How do I check if last shutdown was clean?
Solution 1
If the machine was shutdown properly then there must be a shutdown log logged in kern.log
file in /var/log
directory. After a shutdown whenever a normal boot occurs the OS writes the log for the same in kern.log. Hence every boot log must be preceded by a shutdown log if the booting and shutdown process was normal.
Whenever a normal shutdown occurs "Kernel logging (proc) stopped."
is written in kern.log.
Similarly whenever a boot occurs "imklog 5.8.1, log source = /proc/kmsg started."
is written in kern.log
These two messages should be in the order if the shutdown was normal rather than abrupt power off. There should be no "imklog 5.8.1, log source = /proc/kmsg started." message without the "Kernel logging (proc) stopped." message if the previous shutdown was normal. The both message should always occur in pair in log.
Just type in terminal :-
gedit /var/log/kern.log
and check for the shutdown and boot log pairs. If they are found not in pairs anywhere that shutdown must have been abrupt.
Solution 2
I use the last
command. It lists reboots and crashes.
Solution 3
As of Ubuntu 16.04, a clean shutdown followed by a proper reboot will write these 2 lines one after the other in /var/log/syslog
Mar 9 14:14:06 *YOUR-HOSTNAME* rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.16.0" x-pid="1086" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] exiting on signal 15.
Mar 9 15:23:42 *YOUR-HOSTNAME* rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.16.0" x-pid="1069" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start
Solution 4
Hi you can run a script to check if the last shutdown was proper or not. Just put the following lines in a bash script and run it after a system boot up.
#!/bin/bash
B="1"
touch data_file
echo $(($(grep -nr "$(cat /var/log/kern.log | grep "$(date -d $(who -b | awk '{printf $3}') '+%b %-d')" | grep imklog | grep $(cat /var/log/kern.log | grep "$(date -d $(who -b | awk '{printf $3}') '+%b %-d')" | grep imklog | cut -d' ' -f3 | sort -k1 -r | sort --unique --stable -k2,3))" /var/log/kern.log | awk '{printf $1}' | grep -oE "[[:digit:]]{1,}")-$B)) > data_file
if [[
($(sed -n $(cat data_file)p /var/log/kern.log | awk '{print $6}') == "Kernel") &&
($(sed -n $(cat data_file)p /var/log/kern.log | awk '{print $7}') == "logging") &&
($(sed -n $(cat data_file)p /var/log/kern.log | awk '{print $8}') == "(proc)") &&
($(sed -n $(cat data_file)p /var/log/kern.log | awk '{print $9}') == "stopped.")
]]; then
echo Last Shutdown-proper
else
echo Last Shutdown_not proper
fi
rm data_file
NOTE: Please be in a root user to run the script. It won't harm your system :)
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Vikramjeet
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
Vikramjeet almost 2 years
How can tell that my last shutdown was properly done in Ubuntu 11.10 or if the machine was powered off before shutting down the OS?
-
Gigili over 12 yearsTake a look at /var/log/syslog.0
-
-
Vikramjeet over 12 yearsreplace gedit with your default text editor.
-
Nade over 10 yearsmy kern.log is empty
-
a different ben over 10 years@Nade try
kern.log.1
. -
Wayne Len over 10 yearsneither of those phrases are in my log. Not even part of them. I really need to know if my computer's being shutdown properly b/c I believe I have a kid who's simply holding down the power button.
-
Frank Nocke over 7 yearsas of Ubunutu 16.04 this seems no longer correct. i.e. I don't get
cat /var/log/syslog | grep -i "stopped"
(and similar. also sanity-tested the contrary), despite that this was clearly part of the previous shutdown messages... (the visible log stuff, when pressing ESC to kill the splash screen while shutting down) - anyone got an update? -
John over 2 yearsThis is no longer the case in Ubuntu 20.04. I don't have any mention of
rsyslogd
. Oh, and the final log entry on shutdown issystemd[1]: Stopped QEMU KVM preparation - module, ksm, hugepages.
due to my installingvirsh
stuff on it.