How to shut down correctly?

[TechSupp]

Now I'm new to nix and only use it from a boot CD for imaging PC's, but how do I exit and powerdown nix correctly, instead of just exiting the desktop and just turning off the PC Thought I'd best learn how to do it correctly!

[ZeroHour]

enter shutdown now at a console prompt.
To reboot you use shutdown -r now

[ahuxham]

shutdown -h now works as well. H imply halt.

You can also specify timings as well with -t in seconds

Shutdown -r -t 120 instead of now if you so wanted.

Anywho.

"man shutdown" and you'll get all available commands.

[apaton]

I always use "init 0", but maybe that a bit old school.

[powdarrmonkey]

Missing the -h out of the shutdown command sometimes drops you into maintenance mode, which is scary - always include it to shut the machine down.

[TechSupp]

Forgot all about the 'man' pages! Its been nearly 20 years since I really last worked on a Unix machine, a Sun Spark I think it was.

[ZeroHour]

I will be honest I have never used -h and not had issues.

[kmount]

I'm a simpleton, halt and reboot for me.

Oh init 5 and init 6 if you're in Solaris land

[somabc]

init 6 to reboot works on most *nix

Shutdown -h -P -t now seems to work well

[powdarrmonkey]

@ZeroHour: usually varies by distribution.

[m0nty]

Now I'm new to nix and only use it from a boot CD for imaging PC's, but how do I exit and powerdown nix correctly, instead of just exiting the desktop and just turning off the PC Thought I'd best learn how to do it correctly!

On Linux (most distros) "poweroff" and "reboot" work fine. But if you're booting from CD and haven't mounted any hard-disks, you can just switch off with impunity.

--
Simon

[TwoZeroAlpha]

Assuming Ubuntu (or variant)

sudo shutdown -P now

works pretty well for me. Capital "P" is important as it's the poweroff flag. If you've got a desktop (therefore GUI?) is there not a simple poweroff/shutdown button?

[ahuxham]

I always use "init 0", but maybe that a bit old school.

Indeed not, the init methods are what I still use

[apaton]

One never to use on a Sun Solaris box, unless in the lab.

$ uadmin 2 0

Fastest shutdown in the west!!! (Its not pretty, it just stops everything)

Andy

[box_l]

I always use init 0, works on any system.
init 6 to reboot

box