---
name: "needrestart"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "needrestart"
version: "3.11-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/needrestart"
---

# needrestart(1)

needrestart

## NAME

needrestart - needrestart

## DESCRIPTION

needrestart checks which daemons need to be restarted after library upgrades.

## USAGE

Usage:

-

  needrestart \[-(v\|q)\] \[-n\] \[-c \<cfg\>\] \[-r \<mode\>\] \[-f \<fe\>\] \[-u \<ui\>\] \[-(b\|p\|o)\] \[-x\] \[-kl\]

- **-v**

  be more verbose

- **-q**

  be quiet

- **-m** \<mode\>

  set level of technical details

- e

  (e)asy mode

- a

  (a)dvanced mode

- **-n**

  set default answer to 'no'

- **-c** \<cfg\>

  config filename

- **-r** \<mode\>

  set restart mode

- l

  (l)ist only

- i

  (i)nteractive restart

- a

  (a)utomatically restart

-

  **ATTENTION:** If needrestart is configured to run in interactive mode but is run non-interactive (i.e. unattended-upgrades) it will fallback to list only mode.

- **-b**

  enable batch mode: don't restart anything and produce machine-readable output.

- **-p**

  nagios plugin mode: makes output and exit codes nagios compatible

- **-o**

  OpenMetrics output mode: output information that can be scraped by OpenMetrics-compatible services. Implies batch mode. By combining with any of \`-l\`, \`-k\` and \`-w\` you can decide whether the metrics will expose outdated libraries, kernel and microcode, respectively. Note that in order to list system-wide outdated libraries, needrestart needs to be run as root. When listing outdated libraries, a gauge-type metric exposes the number of running processes with such outdated libraries. When exposing kernel or microcode metrics, each one will expose a StateSet-type metric which indicates the current status. Kernel and microcode will also each expose an additional Info-type metric which informs of the versions of the current vs expected kernel or microcode.

- **-f** \<fe\>

  override [debconf(7)](/debconf/7.md) frontend, sets the DEBIAN\_FRONTEND environment variable to \<fe\>

- **-t** \<seconds\>

  When checking running interpreter processes, allow process start times that are close to timestamps of files the interpreter uses, within this tolerance (default 2). The default value of 2 seconds is best for checks of Linux hosts, on which system limitations prevent more accurate measurements of process start times. Values higher than 0 should prevent false positives yet may in extreme cases cause false negatives; values higher than 2 should not be necessary.

- **-u** \<ui\>

  use preferred UI package (-u ? shows available packages)

- **-x**

  automatically exit the GUI when there is no process selected by default

By using one of the following options only the specified checks are performed:

- **-k**

  check for obsolete kernel

- **-l**

  check for obsolete libraries

## ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables can be used to override the config file options. Command line parameters do always supersede them.

- **NEEDRESTART\_MODE**

  Change the configured restart mode (see also the **-r** parameter): (l)ist only, (i)nteractive or (a)utomatically

  When used with [apt-get(8)](/apt-get/8.md) needrestart supports the following additional environment variables:

- **DEBIAN\_FRONTEND**

  The [debconf(7)](/debconf/7.md) frontend to use, can also set using the **-f** parameter.

- **NEEDRESTART\_SUSPEND**

  If set to a non-empty value the [apt-get(8)](/apt-get/8.md) hook will not run needrestart after installing or updating packages.

## AUTHOR

Thomas Liske \<thomas@fiasko-nw.net\>

## COPYRIGHT

2013 - 2022 (C) Thomas Liske \[http://fiasko-nw.net/~thomas/\]

This program 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.

## UPSTREAM

https://github.com/liske/needrestart