diff --git a/lib/rake/application.rb b/lib/rake/application.rb
index 2ea8c780c..8b95242a6 100644
--- a/lib/rake/application.rb
+++ b/lib/rake/application.rb
@@ -94,6 +94,12 @@ def init(app_name="rake", argv = ARGV)
           # Backward compatibility for capistrano
           args = handle_options
         end
+
+        setup_signal_handling do
+          load_debug_at_stop_feature
+          collect_command_line_tasks(args)
+        end
+
         load_debug_at_stop_feature
         collect_command_line_tasks(args)
       end
@@ -857,5 +863,13 @@ def set_default_options # :nodoc:
       options.trace_rules                = false
     end
 
+    def setup_signal_handling(&block)
+      Signal.trap("TERM") do
+        puts "SIGTERM received, starting cleanup..."
+        yield
+        exit 143 # 128 + Signal.list["TERM"] (15)
+      end
+    end
+
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/support/rakefile_definitions.rb b/test/support/rakefile_definitions.rb
index 5dacd3783..c38fd673e 100644
--- a/test/support/rakefile_definitions.rb
+++ b/test/support/rakefile_definitions.rb
@@ -514,4 +514,18 @@ def rakefile_stand_alone_filelist
       io << "puts FL\n"
     end
   end
+
+  def rakefile_with_long_running_task
+    rakefile <<-TEST_TASK
+  require 'rake/testtask'
+
+  task :default => :test
+  Rake::TestTask.new(:test) do |t|
+  t.test_files = ['a_test.rb']
+  end
+    TEST_TASK
+    open "a_test.rb", "w" do |io|
+       io << "sleep 20"
+     end
+  end
 end
diff --git a/test/test_rake_functional.rb b/test/test_rake_functional.rb
index 6ab005f53..265c1dd6a 100644
--- a/test/test_rake_functional.rb
+++ b/test/test_rake_functional.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 require File.expand_path("../helper", __FILE__)
 require "fileutils"
 require "open3"
+require "stringio"
 
 class TestRakeFunctional < Rake::TestCase # :nodoc:
   include RubyRunner
@@ -516,6 +517,18 @@ def test_stand_alone_filelist
     assert_equal 0, @exit.exitstatus unless uncertain_exit_status?
   end
 
+  # Test that SIGTERM is handled gracefully
+  def test_sigterm_handling
+    rakefile_with_long_running_task
+    pid = Process.spawn('rake')
+    Process.detach(pid)
+    sleep 1
+    Process.kill("TERM", pid)
+    _, status = Process.wait2(pid)
+
+    assert_equal(143, status.exitstatus, "Process should exit with status 130")
+  end
+
   private
 
   # We are unable to accurately verify that Rake returns a proper