What is a graceful shutdown and why is it needed?

Graceful shutdown is the proper termination of an application or server, during which it manages to complete current operations, release resources, and save its state.

Why it is needed:

• Prevents data loss or corruption of state.
• Allows active connections and requests to finish.
• Ensures proper release of memory and other resources.

For example, in a web application, upon receiving a shutdown signal, the server stops accepting new requests, waits for ongoing ones to complete, and only then closes.