in perl, how does one go about detecting what operating system the program is running under? also, when a perl script makes use of a pathname under windows, say, open(FP, "/directory/file") or die "Can't open file"; do i use `/' or `\'? pete -- PGP Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D PGP Public Key: finger p@dirac.org