-A hairpin starts at the left edge of the beginning note and ends on the
-right edge of the ending note.
+A hairpin normally starts at the left edge of the beginning note
+and ends on the right edge of the ending note. If the ending
+note falls on the downbeat, the hairpin ends on the immediately
+preceding barline. This may be modified by setting the
+@code{hairpinToBarline} property,
+
+@lilypond[quote,ragged-right,fragment,verbatim,relative=2]
+\set hairpinToBarline = ##f
+c4\< c2. c4\!
+@end lilypond