diff --git a/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c b/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
index acf26821d79..5d08d1e12e5 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
+++ b/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
@@ -2390,7 +2390,7 @@ regression_main(int argc, char *argv[], init_function ifunc, test_function tfunc
 			 * Fail immediately if postmaster has exited
 			 */
 #ifndef WIN32
-			if (kill(postmaster_pid, 0) != 0)
+			if (waitpid(postmaster_pid, NULL, WNOHANG) == postmaster_pid)
 #else
 			if (WaitForSingleObject(postmaster_pid, 0) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
 #endif