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] {-s seconds|-t time_t}
DESCRIPTION
This program is used to enter a system sleep state and to automatically
wake from it at a specified time.
This uses cross-platform Linux interfaces to enter a system sleep
state, and leave it no later than a specified 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.
Note that alarm functionality depends on hardware; not every RTC is
able to setup an alarm up to 24 hours in the future.
The suspend setup may be interrupted by active hardware; for example
wireless USB input devices that continue to send events for some frac-
tion of a second after the return key is pressed. rtcwake tries to
avoid this problem and it waits to terminal to settle down before en-
tering a system sleep.
OPTIONS
-A, --adjfile file
Specify an alternative path to the adjust file.
-a, --auto
Read the clock mode (whether the hardware clock is set to UTC or
local time) from the adjtime file, where hwclock(8) stores that
information. This is the default.
--date timestamp
Set the wakeup time to the value of the timestamp. Format of
the timestamp can be any of the following:
YYYYMMDDhhmmss
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm (seconds will be set to 00)
YYYY-MM-DD (time will be set to 00:00:00)
hh:mm:ss (date will be set to today)
hh:mm (date will be set to today, seconds to 00)
tomorrow (time is set to 00:00:00)
+5min
-d, --device device
Use the specified 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.
-l, --local
Assume that the hardware clock is set to local time, regardless
of the contents of the adjtime file.
--list-modes
List available --mode option arguments.
-m, --mode mode
Go into the given standby state. Valid values for mode are:
standby
ACPI state S1. This state offers minimal, though real,
power savings, while providing a very low-latency transi-
tion back to a working system. This is the default mode.
freeze The processes are frozen, all the devices are suspended
and all the processors idled. This state is a general
state that does not need any platform-specific support,
but it saves less power than Suspend-to-RAM, because the
system is still in a running state. (Available since
Linux 3.9.)
mem ACPI state S3 (Suspend-to-RAM). This state offers sig-
nificant power savings as everything in the system is put
into a low-power state, except for memory, which is
placed in self-refresh mode to retain its contents.
disk ACPI state S4 (Suspend-to-disk). This state offers the
greatest power savings, and can be used even in the ab-
sence of low-level platform support for power management.
This state operates similarly to Suspend-to-RAM, but in-
cludes 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
it usually works.
no Don't suspend, only set the RTC wakeup time.
on Don't suspend, but read the RTC device until an alarm
time appears. This mode is useful for debugging.
disable
Disable a previously set alarm.
show Print alarm information in format: "alarm: off|on
<time>". The time is in ctime() output format, e.g.,
"alarm: on Tue Nov 16 04:48:45 2010".
-n, --dry-run
This option does everything apart from actually setting up the
alarm, suspending the system, or waiting for the alarm.
-s, --seconds seconds
Set the wakeup time to seconds in the future from now.
-t, --time time_t
Set 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.
-u, --utc
Assume that the hardware clock is set to UTC (Universal Time Co-
ordinated), regardless of the contents of the adjtime file.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
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.
FILES
/etc/adjtime
HISTORY
The program was posted several times on LKML and other lists before ap-
pearing in kernel commit message for Linux 2.6 in the GIT commit
87ac84f42a7a580d0dd72ae31d6a5eb4bfe04c6d.
AUTHORS
The program was written by David Brownell <dbrownell@users.source-
forge.net> and improved by Bernhard Walle <bwalle@suse.de>.
COPYRIGHT
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/li-
censes/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
law.
SEE ALSO
hwclock(8), date(1)
AVAILABILITY
The rtcwake command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from the Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils
/util-linux/>.
util-linux June 2015 RTCWAKE(8)