# How to programmatically log out lots of users
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [1월 7, 2016, 9:16오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611 "2016-01-07T21:16:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@eriko](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eriko)
#### Post date: [1월 7, 2016, 9:16오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/1 "2016-01-07T21:16:47Z")
So I need to end a bunch of people login sessions at once on a quarterly basis. I notice that admin/users.rb log\_out uses `MessageBus.publish "/logout", @user.id, user_ids: [@user.id]`. Can I use that inside a plugin to mass logout users? I have ‘log out strict’ set so it should hit all the sessions.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [1월 9, 2016, 2:55오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/10 "2016-01-09T02:55:32Z")
Sorry if I’m missing the obvious, but wouldn’t putting the forum into “read only mode” be effectively the same as logging everyone off?
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [1월 9, 2016, 1:48오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/11 "2016-01-09T13:48:12Z")
Nope. Read only mode will prevent login (for anon) and posting (for logged in users) but once disabled it will not force users to log back in.
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### Author:  [@fefrei](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fefrei)
#### Post date: [2월 3, 2016, 3:32오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/15 "2016-02-03T15:32:47Z")
As an alternative, here is a bit of JavaScript for node.js that iterates over a list of user ids and logs them out using the API:
```plaintext
var logoutUsers = function (ids, domain, apiKey, delay) {
var nextIndex = 0;
var errors = 0;
var callNextUrl = function () {
if (nextIndex < ids.length) {
var id = ids[nextIndex];
nextIndex++;
console.log("logging out " + id);
var req = https.request({
hostname: domain,
port: 443,
path: '/admin/users/' + id + '/log_out?api_key=' + apiKey + '&api_username=system',
method: 'POST'
}, function (res) {
console.log("response: " + res.statusCode);
res.resume();
setTimeout(callNextUrl, delay);
}).on('error', function (e) {
console.log("Got error: " + e.message);
errors++;
});
req.end();
} else {
console.log("Done!");
console.log("Errors: " + errors);
}
};
callNextUrl();
};
```
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [12월 17, 2018, 3:56오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/18 "2018-12-17T03:56:08Z")
Current best practice is:
```plaintext
./launcher enter app
rails c
UserAuthToken.delete_all
```
Also … for extra safety you could also delete all user api keys used for the app with
```plaintext
UserApiKey.delete_all
```
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [1월 16, 2019, 3:56오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-programmatically-log-out-lots-of-users/37611/19 "2019-01-16T03:56:54Z")
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