diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
index fbf454803b..42d29edd4e 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_rewind.sgml
@@ -169,12 +169,14 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
       <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.
+        <application>pg_rewind</application> requires that the target server
+        is cleanly shut down before rewinding. By default, if the target server
+        is not shut down cleanly, <application>pg_rewind</application> starts
+        the target server in single-user mode to complete crash recovery first,
+        and stops it.
         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
+        down. Users are expected to handle the situation themselves in that
         case.
        </para>
       </listitem>
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c b/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
index fe1468b771..875a43b219 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_rewind/pg_rewind.c
@@ -270,11 +270,12 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	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 the target instance was not cleanly shut down, start and stop the
+	 * target cluster once in single-user mode to enforce recovery to finish,
+	 * ensuring that the cluster can be used by pg_rewind.  Note that if
+	 * no_ensure_shutdown is specified, pg_rewind ignores this step, and users
+	 * need to make sure by themselves that the target cluster is in a clean
+	 * state.
 	 */
 	if (!no_ensure_shutdown &&
 		ControlFile_target.state != DB_SHUTDOWNED &&
@@ -847,8 +848,12 @@ ensureCleanShutdown(const char *argv0)
 	if (dry_run)
 		return;
 
-	/* finally run postgres in single-user mode */
-	snprintf(cmd, MAXCMDLEN, "\"%s\" --single -D \"%s\" template1 < \"%s\"",
+	/*
+	 * Finally run postgres in single-user mode.  There is no need to use
+	 * fsync here.  This makes the recovery faster, and the target data folder
+	 * is synced at the end anyway.
+	 */
+	snprintf(cmd, MAXCMDLEN, "\"%s\" --single -F -D \"%s\" template1 < \"%s\"",
 			 exec_path, datadir_target, DEVNULL);
 
 	if (system(cmd) != 0)
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/005_same_timeline.pl b/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/005_same_timeline.pl
index 40dbc44caa..df469d3939 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/005_same_timeline.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/005_same_timeline.pl
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+#
+# Test that running pg_rewind with the source and target clusters
+# on the same timeline runs successfully.
+#
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use TestLib;
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/RewindTest.pm b/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/RewindTest.pm
index c540722420..82fa220ac8 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/RewindTest.pm
+++ b/src/bin/pg_rewind/t/RewindTest.pm
@@ -227,8 +227,10 @@ sub run_pg_rewind
 	# Append the rewind-specific role to the connection string.
 	$standby_connstr = "$standby_connstr user=rewind_user";
 
-	# Stop the master and be ready to perform the rewind
-	$node_master->stop;
+	# Stop the master and be ready to perform the rewind.  The cluster
+	# needs recovery to finish once, and pg_rewind makes sure that it
+	# happens automatically.
+	$node_master->stop('immediate');
 
 	# At this point, the rewind processing is ready to run.
 	# We now have a very simple scenario with a few diverged WAL record.
@@ -260,19 +262,21 @@ sub run_pg_rewind
 	}
 	elsif ($test_mode eq "remote")
 	{
-
-		# Do rewind using a remote connection as source
+		# Do rewind using a remote connection as source, generating
+		# recovery configuration automatically.
 		command_ok(
 			[
 				'pg_rewind',                      "--debug",
 				"--source-server",                $standby_connstr,
-				"--target-pgdata=$master_pgdata", "-R",
-				"--no-sync"
+				"--target-pgdata=$master_pgdata", "--no-sync",
+				"--write-recovery-conf"
 			],
 			'pg_rewind remote');
 
-		# Check that standby.signal has been created.
-		ok(-e "$master_pgdata/standby.signal");
+		# Check that standby.signal is here as recovery configuration
+		# was requested.
+		ok( -e "$master_pgdata/standby.signal",
+			'standby.signal created after pg_rewind');
 
 		# Now, when pg_rewind apparently succeeded with minimal permissions,
 		# add REPLICATION privilege.  So we could test that new standby