Is there a log that records shutdowns in Linux?

Question

I was wondering if there is a log file in Linux which records every time the computer is shut down?

The reason I am asking is I am doing some tests involving how long my laptop battery lasts under certain conditions. My laptop is configured to automatically shut down when there is about 10 minutes of battery power left, so if there is a log file somewhere that records when the computer is shut down, this will make my testing much easier.

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04. Thanks!

Answer 1

The /var/log/messages file really should have someting relating to shutdowns in it, for instance mine (CentOS 5) has lines like this:

Jul 18 23:00:13 nero shutdown[2649]: shutting down for system halt
...
Jul 18 23:00:27 nero kernel: Kernel logging (proc) stopped.
Jul 18 23:00:27 nero kernel: Kernel log daemon terminating.

Check your /etc/syslog.conf or /etc/rsyslog.conf or equivalent to make sure logs are going there. You'll probably need root privileges to read the log files.

Also, while it's not shutdowns per se, the "last" command should report reboots.

Is there really nothing at all in the logs around the time you last shut down?

For your testing, bear in mind that your computer only knows it has 10 minutes left because of the information the battery is reporting, which may or may not be accurate. Rather than waiting for shutdowns you could look at the ACPI information directly. On my laptop it's here:

/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/

Under there, the "state" and "info" files look interesting. You could watch the remaining capacity in the state file while you're running your laptop under various conditions to see how quickly it drops.

Answer 2

The /var/log/messages file should contain this information

Answer 3

if you want to keep track of how long your computer has been up in the past you can use something like uptimed.

it comes with a program called uprecords that show you how long your computer has been on.

Answer 4

if no log is present, you may try to add some 'date >>mylog' to shutdown script(in some dists, it is called rc.shutdown)

or,there is also a way without previlage needed. run:

while [ 1 ];do sleep 5;date>mylog;sync;done

and tail mylog on next session.

Answer 5

How about command last -x shutdown?