How can I safely shut down Xfce from the terminal?

Question

I'm not looking for shutdown or reboot or the like. I want to know how to shut down Xubuntu from the terminal, by executing a command that would have the same effect as clicking the "Shutdown" button in a menu.

Similar to this question, but for Xubuntu/XFCE.

Solution

I think what you want is xfce4-session-logout (online manpage).

Excerpt from the manpage (reformatted, filtered):

   The  xfce4-session-logout command allows you to programmatically logout
   from your Xfce session. It requests the session manager to display  the
   logout  confirmation  screen,  or,  if  given  one  of the command-line
   options below, causes the session manager to take the requested  action
   immediately.

OPTIONS:
   --logout     Log out without displaying the logout dialog.
   --halt       Halt without displaing the logout dialog.
   --reboot     Reboot without displaying the logout dialog.
   --suspend    Suspend without displaying the logout dialog.
   --hibernate  Hibernate without displaying the logout dialog.
   --fast       Do  a  fast shutdown.  This instructs the session manager not to
                save the session, but instead to quit everything quickly.

So to shut down, use

xfce4-session-logout --halt

and to reboot, use

xfce4-session-logout --reboot

If you just want to get the dialogue where you can pick an action manually, run it without arguments:

xfce4-session-logout 

Comments

[blade19899]

Similar as in shutting down form a gui: sudo halt --poweroff