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

Rebooting the System

You should also use the shutdown command to reboot your system. The fastest way to cleanly reboot Linux is to use the -r option, and the word now or the numeral zero (0):

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo shutdown -r now

or

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo shutdown -r 0

Both rebooting and shutting down can have dire consequences if performed at the wrong time (such as during backups or critical file transfers, which arouses the ire of your system’s users). However, Linux-based operating systems are designed to properly stop active system services in an orderly fashion. Other commands you can use to shut down and reboot Linux are the halt and reboot commands, but the shutdown command is more flexible.