sub system_messages {
        print "system_messages called\n" if debug('system_messages');

        my $fh;

        open $fh,"showSystemMessages|" or do {print "failed\n" if debug('Open pipe fail'); return;};

        print "open succeeded\n" if debug('Open pipe succeed');

        $mainw->fileevent($fh, 'readable', [\&get_message_counts, $fh]);

        print "Return from fileevent\n" if debug('post fileevent');
}