We have a branch with linux as OS on Point of Sale terminals. And we do not know if the terminals reboot by themselves or someone reboots them manually.

Is there a way that linux terminal would know if it rebooted by itself 'cause there is way that it would know if it was rebooted manually (by terminal command 'reboot'). I just don't know where to look to.


Can someone help me please ?


Thank you !

You can look at the .bash_history file contained in the home directory of each user, the /var/log/messages file, and even the /var/log/secure file to start.

The messages file should be a good place to give you the info you are looking for.

I'd apply Occam's razor to the problem first. If you're talking about ONE branch that's having this issue, why don't you just pick up the phone, call them, and say "Hey, is someone there rebooting these things at night?". If not, you can dig through the logs to see what's up. If so...problem solved.

Since their Point of sale terminals, from a technical side, I'd check the syslogs, as kustom42 said. They're probably under tables, dusty, and may be overheating at certain times of day (for example). Such over-temp warnings would show up in the logs. As far as checking .bash_history, be sure to check it for ALL the users, root included.