Temporarily disable user logins in Linux

As a Linux administrator it is sometimes necessary to stop users from login in to your box. This scenario is typically seen during system maintenance cycles, critical updates or scheduled/unscheduled software installs.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to simply create a nologin file in /etc/ .

To stop users from login in run the following command.

# touch /etc/nologin

To reverse the effect and allow users to log in run the following command.

# rm /etc/nologin

The above commands work fine on my CenOS5 and openSUSE 10.2 machines.

2 Responses to “Temporarily disable user logins in Linux”

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1. Aik says:

   January 22, 2008 at 8:20 am

   Bro i think is /etc/nologin.

   Reply
2. Danny says:

   January 22, 2008 at 9:37 am

   woops, good eye man.

   I wrote /etc/nologin but in the command /etc/login.

   Reply