<para>
To cancel a running query, send the <literal>SIGINT</literal> signal
- to the process running that command.
+ to the process running that command. To terminate a backend process
+ cleanly, send <literal>SIGTERM</literal> to that process. See
+ also <function>pg_cancel_backend</> and <function>pg_terminate_backend</>
+ in <xref linkend="functions-admin-signal"> for the SQL-callable equivalents
+ of these two actions.
</para>
<para>
- The <command>postgres</command> server uses <literal>SIGTERM</literal>
- to tell subordinate server processes to quit normally and
- <literal>SIGQUIT</literal> to terminate without the normal cleanup.
- These signals <emphasis>should not</emphasis> be used by users. It
+ The <command>postgres</command> server uses <literal>SIGQUIT</literal>
+ to tell subordinate server processes to terminate without normal
+ cleanup.
+ This signal <emphasis>should not</emphasis> be used by users. It
is also unwise to send <literal>SIGKILL</literal> to a server
process — the main <command>postgres</command> process will
interpret this as a crash and will force all the sibling processes