>Unlike most every other operating system, UNIX does not let the utility expand wildcards itself. The shell expands the wildcarded argument to a list of files that it then passes to the utility. What an odd way to put it - you make it sound like a disadvantage! Usually the problem is thta UNIX doesn't do much for you. Another way of saying it is that the shell UNIX expands all the arguments for you so that each utility doesn't need wildcard code in it. I found it a pain doing utilities for DOS prompts after using UNIX. You can turn off wild card expansion in the shell so it will allow you to write a utility that does it's own wildcard expansion but only if you know in advance and turn off the feature - so not that handy. Or you could write your own shell. Peter -- http://www.beluga.freeserve.co.uk * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *