a signaller process should stop configuration processing just after
it is able to get pid file, this allows to not open log files, etc.

src/core/nginx.c

diff --git a/src/core/nginx.c b/src/core/nginx.c
index eec48bf..ff7a9f8 100644
--- a/src/core/nginx.c
+++ b/src/core/nginx.c
@@ -330,6 +330,10 @@
         return 0;
     }
 
+    if (ngx_signal) {
+        return ngx_signal_process(cycle, ngx_signal);
+    }
+
     ngx_os_status(cycle->log);
 
     ngx_cycle = cycle;
@@ -340,10 +344,6 @@
         ngx_process = NGX_PROCESS_MASTER;
     }
 
-    if (ngx_signal) {
-        return ngx_signal_process(cycle, ngx_signal);
-    }
-
 #if !(NGX_WIN32)
 
     if (ngx_init_signals(cycle->log) != NGX_OK) {

src/core/ngx_cycle.c

diff --git a/src/core/ngx_cycle.c b/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
index 63eec14..f931ec5 100644
--- a/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
+++ b/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
@@ -269,7 +269,6 @@
                        cycle->conf_file.data);
     }
 
-
     for (i = 0; ngx_modules[i]; i++) {
         if (ngx_modules[i]->type != NGX_CORE_MODULE) {
             continue;
@@ -287,6 +286,9 @@
         }
     }
 
+    if (ngx_process == NGX_PROCESS_SIGNALLER) {
+        return cycle;
+    }
 
     ccf = (ngx_core_conf_t *) ngx_get_conf(cycle->conf_ctx, ngx_core_module);
 
@@ -564,14 +566,12 @@
         }
     }
 
-    if (ngx_process != NGX_PROCESS_SIGNALLER) {
-        if (ngx_open_listening_sockets(cycle) != NGX_OK) {
-            goto failed;
-        }
+    if (ngx_open_listening_sockets(cycle) != NGX_OK) {
+        goto failed;
+    }
 
-        if (!ngx_test_config) {
-            ngx_configure_listening_sockets(cycle);
-        }
+    if (!ngx_test_config) {
+        ngx_configure_listening_sockets(cycle);
     }