What signal is typically used when you want to terminate a process without causing data loss?

The signal commonly used to terminate a process while allowing it to clean up and avoid data loss is SIGTERM. When this signal is sent to a process, it instructs the process to terminate gracefully. This means that the process can finish its current tasks, close open files, release resources, and generally ensure that no data inconsistency or corruption occurs during the shutdown process.

In contrast, signals like SIGKILL are used to forcibly terminate a process immediately without giving it a chance to respond, which can lead to data loss, especially if the process is in the middle of writing data. SIGSTOP is used to pause a process, not terminate it, and likewise, SIGHUP typically signals a terminal disconnection or can be used to reload configurations, but it does not inherently provide a graceful termination like SIGTERM.

Thus, using SIGTERM is the preferred approach when a clean and safe shutdown of a process is required, making it the ideal signal for this scenario.