thanks (note: you can also edit the original post to the same effect and spare people's eyes on the first look

re the code: use an XML module out of CPAN-- XML::Writer is a good simple one, or XML::Simple. I started posting here with a problem where I was generating XML with print statements and concatenation and the XML reader would crash on what I thought was just copies of what was coming in. "Use an already debugged module to generate XML" was some of the best advice I've gotten here and it will save you a lot of headaches downstream.