I was installing PostgreSQL for my CSC443 (Database System Technologies) class on my XP machine under Cygwin.

• I downloaded the source: version 7.4.13 from here
• unpacked the files: tar -xvzf <filename>
• created the folder where I wanted the installation: mkdir /csc443
• added a system environmental variable called “PGPATH” with value “C:\cygwin\csc443\“
• configured the build: ./configure –prefix=/csc443/ –enable-depend
• built the source: make
• installed the software: make install
• and initialzed a database: cd /csc443; bin/initdb -D ./data

However, after running that last command, I got an error whose summary is basically:

./initdb: line <#>:  <#> Bad system call         “$PGPATH”/postgres - boot -x0 $TEST_OPT template1 < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1

I found the solution here.