Is there a terminal command that will log you out of your current desktop session and take you back to the login screen?

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16 Answers

11.10 and above

gnome-session-quit

11.04 and previous versions

dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.Logout uint32:1

(via DoR, see his answer to "Reboot without sudoer privileges?" for more dbus goodness!)

or alternatively, you can use

gnome-session-save --force-logout

--force-logout in contrast to just --logout will not ask the user to deal with unsaved documents and so on.

is this the easiest way? no simple one line command like sudo logout?? I will never remember all that.

Yes, there is a command called logout, but it concerns the Terminal. gnome-session-save is the program that actually quits the gnome-session, which you can of course kill, but that wouldn't qualify as logging out. :-)

Notice as well that these commands don't require you to be root.

You can always add an alias to your system if you want to have a shorter command.

Open ~/.bash_aliases with a text editor, or create it if it isn't there, and add something like this to it:

alias logout-gnome="gnome-session-save --force-logout"

(.bashrc is a script that is run every time a new virtual terminal is started up, you should set up all your permanent aliases there, see also: How to create a permanent "alias"?)

6

I had installed mate desktop and none of the menus worked, even the f-keys didn't work. I managed to get xterm through browsing with file manager.

The only thing that worked was :

sudo pkill -u username

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11.10 and above

Here's my personal solution!

In the terminal, run:

gedit ~/.bash_aliases

And add:

alias log-out="gnome-session-quit"

to the file! Now you just have to run log-out!

Looks like gnome-session-save was renamed to gnome-session-quit for 11.10. Everything else in the main answer should still work with that single change.

For gnome sessions, gnome-session-quit works well. By default it asks for confirmation and then logs you out (i.e., the --logout argument is assumed unless overridden with --power-off explicitly). You can also tell the command to not prompt for confirmation on logout:

--no-prompt End the session without user interaction. This only works with --logout.

gnome-session-quit is still valid in 12.04.

Since the OP didn't specify the window/desktop manager, and the gnome-session-quit might not work with all possibilities, here's a generic X-windows way to return to the login screen or chooser which I've used several times over the last several releases:

From a terminal (invoked with, variously, 'Alt-F2 + xterm, or Ctrl-T, or Crt-Alt-F1, or by right-clicking on the desktop in Nautilus and using the "open in terminal" shortcut, etc.) type

sudo pkill X

This is generally overkill for most situations. I tend to use it when I've got a hung process or when I've got to log out quickly. When I've done this, Ubuntu has politely returned me to the login screen by re-spawning X-windows.

I've not yet used the power-off feature of the gnome-session-quit, as I typically use shutdown -P now for that purpose.

On Xubuntu (or whenever using an Xfce session), you can logout via the terminal by using

xfce4-session-logout --logout

You must specify --logout or the logout confirmation screen will be displayed. This will work whether you have specified 'Xubuntu session' or 'Xfce session' when you logged in with Lightdm, as the session is still managed by the Xfce session manager.

In addition, another option will log you out as well:

xfce4-session-logout --fast 

If this command is issued the session is not saved, so it is normally best to use xfce4-session-logout --logout.

The ability to logout using the terminal will be very useful to you, as will the other options such as suspend that are available with xfce4-session-logout.

For more information, see man xfce4-session-logout or the Ubuntu manpages online.

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You can use below command:

sudo service lightdm restart

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For Ubuntu Mate use mate-session-save --force-logout. It is like gnome-session-quit.

lubuntu 12.10 LXDE running on a Samsung netbook (CPU: 1.66 GHZ Intel Atom; RAM: 2GB)

The below two commands logged me out immediately:

sudo pkill -u username
sudo service lightdm restart

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In case you don't want to kill your session, you can go back to the login screen using:

dm-tool switch-to-greeter

If you select your user and enter your password, the session will be resumed, so it's not a full logout.

I tried gnome-session-quit --force and it works!

Note: I use ubuntu 15.04

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Define a function by adding the following line to your .bashrc, then invoke by typing logoff at the shell prompt.

 logoff() { gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt ; } # Log Out

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And in kubuntu 12.04+ it is:

qdbus org.kde.ksmserver /KSMServer org.kde.KSMServerInterface.logout 0 0 0

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There is a way which will work whether you are running X or you are in a TTY. There you go:

• If you use lightdm

  sudo service lightdm restart

• if you use gdm or in Ubuntu GNOME

  sudo service gdm restart

• If you use kdm or in Kubuntu

  sudo service kdm restart

The downside of this command is that it will ask for your password.

I found this accidentally.

luvpreet@DHARI-Inspiron-3542:~/go/bin$ who -uH
NAME LINE TIME IDLE PID COMMENT
luvpreet tty7 2017-12-27 17:33 old 27458 (:0)

Here you get the process id of your current session.

So, easy. Kill it

luvpreet@DHARI-Inspiron-3542:~$ kill 27458

There you go.

2019 update

Other answers didn't work for me. On Ubuntu 18 (LTS) it's easy to type:

exit

It will return you to the login screen.

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