diff --git a/src/common.cpp b/src/common.cpp
index 7b42630af..5f59edee3 100644
--- a/src/common.cpp
+++ b/src/common.cpp
@@ -2269,7 +2269,11 @@ void append_path_component(wcstring &path, const wcstring &component) {
 
 extern "C" {
 [[gnu::noinline]] void debug_thread_error(void) {
-    while (1) sleep(9999999);
+    // Wait for a SIGINT. We can't use sigsuspend() because the signal may be delivered on another
+    // thread.
+    auto &tm = topic_monitor_t::principal();
+    auto gens = tm.current_generations();
+    tm.check(&gens, {topic_t::sighupint}, true /* wait */);
 }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/signal.cpp b/src/signal.cpp
index 06d0ee6c9..24e4e8726 100644
--- a/src/signal.cpp
+++ b/src/signal.cpp
@@ -255,6 +255,7 @@ static void handle_int_notinteractive(int sig, siginfo_t *info, void *context) {
     if (reraise_if_forked_child(sig)) return;
     parser_t::skip_all_blocks();
     default_handler(sig, info, context);
+    topic_monitor_t::principal().post(topic_t::sighupint);
 }
 
 /// sigchld handler. Does notification and calls the handler in proc.c.