i prefer bare blocks, just as a style thing. they make more sense to me than  do ... while blocks.

no, i don't mean to be appending. that's something else i noticed. it *really* won't append, because there should never be a file there by the name, but making sure doesn't hurt.

well, the *thought* is that it's a transitory error ... hence the retry. but, i can't assume that it's transitory, so i'm adding a  $attempts var, and moving on if  $attempts > 3