Abstract: A “buoy” process is associated with another “real” (i.e., non-buoy) process or application. Priorities are arranged so that, in a resource crisis, the buoy process is preferentially killed before its parent. When, during a crisis, the buoy is killed, its death is a signal to the parent process that it may be time to shut down gracefully. In some embodiments, when the parent process starts up, it launches a buoy process as its child. When the buoy process dies, the operating system sends a signal to the parent process. This signal warns the parent of the resource crisis. In other embodiments, a separate “guardian” process notes the existence of a new “parent” process, launches a buoy process, and associates the buoy with the “parent” process. The operating system informs the guardian if the buoy process is killed, and the guardian in turn informs the associated parent.