if you have: system("rm $filename"); and $filename = "a file", you get an error because you're trying to delete two files, "a" and "file". what's the proper way of quoting $filename so that the shell sees the file "a file" and not the two non-existant files "a" and "file"? pete -- PGP Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D PGP Public Key: finger p@dirac.org