There sheer length of this thread reminds me of why I never write shell scripts, "simple" or otherwise. Here's a "simple" crude perl script that does what the OP wants. http://www.antibodymx.net/loadchecker.pl.txt Adjust variables to taste. -- Gllug mailing list - Gllug at gllug.org.uk http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug