ctrlaltdel — set the function of the Ctrl-Alt-Del combination

Examples (TL;DR)

Synopsis

ctrlaltdel hard|soft

Description

Based on examination of the linux/kernel/reboot.c code, it is clear that there are two supported functions that the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence can perform.

hard

Immediately reboot the computer without calling sync(2) and without any other preparation.  This is the default.

soft

Make the kernel send the SIGINT (interrupt) signal to the init process (this is always the process with PID 1).  If this option is used, the init(8) program must support this feature.  Since there are now several init(8) programs in the Linux community, please consult the documentation for the version that you are currently using.

When the command is run without any argument, it will display the current setting.

The function of ctrlaltdel is usually set in the /etc/rc.local file.

Options

-V, --version

Display version information and exit.

-h, --help

Display help text and exit.

Files

/etc/rc.local

See Also

init(8), systemd(1)

Author

Peter Orbaek

Availability

The ctrlaltdel command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive.

Referenced By

reboot(2).

October 2015 util-linux System Administration