Someone pointed out that even with -P-, gs will read gs_init.ps from current directory: http://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=691350 Still, they do not regard this with any urgency. I also see no -P- and no absolute paths for the ps files mentioned in many "gs scripts" e.g. /usr/bin/pdf2dsc or /usr/bin/ps2ascii . Also, crappy coding for "GS_EXECUTABLE=gs". Am not sure if these are "originally gs" or "Debian special". Cheers, Paul Paul Szabo psz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/ School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sydney Australia