Here's a happy initdb on 9.1 providing help:
$ psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.1.8
$ /usr/pgsql-9.1/bin/initdb --help
initdb initializes a PostgreSQL database cluster.
Usage: initdb [OPTION]... [DATADIR] ...
Here's what I get on the latest repo:
$ psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.3devel
$ initdb --help
The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "gsmith".
This user must also own the server process.
The database cluster will be initialized with locale "en_US.UTF-8" ...
initdb --version does the same thing for me: ignores the command line
and just goes onward to create a new cluster. I checked a random, not
current 9.2 install and saw the same issue existed on that version too:
$ psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.2.1
$ initdb --help
The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "gsmith".
This user must also own the server process.
The database cluster will be initialized with locale "en_US.UTF-8" ...
I would like for someone to tell me I'm doing something stupid and this
problem isn't really there going back to 9.2. The last potentially
related initdb change I found on a quick scan, from around the right
time period was the code refactoring of
http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/E1TeYOX-0005W4-Kj@gemulon.postgresql.org
(there were a few additional initdb commits around then too)
--
Greg Smith 2ndQuadrant US greg@2ndQuadrant.com Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com