Dear all,

when i run the createdb statement is is giving the following error:
$ createdb test
psql: FATAL: File /usr/local/pgsql/data/base/1/PG_VERSION is missing. This is not a valid data directory.
createdb: database creation failed.

i am able to start the te postgre server using the pg_ctl command and te postmaster is running .

i am using postgresql 7.3.4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon)

please help

I don't think you should start PostgreSQL with the command pg_ctl anymore....
try starting PostgreSQL from the init script:

# /etc/init.d/postgresql start

That script will run initdb if necesary, and set the PGDATA environment variable if needed also.

Ok, anyway postmaster is running and i am able to login to use the template1 database.

but createdb only is failing

did you make an initdb to initialize a database

PG_VERSION is only a textfiel with the postgresql version in it which created the instance