I've written some doozies in C, though luckily none when I was touching the phone company's 911 system. As for Perl, one in particular stands out. When I was new to Perl, back in the days of Perl 4, I was testing a script in the same directory as the test data. (I know, I know, but if you knew how hard I'd had to fight just to get test data, ...) The script was to take a HUGE list of files and, based on the file names, place them into new subdirectories. An ideal job for Perl, right?

Anyway, after the script ran, I was left with some files that were the result of directory handles. (Like I said, i was new to Perl at the time.) This wouldn't do on one of NASA's public ftp sites, so I had the Perl script delete any leftover non-directory files ... which, in the test area, included the Perl script that was running.

So yes, I have written self-deleting code.

--
tbone1
Ain't enough 'O's in 'stoopid' to describe that guy.
- Dave "the King" Wilson