Service & System
halt
Halt the system — stop all CPUs but may not power off.
Synopsis
syntax
halt [OPTION]...
Examples
Halt the system
sudo halt
Halt and power off
sudo halt -p
Force halt immediately
sudo halt -f
Common options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| -f | Force halt |
| -p | Power off after halt |
| --no-wall | Don't send wall message |
About halt
The `halt` command halt the system — stop all CPUs but may not power off. Service and system commands manage daemons, scheduled tasks, system boot, and shutdown operations.
Modern Linux distributions use systemd for service management, though some still support SysVinit scripts. Understanding these commands is essential for deploying and maintaining production services.
The command accepts 3 commonly used flags shown above, though the full set of options is available in the man page (`man halt`). The 3 examples on this page cover typical real-world usage patterns that you can copy and adapt for your own workflows.
Related commands
More Service & System Commands
Other commands in the Service & System category