Hi: I haven't seen the message which instructed Jim to RTFM, but I'm going to respond to it. Firstly, since we all know what the third letter in that acronym stands for, surely, due alone to its vulgarity, we can all accept that it has no place in anyone's response. Secondly, he asked a question whose answer required knowledge of regular expressions, and they, even to the best of us, can be rather difficult to learn. Thirdly, how was he supposed to know that commands with such strange names as "sed" and "grep" are what he needed to look into? Such a terse and rude response, therefore, especially when he'd asked a sincere question very politely, was entirely out of place. -- Dave Mielke | 2213 Fox Crescent | I believe that the Bible is the Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario | Word of God. Please contact me EMail: dave@mielke.cc | Canada K2A 1H7 | if you're concerned about Hell.