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REBOOT

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2017-09-15
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

reboot - reboot or enable/disable Ctrl-Alt-Del

SYNOPSIS

/* Since kernel version 2.1.30 there are symbolic names LINUX_REBOOT_*
for the constants and a fourth argument to the call: */

#include <unistd.h>
#include <linux/reboot.h>

int reboot(int magic, int magic2, int cmd, void *arg);

/* Under glibc and most alternative libc's (including uclibc, dietlibc,
   musl and a few others), some of the constants involved have gotten
   symbolic names RB_*, and the library call is a 1-argument
   wrapper around the system call: */

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/reboot.h>

int reboot(int cmd);

DESCRIPTION

The reboot() call reboots the system, or enables/disables the reboot keystroke (abbreviated CAD, since the default is Ctrl-Alt-Delete; it can be changed using loadkeys(1)).

This system call will fail (with EINVAL) unless magic equals LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC1 (that is, 0xfee1dead) and magic2 equals LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC2 (that is, 672274793). However, since 2.1.17 also LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC2A (that is, 85072278) and since 2.1.97 also LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC2B (that is, 369367448) and since 2.5.71 also LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC2C (that is, 537993216) are permitted as values for magic2. (The hexadecimal values of these constants are meaningful.)

The cmd argument can have the following values:

LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_CAD_OFF: (RB_DISABLE_CAD, 0). CAD is disabled. This means that the CAD keystroke will cause a SIGINT signal to be sent to init (process 1), whereupon this process may decide upon a proper action (maybe: kill all processes, sync, reboot).
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_CAD_ON: (RB_ENABLE_CAD, 0x89abcdef). CAD is enabled. This means that the CAD keystroke will immediately cause the action associated with LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_HALT: (RB_HALT_SYSTEM, 0xcdef0123; since Linux 1.1.76). The message "System halted." is printed, and the system is halted. Control is given to the ROM monitor, if there is one. If not preceded by a sync(2), data will be lost.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_KEXEC: (RB_KEXEC, 0x45584543, since Linux 2.6.13). Execute a kernel that has been loaded earlier with kexec_load(2). This option is available only if the kernel was configured with CONFIG_KEXEC.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_POWER_OFF: (RB_POWER_OFF, 0x4321fedc; since Linux 2.1.30). The message "Power down." is printed, the system is stopped, and all power is removed from the system, if possible. If not preceded by a sync(2), data will be lost.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART: (RB_AUTOBOOT, 0x1234567). The message "Restarting system." is printed, and a default restart is performed immediately. If not preceded by a sync(2), data will be lost.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART2: (0xa1b2c3d4; since Linux 2.1.30). The message "Restarting system with command aq%saq" is printed, and a restart (using the command string given in arg) is performed immediately. If not preceded by a sync(2), data will be lost.
LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_SW_SUSPEND: (RB_SW_SUSPEND, 0xd000fce1; since Linux 2.5.18). The system is suspended (hibernated) to disk. This option is available only if the kernel was configured with CONFIG_HIBERNATION.

Only the superuser may call reboot().

The precise effect of the above actions depends on the architecture. For the i386 architecture, the additional argument does not do anything at present (2.1.122), but the type of reboot can be determined by kernel command-line arguments ("reboot=...") to be either warm or cold, and either hard or through the BIOS.

Behavior inside PID namespaces

Since Linux 3.4, when reboot() is called from a PID namespace (see pid_namespaces(7)) other than the initial PID namespace, the effect of the call is to send a signal to the namespace "init" process. The LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART and LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART2 cmd values cause a SIGHUP signal to be sent. The LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_POWER_OFF and LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_HALT cmd values cause a SIGINT signal to be sent. For the other cmd values, -1 is returned and errno is set to EINVAL.

RETURN VALUE

For the values of cmd that stop or restart the system, a successful call to reboot() does not return. For the other cmd values, zero is returned on success. In all cases, -1 is returned on failure, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EFAULT: Problem with getting user-space data under LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART2.
EINVAL: Bad magic numbers or cmd.
EPERM: The calling process has insufficient privilege to call reboot(); the caller must have the CAP_SYS_BOOT inside its user namespace.

CONFORMING TO

reboot() is Linux-specific, and should not be used in programs intended to be portable.

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 4.13 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.