit.target
After=sysinit.target
Wants=sockets.target timers.target paths.target slices.target
After=sockets.target paths.target slices.target
Finally sysinit.target :
[root@centos7-1 ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/sysinit.target
# This file is part of systemd.
#
# systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
[Unit]
Description=System Initialization
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Conflicts=emergency.service emergency.target
Wants=local-fs.target swap.target
After=local-fs.target swap.target emergency.service emergency.target
And sysint.target does not require any thing. It seems that we have reached top level target in our tree and we can go back.
Using unit files beside Targets concept make Systemd more flexible in comparison to SysV.
wall
There are times when multiple users are logged in to a server computer, and we need to, say, restart the server to perform some maintenance task. Of course, the correct way is to inform all those who are logged in about the maintenance activity.
wall (an abbreviation of write to all) is a Unix command-line utility that displays the contents of a file or standard input to all logged-in users. It is typically used by root to send out shutting down message to all users just before poweroff.(Ubuntu16)
OPTIONS
-n, --nobanner
Suppress the banner.
-t, --timeout timeout
Abandon the write attempt to the terminals after timeout
seconds. This timeout must be a positive integer. The
default value is 300 seconds, which is a legacy from the time
when people ran terminals over modem lines.
-g, --group group
Limit printing message to members of group defined as a group
argument. The argument can be group name or GID.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
Lets try sending out "we are going down" message:
[root@centos5-1 ~]# wall "we are going down"
Broadcast message from root@centos6-1 (pts/1) (Sun Nov 11 00:46:58 2018):
we are going down
and what will user1 receive:
[user1@centos5-1 ~]$
Broadcast message from root@centos6-1 (pts/1) (Sun Nov 11 00:46:58 2018):
we are going down
options might not work is some old distributions.
shutdown
shutdown - Halt, power-off or reboot the machine
shutdown [OPTIONS...] [TIME] [WALL...]
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--help
Print a short help text and exit.
-H, --halt
Halt the machine.
-P, --poweroff
Power-off the machine (the default).
-r, --reboot
Reboot the machine.
-h
Equivalent to --poweroff, unless --halt is specified.
-k
Do not halt, power-off, reboot, just write wall message.
--no-wall
Do not send wall message before halt, power-off, reboot.
-c
Cancel a pending shutdown. This may be used cancel the effect of
an invocation of shutdown with a time argument that is not "+0"
or "now".
-t sec
Tell init to wait sec seconds between sending processes the warning
and the kill signal, before changing to another runlevel.
[TIME]
The time argument specifies when to perform the shutdown operation.
[WALL]
A message to be sent to all users, along with the standard shutdown notification.
shutdown does its job by signalling the init process, asking it to change the runlevel. According to previous title, runlevel 0 is used to halt the system, runlevel 6 is used to reboot the system, and runlevel 1 is used to put the system into a state where administrative tasks can be performed (single-user mode).
root@ubuntu16-1:~# shutdown -r -t 15 +5 "Server will restart in 5 minutes. Please save your work."
Shutdown scheduled for Sun 2018-11-11 03:19:56 PST, use 'shutdown -c' to cancel.
root@ubuntu16-1:~# shutdown -c
We may specify a time string (which is usually “now” or “hh:mm” for hour/minutes):
root@ubuntu16-1:~# shutdown -r 10:10 "Server will be rebooted at 10:10am"
Shutdown scheduled for Tue 2018-11-13 10:10:00 PST, use 'shutdown -c' to cancel.
root@ubuntu16-1:~# shutdown -c
halt vs poweroff ! it's a bit historical
halt was used before ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)which today will turn off the power for us. It would halt the system and then print a message to the effect of "it's ok to power off now". Back then there were physical on/off switches, rather than the combo ACPI controlled power button of modern computers.
poweroff, naturally will halt the system and then call ACPI power off.
These days halt is smart enough to automatically call poweroff if ACPI is enabled. In fact, they are functionally equivalent now.
reboot
reboot command can be used to shutdown or reboot linux.
[root@centos7-1 ~]# reboot --help
reboot [OPTIONS...] [ARG]
Reboot the system.
--help Show this help
--halt Halt the machine
-p --poweroff Switch off the machine
--reboot Reboot the machine
-f --force Force immediate halt/power-off/reboot
-w --wtmp-only Don't halt/power-off/reboot, just write wtmp record
-d --no-wtmp Don't write wtmp record
--no-wall Don't send wall message before halt/power-off/reboot
To reboot linux just call the reboot command directly without any options.
[root@centos7-1 ~]# reboot
This will perform a graceful shutdown and restart of the machine. This is what happens when we click restart from your menu.
-f option will forcefully reboot the machine. This is similar to pressing the power button of the CPU. No shutdown takes place. The system will reset instantly.
halt
The next command is the halt command. This can shutdown a system but has some other options:
[root@centos7-1 ~]# halt --help
halt [OPTIONS...]
Halt the system.
--help Show this help
--halt Halt the machine
-p --poweroff Switch off the machine
--reboot Reboot the machine
-f --force Force immediate halt/power-off/reboot
-w --wtmp-only Don't halt/power-off/reboot, just write wtmp record
-d --no-wtmp Don't write wtmp record
--no-wall Don't send wall message before halt/power-off/reboot
the halt command also has force option but try not to use it, because it might put your system in an in consistant state.
poweroff
There is another command exactly same as the halt command. It does the same things and takes the same options.
[root@centos7-1 ~]# poweroff --help
poweroff [OPTIONS...]
Power off the system.
--help Show this help
--halt Halt the machine
-p --poweroff Switch off the machine
--reboot Reboot the machine
-f --force Force immediate halt/power-off/reboot
-w --wtmp-only Don't halt/power-off/reboot, just write wtmp record
-d --no-wtmp Don't write wtmp record
--no-wall Don't send wall message before halt/power-off/reboot
