RTCWAKE(8) System Administration RTCWAKE(8)
NAME
rtcwake - enter a system sleep state until specified wakeup time
SYNOPSIS
rtcwake [options] [-d device] [-m standby_mode] {-t time_t|-s seconds}
DESCRIPTION
This program is used to enter a system sleep state until specified wakeup time.
This uses cross-platform Linux interfaces to enter a system sleep state, and leave it no later than a speci‐
fied time. It uses any RTC framework driver that supports standard driver model wakeup flags.
This is normally used like the old apmsleep utility, to wake from a suspend state like ACPI S1 (standby) or S3
(suspend-to-RAM). Most platforms can implement those without analogues of BIOS, APM, or ACPI.
On some systems, this can also be used like nvram-wakeup, waking from states like ACPI S4 (suspend to disk).
Not all systems have persistent media that are appropriate for such suspend modes.
Options
-v | --verbose
Be verbose.
-h | --help
Display a short help message that shows how to use the program.
-V | --version
Displays version information and exists.
-n | --dry-run
This option does everything but actually setup alarm, suspend system or wait for the alarm.
-A | --adjfile file
Specifies an alternative path to the adjust file.
-a | --auto
Reads the clock mode (whether the hardware clock is set to UTC or local time) from /etc/adjtime. That's
the location where the hwclock(8) stores that information. This is the default.
-l | --local
Assumes that the hardware clock is set to local time, regardless of the contents of /etc/adjtime.
-u | --utc
Assumes that the hardware clock is set to UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), regardless of the contents
of /etc/adjtime.
-d device | --device device
Uses device instead of rtc0 as realtime clock. This option is only relevant if your system has more
than one RTC. You may specify rtc1, rtc2, ... here.
-s seconds | --seconds seconds
Sets the wakeup time to seconds in future from now.
-t time_t | --time time_t
Sets the wakeup time to the absolute time time_t. time_t is the time in seconds since 1970-01-01, 00:00
UTC. Use the date(1) tool to convert between human-readable time and time_t.
is a general state that does not need any platform specific support, but it saves less power
than susepnd to RAM, because the system is still in a running state. (since Linux 3.9)
disk ACPI state S4 (Suspend-to-disk). This state offers the greatest power savings, and can be used
even in the absence of low-level platform support for power management. This state operates sim‐
ilarly to Suspend-to-RAM, but includes a final step of writing memory contents to disk.
off ACPI state S5 (Poweroff). This is done by calling '/sbin/shutdown'. Not officially supported by
ACPI, but usually working.
no Don't suspend. The rtcwake command sets RTC wakeup time only.
on Don't suspend, but read RTC device until alarm time appears. This mode is useful for debugging.
disable
Disable previously set alarm.
show Print alarm information in format: "alarm: off|on <time>". The time is in ctime() output for‐
mat, e.g. "alarm: on Tue Nov 16 04:48:45 2010".
NOTES
Some PC systems can't currently exit sleep states such as mem using only the kernel code accessed by this
driver. They need help from userspace code to make the framebuffer work again.
HISTORY
The program was posted several times on LKML and other lists before appearing in kernel commit message for
Linux 2.6 in the GIT commit 87ac84f42a7a580d0dd72ae31d6a5eb4bfe04c6d.
AVAILABILITY
The rtcwake command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.ker‐
nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
AUTHOR
The program was written by David Brownell <[email protected]> and improved by Bernhard Walle
<[email protected]>.
COPYRIGHT
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
hwclock(8), date(1)
util-linux July 2007 RTCWAKE(8)
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