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Asked: 2011-01-03 14:33:04 +0800 CST

How can I automatically shutdown the system after a specific time?

  • 772

How can I automatically shutdown the system after a certain customizable time?

shutdown automation

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Open a terminal window and type in:

    sudo shutdown -h +60

    and just replace 60 with whatever number of minutes you want to take.

    More info here:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-473173.html http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/l5/lesson5a.html

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    • You can use gshutdown Install gshutdown
    • After installation it can be found under Applications → Accessories → GShutdown alt text
    • Also have a look at this method.
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  3. Because the topic abt shutting down PC after certain period of inactivity is redirected to this topic, I will explain this issue here.

    I spent lots of time to solve this problem, so I find it useful to share it, to make the same issue simple for others. I hv tried different programmes but they haven't work for me so I found using short script with cronjob the best solution.

    Firstly I refered to post Timed Shutdown - shutdown after 30 minutes

    I will copy it below and then explain improvements to make it work:

    Install xprintidle. This tool gives the idle time of a user.

    sudo apt-get install xprintidle

    Make a script autoshutdown.sh which checks for the idle time and instructs the computer to shutdown if idle for 30 minutes.

    idle=$(xprintidle)

if [ $idle -gt 1800000 ]; then
    shutdown -h now
fi

    Make a cronjob for this that checks from time to time if the system has been idle for too long and if it has been idle for a longer than 30 minutes it will shutdown. Note that the cronjob has to be made for the root user.

    This script needs some improvements to work, like:

    idle=`env DISPLAY=:0 su OUR_USER -c xprintidle 2>&1`

    OUR_USER is the user we refer to for checking idle time (not root user)

    DISPLAY=:0 is correct for one desktop display (run env command to read DISPLAY in your situation)

    if script is run by OUR_USER, line above can be reduced:

    idle=`env DISPLAY=:0 xprintidle 2>&1`

    This topic is described http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1069602

    if script is run by OUR_USER, shutdown command should be preceded by sudo

    sudo shutdown -h now

    My script was run from cron by line in cron file:

    */5 * * * * /home/OUR_USER/autoshutdown.sh
    • every 5 minutes
    • OUR_USER should be replaced as earlier to the user we refer to.

    If script is not run by root we should remember to add the line:

    ALL ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown

    in sudoers file, so shutdown command won't need a password to be executed.

    I tried such cronjobs on 2 similar distro Lubuntu 12.04.4 RC LXLE 32-bit ( http://www.lxle.net/ )

    In one system it works only using root cronjob set in file:

    /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root

    CAVEAT

    Another problem is that xprintidle in my system has given sometimes random for me values and sometimes logically incremental. The final result - my system has been usually shutdown after 20 mins maybe, if I set the max idle value to 30 mins. I think the culprit is xscreensaver which doesn't work as is set by entered parameters.

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  5. You can use sleep for that. They're used to delay/ pause an operation. Combine that with shutdown you get a power off timer. Example to sleep after 1 hour:

    sleep 3600 && sudo shutdown now

    You can use math as well, here's to power off after 3 hour:

    sleep $((3600*3)) && sudo shutdown now
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