This is a text description of starta.gif.  

This figure illustrates the effects of three forms of the SHUTDOWN command
(NORMAL, IMMEDIATE, TRANSACTIONAL) on a transaction to transfer funds.

The steps to transfer funds are shown as:

1) Check account balances 
2) Insert new funds
3) Remove funds from old account 
4) Commit

If a SHUTDOWN NORMAL is issued at any point during this transaction, the 
transaction will complete. Further, the user can continue to perform other 
transactions and the shutdown will not occur until this user and all other users 
have disconnected from the database.

If a SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE command is issued at any point during this transaction, 
all changes to the database that have not been committed are rolled back, and 
the user is disconnected immediately thereafter. Uncommitted transactions for  
other users are also rolled back and those users are also disconnected. The 
database is then shut down.

If a SHUTDOWN TRANSACTIONAL is issued at any point during this transaction, the 
transaction will complete. After the commit is done, no new transactions are 
allowed and the user is disconnected. All other user sessions are terminated in 
similar fashion. The database is then shut down.