sorry, yes I meant die, thank you for the tip about eval, I have no idea why I did not think about that.

Problem is I have no idea what would be too much data and I find the reputation of unreliability of SOCK_DGRAM quite scary...

About starting higher up, thing is I need some granularity : each module must be able to run either on a windows or unix box and they need to be able to request the best messaging daemon performance wise (meaning they should use unix sockets when on unix box to communicate with other processes on the same box, named pipe to do so on windows and INET sockets on to communicate over the network).

Up to now I only have implemented named pipe communication and unix sockets but I think I shall use the fine module in the link you just sent me for the network communication! thanks a bunch :D