Wrong comment in /etc/default/halt: Default behavior of "halt" changed to halt only instead of powering off

[CharlesA]

Hi,

I just installed 12.04 and running "sudo halt" only halts the system instead of powering it off.

This worked fine on 10.04 - running "halt" by itself powered off the machine and it looks like it is still configured to poweroff the box in /etc/default/halt in Precise but that doesn't happen.

Is this the intended behavior? If so, is it documented somewhere?

I saw a comment here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/880240/comments/4

That said that halt no longer powers off the system, but I have been unable to find any documention explaining the change.

Thanks,
Charles

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: upstart 1.5-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: rr26xx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 30 07:48:35 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120424.1)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: upstart
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This appears to have been an intentional behavior change (bug 532366). However, if nothing else, the comment in /etc/default/halt should be updated:

  # Default behaviour of shutdown -h / halt. Set to "halt" or "poweroff".
  HALT=poweroff

Added a sysvinit task for initscripts, which owns /etc/default/halt.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Yes, this is a deliberate change in the behavior of upstart; the previous behavior was in fact buggy and only worked for most users because they assumed poweroff was the desired behavior of the 'halt' command. The correct way to poweroff is with 'poweroff' or 'halt -p'.

[Rarylson Freitas (rarylson)]

I think the current behavior is correctly, but the comment in "/etc/default/halt" sould be updated.

Currently, this file is only used by /sbin/shutdown (or by the /etc/init.d/halt, that can be called by the /sbin/shutdown depending of the situation).

Updating the comment may avoid user misunderstands.

In Trusty, this file is packaged in the "initscripts" package: http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/amd64/initscripts/filelist

The default file should be:

  # Default behaviour of shutdown -h. Set to "halt" or "poweroff".
  HALT=poweroff

I'm attaching a patch to the current "initscripts" package.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "bug_halt_outdated_docs.patch" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/991997