#!/usr/bin/perl

# Standard stuff to catch errors
use strict qw(subs vars refs);            # Make sure we can't mess up
use warnings qw(all);                # Enable warnings to catch errors

# Other Stuff
use SDBM_File;
use POSIX;

sub database {
    my ($pseudo) = @_;

    # Declare our variables
    my %dbm;
    my $db_file = "CTIC.dbm";

    # Tie the dbm with the file, opening it read-only
    tie %dbm, 'SDBM_File', $db_file, O_RDWR, 0;

    # Get the list
    my @list = split( "__", $dbm{ $pseudo } );

    # Get rid of the dbm
    untie %dbm;

    # Add the count to the end of the list
    push( @list, scalar( @list ) );

    # Return the list
    return @list;
}
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I agree that is much easier to understand - I implemented the changes and still get the same issue. I am starting to think it is more to do with the XS interface than the .pl file itself. The suspicious line is the  newXS statement.... what does this do with memory??

one other thing - I was unable to add warnings to my code, I will have to try and find out why I dont have that on the system.....

Thanks for the effort though - this problem is proving tough to answer.

Tom