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I would like to check if my computer with Ubuntu 14.04 was actively shutdown, or whether it crashed. I come into the office in the morning and my computer is off while it should have been on. This has happened a number of consecutive days, and I can check the computer goes off around the same time each night. So I want to know if my computer crashed or whether somebody shut it off. Is there a way to get this information from the logs?

Niels Janssen
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  • Check `/var/log/syslog`, `last -x` – heemayl Oct 21 '15 at 07:55
  • Here are a few post: [How do I check if last shutdown was clean?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/103015/how-do-i-check-if-last-shutdown-was-clean) [Where is the shutdown log?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/58625/where-is-the-shutdown-log) – Remus Rigo Oct 21 '15 at 08:00
  • Thanks. I got what I needed from the logs and `last -x ` command. It seems my computer is crashing at night. – Niels Janssen Oct 21 '15 at 08:40

2 Answers2

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Find in /var/log a dmesg issue, command last to see the exact reboot time. You will see a line starting with reboot (or may be shutdown) for all reboot/crash. cat /var/log/messages from a terminal and check for messages at the time stamp of reboot or just before it. dmesg can give the last boot time messages.

Jack Fosters
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Issue the command

grep rsyslogd /var/log/syslog

or for less noise

grep -E 'rsyslogd.*(exit|start)'

If you see matched pairs of (blah blah)exit(blah blah) followed by (blah blah)start lines the system shutdown (at least somewhat) cleanly. If you have two (blah blah)start lines in a row the system did not shutdown cleanly.

SensorSmith
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