---
name: "halt"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "initscripts"
version: "3.14-4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/halt/5"
---

# halt(5)

variables that affect the behavior of the shutdown scripts

## NAME

halt - variables that affect the behavior of the shutdown scripts

## DESCRIPTION

The */etc/default/halt* file contains variable settings in POSIX format:

-

  VAR=VAL

Only one assignment is allowed per line. Comments (starting with '#') are also allowed.

## OPTIONS

The following variables can be set.

- **HALT**

  If set to **poweroff** the system will be powered down after it has been brought down. This is the default.\
   If set to **halt** the system will only be halted after it has been brought down. What exactly this means depends on your hardware.

- **NETDOWN**

  Setting this to **no** prevents shutdown from shutting down the network interfaces. This is necessary to use Wake-On-Lan. Setting it to **yes** causes shutdown to also bring down the network interfaces (and thus prevent the machine from being woken up remotely).

## SEE ALSO

[**halt**(8)](/halt/8.md), [**shutdown**(8)](/shutdown/8.md).

## AUTHOR

**Casper Gielen** \<casper@gielen.name\>

## COPYRIGHT

This manual page is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This manual page is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this manual page; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA