Thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned that oggenc will not work with IPC::Open3, and the piped open is the only thing that has given any output.

My plan was to capture the encoded chunks and send it to a socket......to make a VOIP type of program. The temp file would work, but would introduce a delay in sending the audio. I need to send as it is being spoken, at least in 4k chunks.

Maybe I need to capture the stdout file-descriptor of the piped-open?