[absmiths]

Is there any functional difference between these two rebooting methods? I have noticed that reboot is faster - is it safe? I have been using reboot lately but am concerned that it works so fast.

My Linux machine at work takes probably 20 seconds to shut down for a reboot.

[rkt]

Originally posted by absmiths:
Is there any functional difference between these two rebooting methods? I have noticed that reboot is faster - is it safe?

from shutdown man page:
"-r Shutdown execs reboot(8) at the specified time."

(ie. they are identical)

[absmiths]

Originally posted by rkt:
from shutdown man page:
"-r Shutdown execs reboot(8) at the specified time."

(ie. they are identical)

OK, so shutdown merely prepends the optional delay before calling reboot? I see messages when I use shutdown about the system going down, but when I use reboot the system just goes down. As long as processes get to clean up and filesystems flushed I don't care. What I don't want is the equivalent of halt -nq (which is what our Alphas used to do by default - not very graceful).

[rkt]

Originally posted by absmiths:
OK, so shutdown merely prepends the optional delay before calling reboot? I see messages when I use shutdown about the system going down, but when I use reboot the system just goes down. As long as processes get to clean up and filesystems flushed I don't care. What I don't want is the equivalent of halt -nq (which is what our Alphas used to do by default - not very graceful).

i'm guessing "shutdown" is more friendly towards other users, which is why you see more messages than just a vanilla reboot. indeed the shutdown man page amusingly comments:

"Shutdown provides an automated shutdown procedure for super-users to nicely notify users when the system is shutting down, saving them from system administrators, hackers, and gurus, who would otherwise not bother with such niceties."

straight "reboot" is fine if you're the only person using that machine...