Tried this one out. You have an unresolved `||' at the end. Instead of: open (OUT,">$filename") || It should probably read: open (OUT,">$filename") || die "Can't open $filename for output because $!"; Quite frankly, Demon's tech support /really/ should have been able to catch this. Russell Mirabelli ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch