node-reboot

Immediately reboot or halt Linux/macOS from Node.js or Bun.

This package calls the operating system reboot APIs directly. It does not call systemd, shell out, or fork /sbin/shutdown.

Runtimes supported

• Node.js v24+.
• Bun 1.3+.
• Linux and macOS.

Older Node.js versions may work as well.

Why?

node-reboot is intended for watchdog-style applications that need to force an immediate machine restart when graceful shutdown is not an option anymore.

For example, this package was built for a cluster of Linux servers that boot read-only and run memory-intensive workloads. When a bad runtime condition is detected, the watchdog needs to reboot the server immediately instead of asking around nicely.

Install

npm install reboot

or:

bun add reboot

Usage

The module exports two methods, reboot and halt. Both accept a single boolean argument, which skips sync() of filesystems if true.

Sync filesystems, then reboot

import { reboot } from 'reboot';

reboot();

Reboot immediately without syncing filesystems

import { reboot, rebootImmediately } from 'reboot';

reboot(true); // Hasta la vista baby

The function should not return. If it does return, the process probably does not have permission to reboot the system.

Halt

The package also exports halt/power off helper. It will try to power off the computer on Linux or nobody knows what happens on macOS.

import { halt, haltImmediately } from 'reboot';

// sync() then halt:
halt();

// or halt immediately:
halt(true);

Permissions

On Linux, a non-root Node.js or Bun process needs the CAP_SYS_BOOT capability to reboot the system:

sudo setcap CAP_SYS_BOOT=+ep "$(which node)" # or bun

See man capabilities for details.