reboot(2) - Useful Manual Pages

NAME

reboot — reboot system or halt processor

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/reboot.h>

int
reboot(int howto);

reboot() reboots the system. Only the super-user may reboot a machine on demand. However, a reboot may be invoked automatically in the event of unrecoverable system failures. Programs other than reboot(8) should not call reboot(). Shutdown(8) or a higher-level API will shut the system down cleanly.

Howto is a mask of options; the system call interface allows the following options, defined in the include file ⟨sys/reboot.h⟩, to be passed to the new kernel or the new bootstrap and init programs.

RB_AUTOBOOT: The default, causing the system to reboot in its usual fashion.
RB_ASKNAME: Interpreted by the bootstrap program itself, causing it to prompt on the console as to what file should be booted. Normally, the system is booted from the file “xx(0,0)bsd”, where xx is the default disk name, without prompting for the file name.
RB_DFLTROOT: Use the compiled in root device. Normally, the system uses the device from which it was booted as the root device if possible. (The default behavior is dependent on the ability of the bootstrap program to determine the drive from which it was loaded, which is not possible on all systems.)
RB_DUMP: Dump kernel memory before rebooting; see savecore(8) for more information.
RB_HALT: the processor is simply halted; no reboot takes place. This option should be used with caution.
RB_INITNAME: An option allowing the specification of an init program (see launchd(8)) other than /sbin/launchd to be run when the system reboots. This switch is not currently available.
RB_KDB: Load the symbol table and enable a built-in debugger in the system. This option will have no useful function if the kernel is not configured for debugging. Several other options have different meaning if combined with this option, although their use may not be possible via the reboot() call. See kadb(4) for more information.
RB_NOSYNC: Normally, the disks are sync'd (see sync(8)) before the processor is halted or rebooted. This option may be useful if file system changes have been made manually or if the processor is on fire.
RB_RDONLY: Initially mount the root file system read-only. This is currently the default, and this option has been deprecated.
RB_SINGLE: Normally, the reboot procedure involves an automatic disk consistency check and then multi-user operations. RB_SINGLE prevents this, booting the system with a single-user shell on the console. RB_SINGLE is actually interpreted by the launchd(8) program in the newly booted system.
When no options are given (i.e., RB_AUTOBOOT is used), the system is rebooted from file ``bsd'' in the root file system of unit 0 of a disk chosen in a processor specific way. An automatic consistency check of the disks is normally performed (see fsck(8)).