How can you log out via the terminal?

Question

Is there a terminal command that will log you out of your current desktop session and take you back to the login screen?

score 234 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

234

11.10 and above

gnome-session-quit

11.04 and previous versions

dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.Logout uint32:1

(via alt text DoR, see his answer to "Reboot without sudoer privileges?" for more dbus goodness!)

or alternatively, you can use

gnome-session-save --force-logout

--force-logout in contrast to just --logout will not ask the user to deal with unsaved documents and so on.

is this the easiest way? no simple one line command like sudo logout?? I will never remember all that.

Yes, there is a command called logout, but it concerns the Terminal. gnome-session-save is the program that actually quits the gnome-session, which you can of course kill, but that wouldn't qualify as logging out. :-)

Notice as well that these commands don't require you to be root.

You can always add an alias to your system if you want to have a shorter command.

Open ~/.bash_aliases with a text editor, or create it if it isn't there, and add something like this to it:

alias logout-gnome="gnome-session-save --force-logout"

(.bashrc is a script that is run every time a new virtual terminal is started up, you should set up all your permanent aliases there, see also: How to create a permanent "alias"?)

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

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answered Dec 02 '10 at 01:48

Stefano Palazzo

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Well, there's always Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (if you enable it), but again that's killing the session rather than logging out from it. – koanhead Dec 02 '10 at 03:04
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You might want to add DISPLAY=:0.0 or similar when trying to log out of a session from ssh or another terminal. – patrikf Mar 11 '13 at 16:31
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It seems to me that "--force-logout" doesn't quite work, as it gives this error: WARNING **: Unable to start: Unknown option --force-logout. After digging around with `man gnome-session-quit`, I found that "--force" and "--logout" are actually meant to be different arguments. Therefore, "--force --logout" (two minus sings before "force" and "logout", with a space between) would be better as you won't have errors. At least, that's the case with Ubuntu 13.04 and Linux Mint 15. IDK about other/older versions of either distro. – TSJNachos117 Jun 13 '13 at 03:19
aaronfranke@aaron-xub16desk$ dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.Logout uint32:1 Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files – Aaron Franke Apr 18 '17 at 21:42
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To state the (non-)obvious: for Ubuntu MATE-users, that's `mate-session-save --force-logout` – Frank N Mar 23 '18 at 12:33
Thanks. `gnome-session-quit` works fine in Ubuntu 18. – Gabriel Staples Mar 03 '19 at 17:44

score 112 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 23 '12 at 17:17

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I had installed mate desktop and none of the menus worked, even the f-keys didn't work. I managed to get xterm through browsing with file manager.

The only thing that worked was :

sudo pkill -u username

edited Nov 23 '12 at 17:17

Jorge Castro

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answered May 05 '12 at 22:27

Dan

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I also did an alias out of it for me `alias ulogout="sudo pkill -KILL -u $1"`. Might come in handy for someone. Usage: `ulogout user_name` – Eugene Jan 17 '13 at 09:49
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@Eugene How about `alias logout="sudo pkill -u ${USER}"`? – Georgi-it Jan 04 '16 at 09:18
This is a great solution for VM's like in Virtualbox. – Phil Lawlor Aug 23 '17 at 13:34
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Is there a reason you need the `sudo`? Also, I think this is different than logging out, since it will kill *all* of your processes (for instance, if you have another remote session, it will also be killed). I'm also not sure that it will necessarily kill all of your processes (I can imagine it might kill itself first?) Do you know if that is possible? – capybaralet Oct 20 '17 at 18:38
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For mate, use `mate-session-save --force-logout`. See [this answer](https://askubuntu.com/a/641521/419514). – Jérôme Oct 05 '18 at 07:50
Great tip! This is the only method that works if Unity didn't startup properly. And as mentioned, you don't need the sudo part. – Björn Lindqvist Jun 03 '19 at 13:18
I was running another ubuntu 22 LTS in virtual box & one ISO download via torrent in brave browser, And system froze, couldn't logout to shutdown via UI options, the 'genome-session-quit' also didn't help, But your suggestion helped, Thanks a lot :) – Aravinth Jun 29 '23 at 06:37

score 33 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

33

11.10 and above

Here's my personal solution!

In the terminal, run:

gedit ~/.bash_aliases

And add:

alias log-out="gnome-session-quit"

to the file! Now you just have to run log-out!

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

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answered Mar 02 '12 at 23:46

Nick

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score 14 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 23 '11 at 03:23

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Looks like gnome-session-save was renamed to gnome-session-quit for 11.10. Everything else in the main answer should still work with that single change.

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2011-February/msg00147.html

edited Dec 23 '11 at 03:23

Jorge Castro

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answered Dec 22 '11 at 17:30

Mark Ferree

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score 13 · Answer 5 · answered May 06 '12 at 00:25

For gnome sessions, gnome-session-quit works well. By default it asks for confirmation and then logs you out (i.e., the --logout argument is assumed unless overridden with --power-off explicitly). You can also tell the command to not prompt for confirmation on logout:

--no-prompt
      End the session without user interaction. This only works with --logout.

gnome-session-quit is still valid in 12.04.

