As you mentioned in IRC, this is probably just documented behavior. From reboot(8):
When called with --force or when in runlevel 0 or 6, this tool invokes the reboot(2) system call itself (with REBOOTCOMMAND argument passed) and directly reboots the system. Otherwise this simply invokes the shutdown(8) tool with the appropriate arguments without passing REBOOTâ COMMAND argument. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1349566 Title: systemd-logind triggered poweroffs ignore upstart services To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1349566/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs