diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
index ac142d22fc..a06e5ac5e1 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
@@ -165,6 +165,21 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
 
+     <varlistentry>
+      <term><option>--no-ensure-shutdown</option></term>
+      <listitem>
+       <para>
+        <application>pg_rewind</application> verifies that the target server
+        is cleanly shutdown before rewinding; by default, if it isn't, it
+        starts the server in single-user mode to complete crash recovery.
+        By passing this option, <application>pg_rewind</application> skips
+        this and errors out immediately if the server is not cleanly shut
+        down.  Users are expected to handle the situation themselves in that
+        case.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+     </varlistentry>
+
      <varlistentry>
       <term><option>-n</option></term>
       <term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c b/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
index 15e3eab550..8cb0d726cf 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ static void digestControlFile(ControlFileData *ControlFile, char *source,
 static void syncTargetDirectory(void);
 static void sanityChecks(void);
 static void findCommonAncestorTimeline(XLogRecPtr *recptr, int *tliIndex);
+static void ensureCleanShutdown(const char *argv0);
 
 static ControlFileData ControlFile_target;
 static ControlFileData ControlFile_source;
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ usage(const char *progname)
 	printf(_("  -N, --no-sync                  do not wait for changes to be written\n"
 			 "                                 safely to disk\n"));
 	printf(_("  -P, --progress                 write progress messages\n"));
+	printf(_("      --no-ensure-shutdown       do not automatically fix unclean shutdown\n"));
 	printf(_("      --debug                    write a lot of debug messages\n"));
 	printf(_("  -V, --version                  output version information, then exit\n"));
 	printf(_("  -?, --help                     show this help, then exit\n"));
@@ -94,6 +96,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 		{"target-pgdata", required_argument, NULL, 'D'},
 		{"source-pgdata", required_argument, NULL, 1},
 		{"source-server", required_argument, NULL, 2},
+		{"no-ensure-shutdown", no_argument, NULL, 44},
 		{"version", no_argument, NULL, 'V'},
 		{"dry-run", no_argument, NULL, 'n'},
 		{"no-sync", no_argument, NULL, 'N'},
@@ -110,6 +113,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	XLogRecPtr	chkptredo;
 	size_t		size;
 	char	   *buffer;
+	bool		no_ensure_shutdown = false;
 	bool		rewind_needed;
 	XLogRecPtr	endrec;
 	TimeLineID	endtli;
@@ -169,6 +173,9 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 			case 2:				/* --source-server */
 				connstr_source = pg_strdup(optarg);
 				break;
+			case 4:
+				no_ensure_shutdown = true;
+				break;
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -241,6 +248,24 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	digestControlFile(&ControlFile_target, buffer, size);
 	pg_free(buffer);
 
+	/*
+	 * If the target instance was not cleanly shut down, run a single-user
+	 * postgres session really quickly and reload the control file to get the
+	 * new state. Note if no_ensure_shutdown is specified, pg_rewind won't do
+	 * that automatically. That means users need to do themselves in advance,
+	 * else pg_rewind will soon quit, see sanityChecks().
+	 */
+	if (!no_ensure_shutdown &&
+		ControlFile_target.state != DB_SHUTDOWNED &&
+		ControlFile_target.state != DB_SHUTDOWNED_IN_RECOVERY)
+	{
+		ensureCleanShutdown(argv[0]);
+
+		buffer = slurpFile(datadir_target, "global/pg_control", &size);
+		digestControlFile(&ControlFile_target, buffer, size);
+		pg_free(buffer);
+	}
+
 	buffer = fetchFile("global/pg_control", &size);
 	digestControlFile(&ControlFile_source, buffer, size);
 	pg_free(buffer);
@@ -748,3 +773,58 @@ syncTargetDirectory(void)
 
 	fsync_pgdata(datadir_target, PG_VERSION_NUM);
 }
+
+/*
+ * Ensure clean shutdown of target instance by launching single-user mode
+ * postgres to do crash recovery.
+ */
+static void
+ensureCleanShutdown(const char *argv0)
+{
+	int			ret;
+#define MAXCMDLEN (2 * MAXPGPATH)
+	char		exec_path[MAXPGPATH];
+	char		cmd[MAXCMDLEN];
+
+	/* locate postgres binary */
+	if ((ret = find_other_exec(argv0, "postgres",
+							   PG_BACKEND_VERSIONSTR,
+							   exec_path)) < 0)
+	{
+		char		full_path[MAXPGPATH];
+
+		if (find_my_exec(argv0, full_path) < 0)
+			strlcpy(full_path, progname, sizeof(full_path));
+
+		if (ret == -1)
+			pg_fatal("The program \"%s\" is needed by %s but was\n"
+					 "not found in the same directory as \"%s\".\n"
+					 "Check your installation.",
+					 "postgres", progname, full_path);
+		else
+			pg_fatal("The program \"%s\" was found by \"%s\" but was\n"
+					 "not the same version as %s.\n"
+					 "Check your installation.",
+					 "postgres", full_path, progname);
+	}
+
+	pg_log_info("executing \"%s\" for target server to complete crash recovery",
+				exec_path);
+
+	/*
+	 * Skip processing if requested, but only after ensuring presence of
+	 * postgres.
+	 */
+	if (dry_run)
+		return;
+
+	/* finally run postgres in single-user mode */
+	snprintf(cmd, MAXCMDLEN, "\"%s\" --single -D \"%s\" template1 < \"%s\"",
+			 exec_path, datadir_target, DEVNULL);
+
+	if (system(cmd) != 0)
+	{
+		pg_log_error("postgres single-user mode of target instance failed");
+		pg_fatal("Command was: %s", cmd);
+	}
+}