Well, that is certainly above and beyond. It looks like you're familiar with Perl as well. Good to know. I've done some reading about calling a shell and some of the issues involved. I tend to do what I can get to work, and worry about efficiency later - self-taught Perl leaves some knowledge gaps. Will have to do more reading on using 'echo'. I've heard and read about it but never used it. This is a good test case. And thank you for the alternative solution. TMTOWTDI.