Restart computers

To restart a computer now or at a specific time, use the shutdown -r or systemsetup command.

For more information, see their man pages.

Restart the local computer

Enter the following command in a Terminal window:
$ sudo shutdown -r now

Restart a remote computer immediately

Enter the following command in a Terminal window:
$ ssh -l admin computer shutdown -r now
Replace admin with the short name of a user account on the remote computer.
Replace computer with the IP address or host name of the remote computer.

Restart a remote computer at a specific time

Enter the following command in a Terminal window:
$ ssh -l admin computer shutdown -r hhmm
Replace admin with the short name of a user account on the remote computer.
Replace computer with the IP address or host name of the remote computer.
Replace hhmm with the hour and minute you want the remote computer to restart.

Restart automatically after power failure

You can also use the systemsetup command to set the computer to start up after a power failure or system freeze, by specifying a number of seconds.

Enter the following command in a Terminal window:
$ sudo systemsetup -setwaitforstartupafterpowerfailure seconds
Replace seconds with the number of seconds before the computer starts after a power failure. This value must be 0 (zero) or a multiple of 30.