diff --git a/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl b/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
index 9c3551f1a5b..3acc80e204e 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_ctl/t/001_start_stop.pl
@@ -32,9 +32,17 @@ else
 	print $conf "listen_addresses = '127.0.0.1'\n";
 }
 close $conf;
-command_like([ 'pg_ctl', 'start', '-D', "$tempdir/data",
-	'-l', "$TestLib::log_path/001_start_stop_server.log" ],
-	qr/done.*server started/s, 'pg_ctl start');
+my $ctlcmd = [ 'pg_ctl', 'start', '-D', "$tempdir/data",
+			   '-l', "$TestLib::log_path/001_start_stop_server.log" ];
+if ($Config{osname} ne 'msys')
+{
+	command_like($ctlcmd, qr/done.*server started/s, 'pg_ctl start');
+}
+else
+{
+	# use the version of command_like that doesn't hang on Msys here
+	command_like_safe($ctlcmd, qr/done.*server started/s, 'pg_ctl start');
+}
 
 # sleep here is because Windows builds can't check postmaster.pid exactly,
 # so they may mistake a pre-existing postmaster.pid for one created by the
diff --git a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
index fe09689fec2..bff6b3aed27 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ our @EXPORT = qw(
   program_version_ok
   program_options_handling_ok
   command_like
+  command_like_safe
   command_fails_like
 
   $windows_os
@@ -300,6 +301,24 @@ sub command_like
 	like($stdout, $expected_stdout, "$test_name: matches");
 }
 
+sub command_like_safe
+{
+	# Doesn't rely on detecting end of file on the file descriptors,
+	# which can fail, causing the process to hang, notably on Msys
+	# when used with 'pg_ctl start'
+	my ($cmd, $expected_stdout, $test_name) = @_;
+	my ($stdout, $stderr);
+	my $stdoutfile = File::Temp->new();
+	my $stderrfile = File::Temp->new();
+	print("# Running: " . join(" ", @{$cmd}) . "\n");
+	my $result = IPC::Run::run $cmd, '>', $stdoutfile, '2>', $stderrfile;
+	$stdout = slurp_file($stdoutfile);
+	$stderr = slurp_file($stderrfile);
+	ok($result, "$test_name: exit code 0");
+	is($stderr, '', "$test_name: no stderr");
+	like($stdout, $expected_stdout, "$test_name: matches");
+}
+
 sub command_fails_like
 {
 	my ($cmd, $expected_stderr, $test_name) = @_;