Stopping the server safely and quickly
There are several modes you can use to stop the server, depending on the level of urgency. We'll compare the effects in each mode.
How to do it…
There are two variants: with and without systemd
. This is similar to the previous recipe, Starting the database server manually, which we'll refer to for further information. For example, what is the exact name of the systemd
 service unit for a given database server on a given GNU/Linux distribution?
When using systemd
, you can stop PostgreSQL using fast mode by issuing the following after replacing SERVICEUNIT
 with the appropriate systemd
 service unit name:
sudo systemctl stop SERVICEUNIT
If systemd
 is not available and you are using Debian or Ubuntu, the command is as follows, which applies to the default version 14 instance:
pg_ctlcluster 14 main stop -m fast
Fast mode is the default since...