In the documentation for postgresql.conf, it implies that they envisage a scenario where one might want to store the configuration files in a non-default location (i.e. not inside the data directory). This is done by passing the location of the config files when starting up the server as postgres -D /path/to/config/directory, and having the actual data directory as the value of data_directory in postgresql.conf.
How are you supposed to set up a new cluster with this separation of configuration files and data? I would have assumed that there would be a flag to initdb, but this is not the case. Do they just expect you to create the cluster as per usual, and then move the files postgresql.conf, pg_hba.conf and pg_ident.conf by hand? Any other files?