diff --git a/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c b/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
index bcb1ddb1351..29ac12173a8 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
@@ -529,15 +529,18 @@ start_postmaster(void)
 		 * previous postmaster will still have the file open for a short time
 		 * after removing postmaster.pid.)
 		 */
-		FILE	   *fd = fopen(log_file, "a");
+		int			fd = open(log_file, O_RDWR, 0);
 
-		if (fd == NULL)
+		if (fd == -1)
 		{
-			write_stderr(_("%s: could not create log file \"%s\": %s\n"),
-						 progname, log_file, strerror(errno));
-			exit(1);
+			if (errno != ENOENT) {
+				write_stderr(_("%s: could not open log file \"%s\": %s\n"),
+							 progname, log_file, strerror(errno));
+				exit(1);
+			}
+		} else {
+			close(fd);
 		}
-		fclose(fd);
 
 		snprintf(cmd, MAXPGPATH, "CMD /C \"\"%s\" %s%s < \"%s\" >> \"%s\" 2>&1\"",
 				 exec_path, pgdata_opt, post_opts, DEVNULL, log_file);