Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide

Name

shutdown — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

shutdown [options] time [message]

The shutdown command shuts down or reboots OS X; only the superuser may run it. Here’s a command to shut down the system in 10 minutes, broadcasting the message “scheduled maintenance” to all users logged in:

➜ sudo shutdown -h +10 "scheduled maintenance"

The time may be a number of minutes preceded by a plus sign, like +10; an absolute time in hours and minutes, like 16:25; or the word now to mean immediately.

With no options, just a time, shutdown puts the system into single-user mode, a special maintenance mode in which only one person is logged in (on the desktop), and all nonessential services are off.

➜ sudo shutdown now

To exit single-user mode, either perform another shutdown to halt or reboot, or type ^D to bring up the system in normal, multiuser mode.

Useful options

-r	Reboot the system.
-h	Halt the system.