Sorry, but I jst noticed this: > while( ($bufLength = sysread(THEFILE, $theBuffer, $BUFFER_SIZE)) > 0 ){ > $bufLength = sysread(THEFILE, $theBuffer, $BUFFER_SIZE); I forgot to delete the extra sysread. This was left over from one of my tests and does not change why the program doesn't work. Again, thanks in advance for any help anyone gives. :-)