diff --git a/src/bin/pg_controldata/t/001_pg_controldata.pl b/src/bin/pg_controldata/t/001_pg_controldata.pl
index e36fa2d45d..e2b0d420a2 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_controldata/t/001_pg_controldata.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_controldata/t/001_pg_controldata.pl
@@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ program_options_handling_ok('pg_controldata');
 command_fails(['pg_controldata'], 'pg_controldata without arguments fails');
 command_fails([ 'pg_controldata', 'nonexistent' ],
 	'pg_controldata with nonexistent directory fails');
-system_or_bail 'initdb', '-D', "$tempdir/data", '-A', 'trust';
+standard_initdb "$tempdir/data";
 command_like([ 'pg_controldata', "$tempdir/data" ],
 	qr/checkpoint/, 'pg_controldata produces output');
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl b/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
index bcceb57d7b..ff9a095928 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ program_options_handling_ok('pg_ctl');
 command_exit_is([ 'pg_ctl', 'start', '-D', "$tempdir/nonexistent" ],
 	1, 'pg_ctl start with nonexistent directory');
 
-command_ok([ 'pg_ctl', 'initdb', '-D', "$tempdir/data" ], 'pg_ctl initdb');
+command_ok([ 'pg_ctl', 'initdb', '-D', "$tempdir/data", '-o', '-N' ],
+	'pg_ctl initdb');
 command_ok(
 	[   "$ENV{top_builddir}/src/test/regress/pg_regress", '--config-auth',
 		"$tempdir/data" ],
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ command_ok(
 open CONF, ">>$tempdir/data/postgresql.conf";
 print CONF "listen_addresses = ''\n";
 print CONF "unix_socket_directories = '$tempdir_short'\n";
+print CONF "fsync = off\n";
 close CONF;
 command_ok([ 'pg_ctl', 'start', '-D', "$tempdir/data", '-w' ],
 	'pg_ctl start -w');
diff --git a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
index 5ef95f0246..9402e4462c 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
@@ -123,6 +123,11 @@ sub standard_initdb
 	system_or_bail('initdb', '-D', "$pgdata", '-A' , 'trust', '-N');
 	system_or_bail("$ENV{top_builddir}/src/test/regress/pg_regress",
 		'--config-auth', $pgdata);
+
+	open CONF, ">>$pgdata/postgresql.conf";
+	print CONF "\n# Added by TestLib.pm)\n";
+	print CONF "fsync = off\n";
+	close CONF;
 }
 
 my ($test_server_datadir, $test_server_logfile);
@@ -138,7 +143,7 @@ sub start_test_server
 	standard_initdb "$tempdir/pgdata";
 	$ret = system_log('pg_ctl', '-D', "$tempdir/pgdata", '-w', '-l',
 	  "$log_path/postmaster.log", '-o',
-"--fsync=off -k \"$tempdir_short\" --listen-addresses='' --log-statement=all",
+"-k \"$tempdir_short\" --listen-addresses='' --log-statement=all",
 					'start');
 	if ($ret != 0)
 	{