If it's choking on chomp, why not do the chomp in the if($_ =~ /^ERROR/) loop? <carp type="gratuitous">BTW this cd be written if (/^ERROR/) </carp> Not sure WHY this wd fix it, as I'm not au fait with the ramifications of line terminators, but as I read it you don't actually need to chomp every line, as that won't affect whether it passes or fails your if test.

§ George Sherston