To reproduce: 1. Add the following line as last line to postgres.conf file archive_command='copy "%p" "xxxxx"' Make sure that there is no CR LF characters after this line 2. Restart postgres 3. Issue SHOW archive_command Observed result: unset Note. Adding a newline after this line causes archive_command to be set correctly. Using "PostgreSQL 8.1.0 on i686-pc-mingw32, compiled by GCC gcc.exe (GCC) 3.4.2 (mingw-special)"