Send the shutdown command via the power button

Published by TheJoe on 22 June 202322 June 2023

Estimated reading time: < 1 minute

Caution

This article was published more than a year ago, there may have been developments.
Please take this into account.

Today we see how to shut down a computer with Debian physically without launching the “poweroff” command line or GUI interaction. Enabling this function can be useful if we are operating on a headless server (a home server for example) to which no peripherals are connected. Without having to connect via SSH or open the server management interface, just press the power button to send the shutdown command.

The configuration file for these behaviors is /etc/systemd/logind.conf. It is a system file and must be edited with root privileges. Inside we find this content:

#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
#  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
#  Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
#  any later version.
#
# Entries in this file show the compile time defaults. Local configuration
# should be created by either modifying this file, or by creating "drop-ins" in
# the logind.conf.d/ subdirectory. The latter is generally recommended.
# Defaults can be restored by simply deleting this file and all drop-ins.
#
# Use 'systemd-analyze cat-config systemd/logind.conf' to display the full config.
#
# See logind.conf(5) for details.

[Login]
#NAutoVTs=6
#ReserveVT=6
#KillUserProcesses=no
#KillOnlyUsers=
#KillExcludeUsers=root
#InhibitDelayMaxSec=5
#UserStopDelaySec=10
HandlePowerKey=poweroff
#HandlePowerKeyLongPress=ignore
#HandleRebootKey=reboot
#HandleRebootKeyLongPress=poweroff
#HandleSuspendKey=suspend
#HandleSuspendKeyLongPress=hibernate
#HandleHibernateKey=hibernate
#HandleHibernateKeyLongPress=ignore
#HandleLidSwitch=suspend
#HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=suspend
#HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore
#PowerKeyIgnoreInhibited=no
#SuspendKeyIgnoreInhibited=no
#HibernateKeyIgnoreInhibited=no
#LidSwitchIgnoreInhibited=yes
#RebootKeyIgnoreInhibited=no
#HoldoffTimeoutSec=30s
#IdleAction=ignore
#IdleActionSec=30min
#RuntimeDirectorySize=10%
#RuntimeDirectoryInodesMax=
#RemoveIPC=yes
#InhibitorsMax=8192
#SessionsMax=8192
#StopIdleSessionSec=infinity

I uncommented the line HandlePowerKey=poweroff enabling the function we are looking for. Once the file is saved it will not be necessary to restart any services. We can try it directly by pressing the power button.