Since the OP didn't specify the window/desktop manager, and the gnome-session-quit might not work with all possibilities, here's a generic X-windows way to return to the login screen or chooser which I've used several times over the last several releases:

From a terminal (invoked with, variously, 'Alt-F2 + xterm, or Ctrl-T, or Crt-Alt-F1, or by right-clicking on the desktop in Nautilus and using the "open in terminal" shortcut, etc.) type

sudo pkill X

This is generally overkill for most situations. I tend to use it when I've got a hung process or when I've got to log out quickly. When I've done this, Ubuntu has politely returned me to the login screen by re-spawning X-windows.

I've not yet used the power-off feature of the gnome-session-quit, as I typically use shutdown -P now for that purpose.

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 28 '13 at 18:46

On Xubuntu (or whenever using an Xfce session), you can logout via the terminal by using

xfce4-session-logout --logout

You must specify --logout or the logout confirmation screen will be displayed. This will work whether you have specified 'Xubuntu session' or 'Xfce session' when you logged in with Lightdm, as the session is still managed by the Xfce session manager.

In addition, another option will log you out as well:

xfce4-session-logout --fast

If this command is issued the session is not saved, so it is normally best to use xfce4-session-logout --logout.

The ability to logout using the terminal will be very useful to you, as will the other options such as suspend that are available with xfce4-session-logout.

For more information, see man xfce4-session-logout or the Ubuntu manpages online.

Confirmed, this also holds true for any Ubuntu Studio flavors. — somethis, Sep 26 '16 at 09:26

Osama El-gedawy · Answer 7 · 2013-06-01T15:06:57.703

9

You can use below command:

sudo service lightdm restart

edited Jun 01 '13 at 15:06

answered Apr 07 '13 at 23:13

Osama El-gedawy

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That hard kills all running X sessions, for all users. – sehe Apr 25 '16 at 20:30
in `~/.bash_aliases` write `alias logmeout="service lightdm restart"` – noobninja Nov 15 '16 at 13:13

score 8 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 26 '15 at 21:21

8

For Ubuntu Mate use mate-session-save --force-logout. It is like gnome-session-quit.

edited Oct 26 '15 at 21:21

heemayl

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answered Jun 27 '15 at 06:16

Old Badman Grey

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score 5 · Answer 9 · edited May 06 '13 at 11:20

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lubuntu 12.10 LXDE running on a Samsung netbook (CPU: 1.66 GHZ Intel Atom; RAM: 2GB)

The below two commands logged me out immediately:

sudo pkill -u username
sudo service lightdm restart

edited May 06 '13 at 11:20

Eric Carvalho

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answered May 06 '13 at 10:59

afc888ny

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score 5 · Answer 10 · edited Oct 13 '15 at 20:18

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I tried gnome-session-quit --force and it works!

Note: I use ubuntu 15.04

edited Oct 13 '15 at 20:18

guntbert

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answered Oct 13 '15 at 19:44

Vazha Gelashvili

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This is the best answer – Mark Jeronimus Dec 06 '19 at 19:59
This one works in every case. – Shakti Phartiyal Sep 22 '22 at 10:30

score 5 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 18 '17 at 20:58

5

In case you don't want to kill your session, you can go back to the login screen using:

dm-tool switch-to-greeter

If you select your user and enter your password, the session will be resumed, so it's not a full logout.

answered Feb 18 '17 at 20:58

Zanna

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vanvliet.eric · Answer 12 · 2014-03-28T14:11:03.043

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Define a function by adding the following line to your .bashrc, then invoke by typing logoff at the shell prompt.

  logoff() { gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt ; } # Log Out

edited Mar 28 '14 at 14:11

answered Mar 18 '14 at 19:03

vanvliet.eric

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 13 '12 at 10:10

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And in kubuntu 12.04+ it is:

qdbus org.kde.ksmserver /KSMServer org.kde.KSMServerInterface.logout 0 0 0

answered Dec 13 '12 at 10:10

Adobe

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score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Jun 18 '16 at 09:13

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There is a way which will work whether you are running X or you are in a TTY. There you go:

If you use lightdm
```
sudo service lightdm restart
```
if you use gdm or in Ubuntu GNOME
```
sudo service gdm restart
```
If you use kdm or in Kubuntu
```
sudo service kdm restart
```

The downside of this command is that it will ask for your password.

edited Jun 18 '16 at 09:13

muru

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answered Jun 18 '16 at 08:00

user258456

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score -1 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 27 '17 at 12:30

I found this accidentally.

luvpreet@DHARI-Inspiron-3542:~/go/bin$ who -uH
NAME     LINE         TIME             IDLE          PID COMMENT
luvpreet tty7         2017-12-27 17:33  old        27458 (:0)

Here you get the process id of your current session.

So, easy. Kill it

luvpreet@DHARI-Inspiron-3542:~$ kill 27458

There you go.

How can you log out via the terminal?

15 Answers15

11.10 and above

11.04 and previous versions

11.10 and above

Linked

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