I've written it with out the lock, and it still causes the problem.

$savestr="$optionstr\n$total\n$countstr"; 
print $savestr; 
#save data back to file 
#save edited data back to file 
####################save file
sub Savetofile{
#open and read each line
open(OUTFILE,">../kicks.txt")or 
die("Cannot open file");
flock(OUTFILE, LOCK_EX);
print (OUTFILE "$savestr");
flock(OUTFILE, LOCK_UN)or die("Cannot unlock 
file");
close (OUTFILE) or die("Cannot close file");
}
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Edited by Chady -- added code tags.

a subroutine doesn't get executed unless you call it; this:

print "a";
sub doit { print "zed" }
print "b";
&doit();
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prints "a", then "b", then "zed". After the print "a", perl jumps right over the sub definition to the next plain statement.

ok..I know how to run subroutines. I am calling the routine near the top of the file (to keep things organized). This code works when I call the sub. However, it only runs when a string is outputted e.g. "hello" not $hello="hello"..that's the issue here.

You don't show where you are actually making the call to Savetofile. It needs to be somewhere after assigning to $savestr. Can you paste all the code, and explain (with examples) what you mean by 'if I pass "hello!" directly'.

A better solution might be to pass the string as a parameter to Savetofile:

$savestr = "whatever\n";
&Savetofile($savestr);

sub Savetofile
{
    my $string = shift;
    if (defined($string)) {
# all the open/lock/print/close stuff goes here
    }
}
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Also can you please put your code in <code> tags, it makes it a lot easier to read! Thanks...