BUG #5329: postmaster fails to start because of an erroneous pg_hba.conf, but doesn't output any error

The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference:      5329
Logged by:          Olivier Jeannet
Email address:      olivier.jeannet@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: 8.4.2
Operating system:   Fedora 12 on x86_64
Description:        postmaster fails to start because of an erroneous
pg_hba.conf, but doesn't output any error
Details:

After having modified "pg_hba.conf" in bad way, with the following line (the
IP address is not used and not wanted) :

local   all     all     127.0.0.1    md5

postmaster was unable to start as usual.

I had a hard time finding the problem, as nothing is ouput on the command
line or in the logs.

I suggest to print something when halting on a configuration file parsing
problem.

Best regards,
 Olivier Jeannet.