on my server, this is how i do it :
in etc/rc.d/rc.local :
/bin/su - postgres -c "/home/postgres/runpostgres"
runpostgres :
#!/bin/sh
export LC_CTYPE=koi8-r
export LC_COLLATE=koi8-r
postmaster -i -B 1024 -S -D/usr/local/pgsql/data/ -o '-Fe'
note that i run postgresql 6.
pat