Книга: Fedora™ Unleashed, 2008 edition

Shutting Down the System

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:

# shutdown -h now

or

# shutdown -h 0

To incorporate a timed shutdown and a pertinent message to all active users, use shut down's time and message options, like so:

# shutdown -h 18:30 "System is going down for maintenance this evening"

This example shuts down your system and provides a warning to all active users 15 minutes before the shutdown (or reboot). Shutting down a running server can be considered drastic, especially if there are active users or exchanges of important data occurring (such as a backup in progress). One good approach is to warn users ahead of time. This can be done by editing the system Message of the Day (MOTD)motd file, which displays a message to users after login. To create your custom MOTD, use a text editor and change the contents of /etc/motd. You can also make downtimes part of a regular schedule, perhaps to coincide with security audits, software updates, or hardware maintenance.

You should shut down Fedora for only a few very specific reasons:

? You are not using the computer and want to conserve electrical power.

? You need to perform system maintenance that requires any or all system services to be stopped.

? You want to replace integral hardware.

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