in reply to (OT) apache and modperl and cygwin

I am just guessing but is /usr/sbin/ in your path? is . in your path? I am going to guess neither is, so you have to either go to the /usr/sbin directory and type:
./apachectl start
or from any prompt the command:
/usr/sbin/apachectl start
For more info look here

-enlil