Python's signal handlers only run on bytecode boundaries, which means a process stuck inside a C-extension call (like os_scandir, numpy, or any native library) will ignore SIGTERM until it returns — which may be never. Burning your SIGTERM grace window on a wedged worker is one of the most expensive mistakes in incident response: you wait the full timeout for nothing, then SIGKILL anyway. Test the distinction on every Python service before you assume graceful restart works.
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