What is the graceful way to stop (kill) postmaster?

Hi,

What is the graceful way to stop(kill) postmaster?   I didn't use pg_ctl to start so I won't use pg_ctl stop the
postmaster. I used '/usr/bin/postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/data -i&'.   I was told not to use 'kill -9'.   

Mary


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Mary Y Wang