Linux: Put Machine to Sleep by Command Line

Xah Lee, 2012-10-13

You can use these commands:

• pm-suspend (aka sleep. Fast wake.)
• pm-hibernate (save most power. Slow wake.)
• pm-suspend-hybrid (a combination of sleep and hibernate.)
• pm-is-supported (test which is supported)
• pm-powersave

man pm-suspend to see its doc.

Here's the difference between {suspend, hibernate, suspend-hybrid}:

• suspend ⇒ Suspend is a state where most devices are shutdown, except for RAM. This state still draws power.
• hibernate ⇒ During hibernate the state of the system is saved to disk, the system is fully powered off.
• suspend-hybrid ⇒ Hybrid-suspend is the process where first the state of the system is saved to disk — just like with hibernate — but instead of poweroff, the system goes in suspend state, which means it can wakeup quicker than for normal hibernation. The advantage over suspend is that you can resume even if you run out of power.