shutdown.exe /A

You didn't tell us what O/S you're using so I have assumed it's Windows. The shutdown exe is in the NTReskit so I assume it's available in the other Reskits, too...

I also assume that you can do it using the Win32 API but I don't know how off-hand.

   Win32::AbortSystemShutdown(MACHINE)
       [EXT] Aborts a system shutdown (started by the
       InitiateSystemShutdown function) on the specified MACHINE.
[download]

THANKS,...both worked...and it was very easy.

I need to retain my confidence with my PERL skills....LOL

Blackadder

Very Sorry, the desk Top OS is Windows XP

Cheers

If you "use Win32" then you can call Win32::AbortSystemShutdown(). You can also "use Win32API::Registry qw( AbortSystemShutdown )" which has the advantage of exporting the function so you don't have to type "Win32::" each time and actually including documentation for the call.

Update: "perldoc Win32" finds the documentation (in perl/lib/pod/win32.pod) but I didn't find it in Win32.pm.

I might be missing the point here, but I don't think that's a question I can answer without knowing what OS you are using. Would you care to tell us?

I imagine it is unlikely that this is possible in Unix/Linux. There might be a slim chance you could do it in Windows NT/2K/XP.

But any solution is not going to be Perl related, so you might be better off going to a web site related to your particular OS.

Not that it's germaine to the original questioner or has anything to do with Perl, but if you use shutdown with a delay you can kill the shutdown process before the countdown is finished and the box shouldn't reboot.