I've just discovered that on Ultrix systems with X11 libs installed yet lacking a /dev/xcons, /usr/lib/X11/xconsole can be used to destructively overwrite any file on the system. To duplicate, set display to a working server, create a symbolic link from /tmp/Xconsole.log to the file to be overwritten, and run xconsole. The target file will be overwritten with a single line error message concerning the nonexistance of /dev/xcons. I believe the problem can be eliminated by creating a root read-writeable touchfile as /dev/xcons. I havent had very much opportunity to play with this one yet, it may have some other possibilities. dan -- dan cohn \ dan@dan.com