MAS4891, I can understand your frustration. I have a question and a comment. Since you have your password in the second line of the file @file[1], what's the first line of the file for? Also, in the off chance that you missed this, do you realize that @file[0] would be the first line of your file? If that's where your password is... To solve your problem, I would probably start by printing the variables you are examining.

# debug start
print "<FONT FACE='COURIER NEW'>\n";
print "'" . $query->param('pass') . "'<BR>\n";
print "'" . @file[1] . "'<BR>\n";
print "</FONT>\n";
#debug end
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I usually wrap debug code in debug "start" and "end" tags. When I go back to clean up a large script, it's quick and easy. The first line of code above sets the font to a fixed width. This makes it easier to see a space embedded in the middle of a word. The next lines print the two passwords one above the other like so:

'diue34Tx'
'diue34Tx'
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This makes a character by character visual analysis easier and the single quotes make it obvious if you have padded white space before or after the password (but won't reveal an unchomped newline. Maybe you should use a <PRE> tag for that. Just a thought. Hope this helps!