REBOOT(2) REBOOT(2) NAME reboot - reboot system or halt processor SYNOPSIS #include <sys/reboot.h> reboot(howto) int howto; DESCRIPTION Reboot reboots the system, and is invoked automatically in the event of unrecoverable system failures. Howto is a mask of options passed to the bootstrap program. The system call interface permits only RB_HALT or RB_AUTOBOOT to be passed to the reboot program; the other flags are used in scripts stored on the console storage media, or used in manual bootstrap procedures. When none of these options (e.g. RB_AUTOBOOT) is given, the system is rebooted from file “vmunix” in the root file sys‐ tem of unit 0 of a disk chosen in a processor specific way. An auto‐ matic consistency check of the disks is then normally performed. The bits of howto are: RB_HALT the processor is simply halted; no reboot takes place. RB_HALT should be used with caution. RB_ASKNAME Interpreted by the bootstrap program itself, causing it to inquire as to what file should be booted. Normally, the system is booted from the file “xx(0,0)vmunix” without asking. RB_SINGLE Normally, the reboot procedure involves an automatic disk con‐ sistency check and then multi-user operations. RB_SINGLE pre‐ vents the consistency check, rather simply booting the system with a single-user shell on the console. RB_SINGLE is inter‐ preted by the init(8) program in the newly booted system. This switch is not available from the system call interface. Only the super-user may reboot a machine. RETURN VALUES If successful, this call never returns. Otherwise, a -1 is returned and an error is returned in the global variable errno. ERRORS [EPERM] The caller is not the super-user. SEE ALSO crash(8), halt(8), init(8), reboot(8) BUGS The notion of ‘‘console medium’’, among other things, is specific to the VAX. 4th Berkeley Distribution May 9, 1985 REBOOT(2)