Looking more at this, I'm curious what Bob did. It might be that the file were created on Windows. It's been a few years since I edited that file, but there's about a 95% probability that it was created and edited with Gnu EMACS for VMS. The only other possibilities are EDT or EVE, and I'm pretty sure those both create VFC text files rather than stream. Looking around at other stuff that I've edited with EMACS on LEGATO, I see that they also have similar record formats. I've never had a problem using text files that I edited with EMACS with any VMS utility, so I'm not sure why you've got issues. Sorry for the delay, but I only read about 1/10th of the traffic on this list these days. Is it just RSX that has issues with this format? 'Tis my best educated guess having seen it all too often since the advent of _M_iscreant _I_diot _C_oding _R_ejects _O_utputting _S_pecious _O_ften _F_lawed _T_echnology WEENDOZE. In any event, I can promise that Windows had nothing to do with it. Sorry to disappoint you :-) Bo