Remove the 'Msg' specification from the file equations. Depending on how many processes will be writing to the message file you may have to change your file equations to: File MsgFile,Old;gmulti;lock;shr Regards Paul Christidis ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Message File Author: [log in to unmask] at CCGATE Date: 03/25/97 04:39 AM OK, this may be a stupid question because I know I've done this correctly in the past... I have a job which attempts the following on an empty message file: Build MsgFile;Rec=-80,,F,ASCII;Msg File MsgFile,Old;Msg;Shr Input Test < *MsgFile I attempt to write to MsgFile with: File MsgFile,Old;Msg;Shr Echo Test > *MsgFile Problem: Whenever I attempt to write to the message file, I get: DEVICE UNAVAILABLE (FSERR 55) Couldn't open output redirection file, command failed. (CIERR 9425) I'm unable to write to the message file as long as there is a read hanging on the file. Any suggestions? I've tried various combinations of the file equations, but none of them work as long as a read is hanging on the file. David N. Lukenbill -------------------------------------------------------------------- David N. Lukenbill Hughes Missile Systems Company, Louisville [log in to unmask]