9.12. Signaling that a reboot is required

Programs can signal that a reboot is required by touching /run/reboot-required. It is conventional to add the name of the package(s) requiring the reboot to /run/reboot-required.pkgs. Programs should not add a package name to /run/reboot-required.pkgs if it is already present there.

The /run/reboot-required mechanism is used when a reboot is needed to fully apply the changes introduced by package installation or upgrade. Typically it is the postinst maintainer script that touches /run/reboot-required, at the end of a successful configuration of the package.

There are no guarantees provided by the /run/reboot-required convention as to when or whether the requested reboot will occur.