Sorry, I don't know where that double slash came from? must have come
when cutting and pasting the message, it's not really in the error.
Here's my setup and the "correct" message.
Debian linux
kernel 2.2.12
glibc 2.1.2
shell bash 2.01.1
./configure with no special opts
$ initdb --pgdata=/usr/local/pgsql.db
This database system will be initialized with username "postgres".
This user will own all the data files and must also own the server process.
Fixing permissions on pre-existing data directory /usr/local/pgsql.db
Creating database system directory /usr/local/pgsql.db/base
Creating database XLOG directory /usr/local/pgsql.db/pg_xlog
Creating template database in /usr/local/pgsql.db/base/template1
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: line 441: 282 Broken pipe cat
"$TEMPL
ATE"
283 | sed -e "s/PGUID/$POSTGRES_SUPERUSERID/g"
284 Segmentation fault | "$PGPATH"/postgres $FIRSTRUN
template1
initdb failed.
Removing /usr/local/pgsql.db.
rm: cannot remove directory &pi0;/usr/local/pgsql.db': Permission denied
Failed.
Removing temp file /tmp/initdb.260.