pg_ctl -w start does not know that it has started postmaster

Your name : Aaron Hillegass
Your email address : aaron(at)bignerdranch(dot)com

System Configuration
---------------------
Architecture (example: Intel Pentium) : PPC

Operating System (example: Linux 2.4.18) : Mac OS X 10.3.5

PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-8.0): PostgreSQL-8.0b4

Compiler used (example: gcc 2.95.2) : gcc version 3.3 20030304
(Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666)

Please enter a FULL description of your problem:
------------------------------------------------

I have a script that must start the postmaster before continuing, so I
do this:

> sudo -u postgres /Library/PostgreSQL/bin/pg_ctl -w start

But this always fails:

> sudo -u postgres /Library/PostgreSQL/bin/pg_ctl -w start
waiting for postmaster to
start...............................................................coul
d not start postmaster

But the postmaster is actually started:

> /Library/PostgreSQL/bin/psql -Unopali template1
Welcome to psql 8.0.0beta4, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

template1=#

Please describe a way to repeat the problem. Please try to provide a
concise reproducible example, if at all possible:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Note that the process's user name (postgres) is different from the
database's owner (nopali).

If you know how this problem might be fixed, list the solution below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I suspect that the problem is that when I did initdb, I used 'nopali'
as the username, but pg_ctl is being run as 'postgres'. Because there
is no database user called 'postgres', I think that this line in
pg_ctl.c always fails:

if ((conn = PQsetdbLogin(NULL, portstr, NULL, NULL,

"template1", NULL, NULL)) != NULL &&
(PQstatus(conn) == CONNECTION_OK ||
(strcmp(PQerrorMessage(conn),
PQnoPasswordSupplied) == 0)))