Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Shutting Down the System

Use the shutdown command to shut down your system. The shutdown command has a number of different command-line options (such as shutting down at a predetermined time), but the fastest way to cleanly shut down Linux is to use the -h or halt option, followed by the word now or the numeral zero (0), like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo shutdown -h now

or

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo shutdown -h 0

To incorporate a timed shutdown and a pertinent message to all active users, use shutdown’s time and message options, as follows:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo shutdown -h 18:30 "System is going down for maintenance thisevening at 6:30 p.m. Please make sure you have saved your work and logged out bythen or you may lose data."

This example shuts ...