Manual: systemd-poweroff.service
SYSTEMD-POWEROFF.SERVICE(8) systemd-poweroff.service SYSTEMD-POWEROFF.SERVICE(8)
NAME
systemd-poweroff.service, systemd-halt.service, systemd-reboot.service, systemd-kexec.service, systemd-shutdown -
System shutdown logic
SYNOPSIS
systemd-poweroff.service
systemd-halt.service
systemd-reboot.service
systemd-kexec.service
/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-shutdown
/usr/lib/systemd/system-shutdown/
DESCRIPTION
systemd-poweroff.service is a system service that is pulled in by poweroff.target and is responsible for the actual
system power-off operation. Similarly, systemd-halt.service is pulled in by halt.target, systemd-reboot.service by
reboot.target and systemd-kexec.service by kexec.target to execute the respective actions.
When these services are run, they ensure that PID 1 is replaced by the /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-shutdown binary which
is then responsible for the actual shutdown. Before shutting down, this binary will try to unmount all remaining file
systems (or at least remount them read-only), disable all remaining swap devices, detach all remaining storage
devices and kill all remaining processes.
It is necessary to have this code in a separate binary because otherwise rebooting after an upgrade might be broken —
the running PID 1 could still depend on libraries which are not available any more, thus keeping the file system
busy, which then cannot be re-mounted read-only.
Shortly before executing the actual system power-off/halt/reboot/kexec, systemd-shutdown will run all executables in
/usr/lib/systemd/system-shutdown/. Those executables are called with one argument: either "poweroff", "halt",
"reboot", or "kexec", depending on the chosen action. All executables in this directory are executed in parallel, and
execution of the action is not continued before all executables finished. (A safety timeout of 90s is applied
however.) Note that these executables are run after all services have been shut down, and after most mounts have been
unmounted (the root file system as well as /run/ and various API file systems are still around though). This means
any programs dropped into this directory must be prepared to run in such a limited execution environment and not rely
on external services or hierarchies such as /var/ to be around (or writable).
Note that systemd-poweroff.service (and the related units) should never be executed directly. Instead, trigger system
shutdown with a command such as "systemctl poweroff".
Another form of shutdown is provided by the systemd-soft-reboot.service(8) functionality. It reboots only the OS
userspace, leaving the kernel, firmware, and hardware as it is.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), systemctl(1), systemd.special(7), reboot(2), systemd-suspend.service(8), systemd-soft-reboot.service(8),
bootup(7)
systemd 259.5 SYSTEMD-POWEROFF.SERVICE(8)