December 9, 2005 NOLOGIN 5

### NAME

nologin - file disallowing and containing reason for disallowing logins

### DESCRIPTION

The file ```/etc/nologin`, if it exists, causes the login procedure, used by programs such as login(1), to terminate. The program may display the contents of ```/etc/nologin` to the user before exiting.

This file is a simple mechanism to temporarily prevent incoming logins. As such, the file ```/etc/nologin` is created by shutdown(8) five minutes before system shutdown, or immediately if shutdown is in less than five minutes. The file ```/etc/nologin` is removed just before shutdown(8) exits.

To disable logins on a per-account basis, see nologin(8).

The file ```/etc/nologin` has no affect on the login procedure for the root user.

### FILES

```/etc/nologin`
  The nologin file resides in ```/etc`.

### EXAMPLES

`

    NO LOGINS: System going down at 18:22

`

### SEE ALSO

login(1), ftpd(8), nologin(8), rshd(8), shutdown(8), sshd(8)