Shaun, Do you have an example of the getopts command in a shell script? Steve -----Original Message----- From: speakup-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]On Behalf Of Sean McMahon Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 4:45 PM To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. Subject: Re: Scripting Question: use the $# variable you could say if $# -lt 1 echo 'I don't know what to do with that' Really, you should look at using getopts in your sh scripts. you did mean shell scripts right? If you meant shell scripts sh is of course the most portable.