From f7d1325f3c2fc75f2acc352b9172b7793bbf9bef Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: anarcat Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2022 10:20:39 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] man/shutdown: document how to switch to single-user mode Before Debian switched to systemd, `shutdown now` would reset the system into single user mode, doing roughly the equivalent of `telinit 1`. Now, systemd's `shutdown` command does not behave that way; it defaults to `poweroff` which might be confusing for users (like me) used to the previous method. Because I don't use the command often, I keep being stumped by this behavior, and every time I look at the `shutdown(1)` manpage, I don't understand why I can't find what I am looking for. This patch should make sure that people like me find their way back to some sort of reason. Maybe the *proper* way to fix this would be to restore the more classic behavior, but I'm definitely not going to climb that hill. Besides, I clearly remember the time I found out about the `shutdown` command and was *really* confused when it brought me back to a command-line prompt. That was really counter-intuitive and I find that change to actually be a good thing. So I'm not proposing to change this behavior, merely document it better. I originally added this to the `-P` option but it was suggested adding a new `COMPATIBILITY` section instead, where other such issues could be added. The `COMPATIBILITY` section is not actually officially documented. `man(1)` talks about a `CONFORMING TO` section, but `shutdown(1)` is not POSIX (`shutdown(2)` is, of course), so there's no actual standard on how this should work. The other option I considered was to add a `BUGS` section, but that seemed to inflammatory, and definitely counter-productive. (cherry picked from commit 9aafd310cc42716a923e0d40e56db7952e16a9a3) (cherry picked from commit 78a8e938e44c76788a8c1d8dfa1f299cc5e2ba14) --- man/shutdown.xml | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) diff --git a/man/shutdown.xml b/man/shutdown.xml index 97f33e802a..24a934f45e 100644 --- a/man/shutdown.xml +++ b/man/shutdown.xml @@ -135,6 +135,14 @@ otherwise. + + Compatibility + + The shutdown command in previous init systems (including sysvinit) defaulted to + single-user mode instead of powering off the machine. To change into single-user mode, use + systemctl rescue instead. + + See Also