The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference: 2876
Logged by: Marvin Solomon
Email address: solomon@conceptshopping.com
PostgreSQL version: 8.2.1
Operating system: Windows XP
Description: problems witih pg_ctl -w
Details:

The "-w" option to pg_ctl on Windows systems has a
couple of problems.

The main problem is that it attempts to detect
whether the server is running by establishing a
session, but provides no way to supply a user name
for that attempt. The default is to use your
login name, but that may not correspond to any
user name in the database. Here's an example:

% pg_ctl start -w -l log
waiting for server to start...........^C
% cat foo
LOG: database system was shut down at 2007-01-10 05:56:57 CST
LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/34ACBE0
LOG: redo record is at 0/34ACBE0; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE
LOG: next transaction ID: 0/686; next OID: 16572
LOG: next MultiXactId: 1; next MultiXactOffset: 0
LOG: database system is ready
FATAL: role "solomon" does not exist
FATAL: role "solomon" does not exist
FATAL: role "solomon" does not exist
FATAL: role "solomon" does not exist
LOG: received fast shutdown request
LOG: shutting down
LOG: database system is shut down

I note that the code explicity checks for the
error "no password supplied", but not for "role
does not exist".

Another problem is that the max time to wait is
wired in at 60 seconds. It would be nice if there
were some way to supply a different value.

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq