watchdog

system health checker and software/hardware watchdog handler

The watchdog program writes to /dev/watchdog every ten seconds. If the device is opened but not written to within a minute, the machine will reboot. This feature is available when the kernel is built with "software watchdog" support (standard in Debian kernels) or if the machine is equipped with a hardware watchdog (in which case this package can also be used to "pet" it, resetting its timer). The kernel software watchdog's ability to reboot will depend on the state of the machine and interrupts. The watchdog tool itself runs several health checks and acts appropriately if the system is not in good shape.