Thanks poj. I tried that code and got an error msg "Global symbol "$newdir" requires explicit package name". I assume that must be due to the fact that the original code has "$newdir" and the replacement is $newdir

The root of the problem is that the script is allowing the creation of a file before that path name for _that_ file has been created.That needs to have in the subroutine "process_file", yet it seems only the filename is parsed to that subroutine, not the path name as well ??