From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 10 06:03:36 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D55AD106566C for ; Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:03:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from mailgw.es.net (mail1.es.net [IPv6:2001:400:201:1::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 995EA8FC16 for ; Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:03:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ptavv.es.net (ptavv.es.net [IPv6:2001:400:910::29]) by mailgw.es.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id oBA63ZmY021209 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Thu, 9 Dec 2010 22:03:35 -0800 Received: from ptavv.es.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (Tachyon Server) with ESMTP id BCDCC1CC12; Thu, 9 Dec 2010 22:03:35 -0800 (PST) To: Adam Vande More In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:35:51 CST." Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:03:35 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" Message-Id: <20101210060335.BCDCC1CC12@ptavv.es.net> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /sbin/reboot X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:03:36 -0000 > Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 23:35:51 -0600 > From: Adam Vande More > Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@freebsd.org > > On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 11:10 PM, Mark Andrews wrote: > > > Why would you want it to be? One really shouldn't be running /sbin/reboot > > directly as part of normal operations. shutdown does a graceful reboot if > > and when operators need to perform reboot. > > > > AFAIK, the only functional difference between the two is shutdown(8) > notifies other logged in users of the impending shutdown. I've used > reboot(8) for a long time with no ill effects so I'd be interested to hear > what you meant there. Since an operator can use shutdown(8) to initiate the > same shutdown sequence reboot(8) uses, it wouldn't seems to be a security > based decision. Sorry, but this is not at all true, though it often seems so. Unlike reboot, shutdown attempts to cleanly stop all processes. Things like databases can be badly damaged by a reboot. Other processes save state when stopped and that is lost with a reboot. Simply stated, doing a reboot as a standard method of restarting a system is not a good idea and that is why it is not owned by the operator group. -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751