Yep!

   I was exactly trying the same thing and I was having the same problem
as MPEX would hang.  I found out that the file it was hanging on was an
empty variable binary message file.

Marco Santerre

On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, Jeff Kell wrote:

>
> Message files are notorious for causing this sort of thing with search
> programs.  Do you have permanent message files there?  If they are
> opened with default access/options you'll be suspended as a "reader"
> waiting on a "writer" to post something to the file and you won't get an
> EOF condition.
>
> Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>
>