---
name: "reboot"
section: "8"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/reboot"
---

# reboot(8)

stopping and restarting the system

## NAME

**reboot**, **halt** – stopping and restarting the system

## SYNOPSIS

**halt** \[**-dnpq**\]

**reboot** \[**-dnq**\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **halt** and **reboot** utilities flush the file system cache to disk, execute the [rc.d(8)](/rc.d/8.md) scripts specified by the *pkg\_scripts* variable defined in [rc.conf(8)](/rc.conf/8.md) in a reverse order, run the system shutdown script, send all running processes a SIGTERM (and subsequently a SIGKILL), and, respectively, halt or restart the system. The action is logged, including entering a shutdown record into the login accounting file.

The options are as follows:

- **-d**

  Causes system to create a dump before rebooting. This option is useful for debugging system dump procedures or capturing the state of a corrupted or misbehaving system. See [savecore(8)](/savecore/8.md) for information on how to recover this dump.

- **-n**

  Prevent file system cache from being flushed. This option should probably not be used.

- **-p**

  Causes the system to power down, if it is being halted, and the hardware supports automatic power down.

- **-q**

  Quick. The system is halted or restarted quickly and ungracefully, and only the flushing of the file system cache is performed. This option should probably not be used.

Normally, the [shutdown(8)](/shutdown/8.md) utility is used when the system needs to be halted or restarted, giving users advance warning of their impending doom.

## SEE ALSO

[reboot(2)](/reboot/2.md), [utmp(5)](/utmp/5.md), [boot\_alpha(8)](/boot_alpha/8.md), [boot\_amd64(8)](/boot_amd64/8.md), [boot\_hppa(8)](/boot_hppa/8.md), [boot\_i386(8)](/boot_i386/8.md), [boot\_luna88k(8)](/boot_luna88k/8.md), [boot\_macppc(8)](/boot_macppc/8.md), [boot\_sparc64(8)](/boot_sparc64/8.md), [rc.d(8)](/rc.d/8.md), [rc.shutdown(8)](/rc.shutdown/8.md), [savecore(8)](/savecore/8.md), [shutdown(8)](/shutdown/8.md), [sync(8)](/sync/8.md)

## HISTORY

A **reboot** command appeared in 4.0BSD.