I don't use 'grep' often enough, that I can see. Grep requires an expression or a block which is _evaluated_ for each item in the list. The solution I gave you will always return true! Try this instead: my $metaFile = quotemeta $InFile; if( grep( /$metaFile/, @directoryList ) ) ... Sorry about that... ( I don't have the orginal message, I am doing this from memory.) Daniel