Do I Have to Logoff and Shutdown My Linux PC?

If you're ready to cash in your console and call it a day, use the logout command. Entering

at the command prompt exits your current user account and returns you to the log-in prompt. (The exit command does the same thing as logout.) To log out from multiple consoles, use alt-Fn to switch between consoles and then log out from each one. But note that even if you log out from all of your active consoles, Linux is still running.

If you were to power off your machine at this point, a voice from your computer would drone, "You have chosen unwisely!" The floor would shake, and your PC would glow white hot while your hard disk melted into a pool of molten silicon. Just kidding . . . sometimes the floor doesn't shake, but powering off a running Linux system without using the shutdown command will most certainly cause Bad Things to happen to your hard disk. So if you really want to exit Linux, be sure that you're logged in as the root user and enter the command

shutdown -h now

You'll see some messages indicating that various subsystems are being shut down, and then the computer will be reset. When you see a message indicating that shutdown is complete, it's safe to turn off your PC.

Tip: Pressing ctrl-alt-delete will also safely shut down your Red Hat Linux system. Just remember to power off as soon as you see your PC's normal bootup screen. Note that some other Linux distributions will do a hard reset (which may cause filesystem damage) instead of gracefully shutting down, so don't use ctrl-alt-delete on non-Red Hat systems unless you know it's safe.

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Comments - most recent first (Please feel free to answer questions posted by others!) Nazzareno     (03 Jan 2012, 10:49) In an redhat5, once shutdown the system with as root: shutdown -h now now, when I restart the system and connected as root then I have lost all display tabs, i.e.: "Applications", "Places" and "System", so basically I cannot use any display commands anymore through root user. On the contrary, if I swift on another user, for example oracle, then I can see and work fine all display commands. How can I fix this behavior and work fine again with root user as? santhoshkumar     (17 Dec 2011, 03:43) i need to shutdown my redhat linux in command method but i would like to start automatically after sum some time what type of command we used for that pranab     (16 Dec 2011, 09:38) thanks Vithu     (29 Nov 2011, 00:53) Thank you very very helpful.... theregkid     (28 Oct 2011, 14:27) .... i will never shutdown again... - cowers in fear- amit     (27 Sep 2011, 06:45) thanks Santhosh     (02 Sep 2011, 10:18) init 0 (to shutdown) init 6 or reboot (to reboot) in Redhot linux... duvvuri     (02 Jul 2011, 10:31) there are other commands for turning off:- (a) init (b) poweroff harmilap rahul     (31 Mar 2011, 06:04) this command are very useful now in my college rahul singh     (31 Mar 2011, 06:03) this command are very useful... constant_c     (30 Mar 2011, 06:32) If you want to shut down and then turn off the power, you can type shutdown -P now this shuts down the pc normally and after it turns off the power as well zubair     (21 Mar 2011, 04:35) plz gv me a brief discription of grep command Hakan     (02 Mar 2011, 09:36) As a newbie, I've been using the command "poweroff" version and now I wonder if this is a non-standart command? amy     (20 Jan 2011, 15:05) No doubt this is a very good site to know about linus. i have problem to configure tomcat6. could you please add on tomcat6 details Raj Narayan Verma     (14 Dec 2010, 10:46) Its very useful thanks ravi     (29 Nov 2010, 02:38) disktop remote AMAL     (07 Nov 2010, 11:19) thanku>>>>> very much Jasbir Singh     (11 Oct 2010, 06:38) very goood site... thanks dineshbabu     (02 Sep 2010, 00:52) thanks jahirhuusain     (16 Jul 2010, 04:46) its very usefull,,, thanx to every one vimal     (08 Jun 2010, 22:49) Please Notify me about new comments with explanations. I welcome your comments. However... I am puzzled by many people who say "Please send me the Linux tutorial." This website *is* your Linux Tutorial! Read everything here, learn all you can, ask questions if you like. But don't ask me to send what you already have. :-) NO SPAM! If you post garbage, it will be deleted, and you will be banned. *Name: Email: Notify me about new comments on this page Hide my email *Text:

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