4.2.6. Shutdown

UNIX was not made to be shut down, but if you really must, use the shutdown command. After completing the shutdown procedure, the -h option will halt the system, while -r will reboot it.

The reboot and halt commands are now able to invoke shutdown if run when the system is in run levels 1-5, and thus ensure proper shutdown of the system,but it is a bad habit to get into, as not all UNIX/Linux versions have this feature.

If your computer does not power itself down, you should not turn off the computer until you see a message indicating that the system is halted or finished shutting down, in order to give the system the time to unmount all partitions. Being impatient may cause data loss.