pg_ctl inappropriately timing out?

Folks:

Issue: pg_ctl seems to be prematurely timing out.
Version: 8.0.3
Severity: Annoying
Description:
1. Do an immense load on a database, like 2.5gb.
2. Right after the COPY finishes, send a pg_ctl -m fast stop to the server.
3. You will get:
pg_ctl: postmaster does not shut down

What Seems To Be Happening:
When you call pg_ctl --stop, the WAL is still writing out to the database
and postmaster won't shut down until it's done, which can take a couple
minutes. In the meantime, pg_ctl is timing out and prematurely reporting
failure.

Resolution:
Not sure, really. Is there some way for pg_ctl to intelligently detect
this situation? To set a timeout value for pg_ctl via a command-line
option?

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco