I am starting to convert all of our systems to using upstart to manage our various application processes. One thing that I am constantly missing is the ability to send a different signal to the process on stop or restart events.
For instance, we run our web processes with Unicorn. Unicorn has a great signal handling API. When I want to gracefully reload the process I send the master pid a USR2 signal. To shut them down gracefully I send a QUIT command. TERM (upstart's default stop signal) constitutes an immediate shutdown.
Another example is using Resque. To gracefully shut down a worker I send it the QUIT signal. The TERM signal again causes immediate shutdown, whether the worker's child is forked or not.
Does upstart support custom signals? I can't seem to find it anywhere, which worries me that I'm using the "wrong tool for the job".