diff --git a/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c b/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
index 2b868511c5..3c1cf78b4f 100644
--- a/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
+++ b/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
@@ -3239,6 +3239,9 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		/* ... and tag on pg_ctl instead */
 		join_path_components(pg_ctl_path, pg_ctl_path, "pg_ctl");
 
+		/* Convert the path to use native separators */
+		make_native_path(pg_ctl_path);
+
 		/* path to pg_ctl, properly quoted */
 		appendShellString(start_db_cmd, pg_ctl_path);