I'm not sure if you mean "returns an integer value" as status (in $status) or prints it out, in which case you run the program in `` to get the value. -- bill davidsen (davidsen at crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.