Can't initdb

[Randy Solomonson <randy(at)solomonson(dot)com>]

Hello-

When following installation instructions for Cygwin, I received the
following error:

bash-3.00$ initdb -D ~/pgsql/data/ -W -E LATIN1
fgets failure: No such file or directory
The program "postgres" is needed by initdb but was not found in the
same directory as "/usr/sbin/initdb".
Check your installation.

Many postings claim victory over this error when changing permissions.
 It didn't help me:
bash-3.00$ ls -l /usr/sbin/post*
-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 randy Users 2784256 Nov  7 18:31 /usr/sbin/postgres.exe
lrwxrwxrwx  1 randy Users      12 Dec 21 23:17 /usr/sbin/postmaster.exe -> postg
res.exe

I can run postgres just fine (well without unexpected errors):
bash-3.00$ postgres
postgres does not know where to find the server configuration file.
You must specify the --config-file or -D invocation option or set the PGDATA env
ironment variable.

What am I doing wrong?  What should I be "checking" in my installation?

--
Randy Solomonson
Contract Programmer
randy(at)solomonson(dot)com
website: http://solomonson.com