ctrlaltdel — set the function of the Ctrl-Alt-Del combination
Examples (TL;DR)
-
Get current setting:
ctrlaltdel -
Set CRTL+ALT+DEL to reboot immediately, without any preparation:
sudo ctrlaltdel hard -
Set CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot "normally", giving processes a chance to exit first (send SIGINT to PID1):
sudo ctrlaltdel soft
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)
Availability
The ctrlaltdel command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive.