Bug#810608: systemd-sysv: on shutdown, fails to inform users that the system is going down

[Michael Biebl]

Am 20.07.2018 um 23:58 schrieb Francesco Poli:
> Control: reopen -1
> 
> 
> On Wed, 18 Jul 2018 16:38:21 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:
> 
>>> Yes, I confirm that issuing
> [...]
>>>   # shutdown 5
> [...]
>>> or
> [...]
>>>   # shutdown
> [...]
>>> failed to show the broadcast message to the users.
>>
>> I tested this on a stable system, for a locally logged in user and one
>> logged in via SSH.
>> Both got the wall message
>>
>> Broadcast message from root at debian on tty1 (Wed 2018-07-18 16:37:14 CEST):
>>
>> The system is going down for poweroff at Wed 2018-07-18 16:38:14 CEST!
>>
>>
>> I thus conclude that this issue has been fixed in the mean time and will
>> close the bug accordingly.
> 
> This issue has only partially been fixed.
> 
> I can confirm that the wall message is now sent, when using
> "shutdown -r" (which has the implicit delay of 1 min).
> 
> However, when using "reboot", "poweroff" (and "halt", I
> suppose), no wall message is sent.
> 
> As I have already said in message [#17], when the "reboot", "halt", and
> "poweroff" commands are provided by package sysvinit-core, they do not
> take a delay time argument either, but they send a broadcast message to
> all logged users to inform them that the system is going down.
> I have always seen such message and I think it's really useful to
> understand why your SSH connection was closed.
> 
> On the other hand, when the "reboot", "halt", and "poweroff" commands
> are provided by package systemd-sysv, they fail to send such broadcast
> message.
> Please note that the halt(8) man page shipped by package systemd-sysv
> even mentions a --no-wall option to suppress the broadcast message!
> Hence, I am under the impression that this broadcast message is
> supposed to be sent, but fails to be actually sent due to a bug.
> 
> Although I agree with Martin Pitt that, on multi-user systems, it's
> polite to do something like "shutdown -r 5", I believe that the
> immediate commands ("reboot", "halt", and "poweroff") exist for all the
> situations where it's reasonable or needed to shut the system down as
> soon as possible. I think that informing users of what's happening
> should be done in any case.
> 
> [#17]: <https://bugs.debian.org/810608#17>
> 
> 
> I am therefore reopening the bug report.

My system shuts down so quickly that I wouldn't see such a message
anyway, i.e. I would find it rather pointless.

For remote logins, it might be useful.

Anyway, iff you want to see this behaviour changed for non-delayed
reboot/poweroff, feel free to raise this issue upstream at
https://github.com/systemd/systemd.



-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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