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Accepted
George Udosen
Asked: 2016-11-26 13:09:04 +0800 CST

Why is shutdown faster from the command line than from the GUI?

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I am learning Linux system administration and I noticed that if I do 

sudo systemctl poweroff

on my Ubuntu Xenial, it carries out the command far faster than it would if I did the same using the shutdown button from the GUI.

From the little I have done with Linux, this seems to be the case with most commands.

My understanding (I could be wrong being a system admin in the making) is that the off button also calls the systemctl poweroff command. This I inferred from the way the apt tool works as it calls the underlying dpkg when running a task.

I would think the time difference shouldn't be very noticeable but it is.

command-line

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    As far as I know...

    $> poweroff

    This kills all processes instantly, whereas pressing the poweroff button in the UI first checks if all GUI windows/processes are ready to be shut down (e.g.: if a text editor hasn't saved, ...). After that it kills the desktop environment (window manager, x server, and so on...).

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