The system-shutdown program

system-shutdown is the interface to the system-shutdown-daemon.

Interface

     system-shutdown -h | -p | -r

system-shutdown writes its argument to the file DIRECTIVE in the envdir at the shutdown-directive subdirectory of the system runtime directory.
It continues to initiate the shutdown sequence by starting the service goetia-shutdown.

Options

-h: at the end of the shutdown sequence, halt the system.
-p: at the end of the shutdown sequence, poweroff the system.
-r: at the end of the shutdown sequence, reboot the system.

Exit codes

system-shutdown exits 100 if wrong options were used.
Since system-shutdown is an execline script, it exits with an approximation of employed program that failed.
system-shutdown mostly uses execline and s6 software, the exit behaviour of which can be looked up on their respective pages.
See also: execline exit code handling.

Notes

There is a reason this program exists as part of (multiple) goetia-init packages and not as part of goetia-base. It is that some supported init systems, like s6-linux-init (through goetia-s6-linux-init) provide their own shutdown procedure and interface.