diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Client.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Client.pm
index 422e32acc..7f51acf40 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Client.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Client.pm
@@ -282,7 +282,9 @@ if (ref($request) eq 'HASH') { # the request is an array, not pure XML
     $msg=$request;
     print $client $msg;
   }
-  $SIG{TERM} =  $SIG{INT} = sub { send_request({abortcommand=>[1]},$client,$encode); exit 0; };
+  # when receive TERM or INT (ctrl^c) from user, sleep 2s before exit to make
+  # sure the server (xcatd) has recevied 'abortcommand' command 
+  $SIG{TERM} =  $SIG{INT} = sub { send_request({abortcommand=>[1]},$client,$encode); sleep 2; exit 0; };
   my $response;
   my $rsp;
   my $cleanexit=0;
diff --git a/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatd b/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatd
index 840e6a7a4..95eea69f1 100755
--- a/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatd
+++ b/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatd
@@ -1861,6 +1861,10 @@ sub dispatch_request {
     }
     if ($onlyone and not ($_->{'_xcatdest'} and xCAT::NetworkUtils->thishostisnot($_->{'_xcatdest'}))) {
         $SIG{CHLD}='DEFAULT';
+
+        # make the plugin process exit directly instead of wait(), this is useful 
+        # for the plugin process to exit successfully when it opened some shell subprocesses. 
+        $SIG{TERM} = $SIG{INT} = 'DEFAULT';
         "" =~ m/()/; #clear $1 that we may have sitting around
 	if ($_->{'_xcatdelay'} and not ref $_->{'_xcatdelay'}) { sleep $_->{'_xcatdelay'}; }
         # Call the plugin to process the command request
@@ -1955,6 +1959,9 @@ sub dispatch_request {
          } else {
             $$progname.=": locally executing";
             $SIG{CHLD}='DEFAULT';
+            # make the plugin process exit directly instead of wait(), this is useful 
+            # for the plugin process to exit successfully when it opened some shell subprocesses. 
+            $SIG{TERM} = $SIG{INT} = 'DEFAULT';
             # Call the plugin to process the command request
             #    rescanplugins request gets handled directly here in xcatd
             if ($_->{command}->[0] eq 'rescanplugins') {