Thanks to KM and lemming for the speedy reply.
I didn't realize that I couldn't resubmit the post,
or I would have cleaned up the errors I made in testing
the code as posted, and I would have rephrased the question:
"Why didn't this do what I expect".
It will, of course, run when invoked directly.
The point my two helpers made, is the
lesson to take away: that close(FILEHANDLE) and closedir(DIRHANDLE)
are not the same thing, FILEHANDLE and DIRHANDLE have separate namespaces (and thou shalt thoroughly test all
operations, with warnings)
Thanks again, brethren.
mkmcconn