diff --git a/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c b/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
index 807d7023a9..07b3f0c9c8 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c
@@ -599,6 +599,25 @@ wait_for_postmaster_start(pid_t pm_pid, bool do_checkpoint)
 		char	  **optlines;
 		int			numlines;
 
+		/*
+		 * Check whether the child postmaster process is still alive.  This
+		 * lets us exit early if the postmaster fails during startup.
+		 *
+		 * On Windows, we may be checking the postmaster's parent shell, but
+		 * that's fine for this purpose.
+		 */
+#ifndef WIN32
+		{
+			int			exitstatus;
+
+			if (waitpid(pm_pid, &exitstatus, WNOHANG) == pm_pid)
+				return POSTMASTER_FAILED;
+		}
+#else
+		if (WaitForSingleObject(postmasterProcess, 0) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
+			return POSTMASTER_FAILED;
+#endif
+
 		/*
 		 * Try to read the postmaster.pid file.  If it's not valid, or if the
 		 * status line isn't there yet, just keep waiting.
@@ -619,6 +638,7 @@ wait_for_postmaster_start(pid_t pm_pid, bool do_checkpoint)
 			 */
 			pmpid = atol(optlines[LOCK_FILE_LINE_PID - 1]);
 			pmstart = atol(optlines[LOCK_FILE_LINE_START_TIME - 1]);
+
 			if (pmstart >= start_time - 2 &&
 #ifndef WIN32
 				pmpid == pm_pid
@@ -651,25 +671,6 @@ wait_for_postmaster_start(pid_t pm_pid, bool do_checkpoint)
 		 */
 		free_readfile(optlines);
 
-		/*
-		 * Check whether the child postmaster process is still alive.  This
-		 * lets us exit early if the postmaster fails during startup.
-		 *
-		 * On Windows, we may be checking the postmaster's parent shell, but
-		 * that's fine for this purpose.
-		 */
-#ifndef WIN32
-		{
-			int			exitstatus;
-
-			if (waitpid(pm_pid, &exitstatus, WNOHANG) == pm_pid)
-				return POSTMASTER_FAILED;
-		}
-#else
-		if (WaitForSingleObject(postmasterProcess, 0) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
-			return POSTMASTER_FAILED;
-#endif
-
 		/* Startup still in process; wait, printing a dot once per second */
 		if (i % WAITS_PER_SEC == 0)
 		{