In this guide, we will show you how you can reboot or shut down (power off) a Debian server or desktop from the command line (Terminal).
Debian shutdown command
The first step is that you open the Terminal, or connect to the system by SSH. Then you run the following command to shut down the system.
shutdown --poweroff
The shutdown command will power off the Debian system, it can be canceled by running this command:
shutdown -c
If you want to immediately power off the system, use this command instead:
shutdown --poweroff now
The shutdown command can also be used to reboot a Debian Linux server or desktop. Run the following command:
shutdown --reboot
Use Debian systemctl command to reboot or power off a system
Instead of using the shutdown command, you can also use systemctl for powering off or restarting a system.
Power off Debian 11 power with systemctl:
systemctl poweroff
Rebooting Debian 11 with the systemctl command:
systemctl reboot