yes it is copying every file, which is NOT what i want it to do ofcourse lol. sorry for leaving that out. and looks like i will need to redo my pattern files. but i want the patterns to help filter out the files i do not want, and just move them to a different directory.

i now see what you mean about the shell patterns. here is a webpage i just found that describes the problem and a solution. http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/documentation/Perl_Cookbook/ch06_10.htm