code snippet... read(IN, my $buff, 1 * 2**10); (substr($buff,0,4) eq "RIFF") || die "not a valid RIFF file"; my $size = unpack ("V4",substr($buff,4,4)); myprint (" RIFF segment size = $size"); (substr($buff,50,4) eq "data")|| die "data segment not found"; my $dsize = unpack ("V4",substr($buff,54,4)); myprint (" DATA Segment size = $dsize");