How to restart GNOME Shell from command line?

I would like to implement a keyboard shortcut to restart gnome-shell whenever this one crashes (some bugs aren't currently fixed just yet). For this I would need a command line to restart the shell.

The Alt+F2 and restart command won't work when the shell is crashed because the prompt is implemented in the shell.

Hence, how to restart the gnome-shell from command line?

Solution 1:

GNOME Shell 3.30.1 on Ubuntu 18.10

The command to replace gnome-shell would be sending a SIGQUIT signal to it with:

killall -3 gnome-shell

or:

killall -SIGQUIT gnome-shell

As of GNOME Shell 3.30.1 on Ubuntu 18.10, the solution below no longer works, and will kick the user to the login screen, losing all of their work.

Before GNOME Shell 3.30.1

The command to replace gnome-shell would be:

gnome-shell --replace &

The ampersand is added to return the shell prompt after running the command; pressing Ctrl+C or closing the terminal instead would make the desktop unusable, and require a full restart.

From the manual page of gnome-shell:

-r, --replace
       Replace the running window manager

Unsure which version you are using?

The command to check your GNOME Shell version is:

gnome-shell --version

Solution 2:

The easiest way is to Alt+F2 and type r then ↵.

Solution 3:

Since GNOME Shell 3.30.1: You can also do a killall -3 gnome-shell.