title: Force MySQL Shutdown
body: <p>We have MySQL 5.1.45 running on a RedHat box.  We needed to shut the box down for maintenance last week and had an issue.</p>
  
  <p>We first closed down all connections.
  Then we ran the MySQLAdmin/shutdown command.
  The database appeared to hang.  We waited for 30 minutes before trying Ctrl-C which gave us an error and we had to end up physically cycling the box.</p>
  
  <p>Most of the documentation I can find points to InnoDB problems, but we are using MyISAM.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a better way to shut down MySQL than running the Shutdown command?
  Is there a way to force MySQL to shut down when it appears to hang?</p>