Hey Jame!   
      
    JC> There are Perl FTN related modules available which use such things   
    JC> as the pack function to do things like read/write FTN packets.   
      
   In the original post I was thinking more along the line of something   
   that would farm out an array of data that would call perl's pack   
   function directly from the bash script which shouldn't require any   
   modularization.  Perl already has more modules than ever get used here.   
   This was more of a 'less is more' idea, and only for the outbound   
   message(s) headers.  A bash script can handle the rest just fine.   
      
   Another option would be ascii2binary which might be more suited to   
   minimalized linux enviroments where perl isn't available.   
      
    JC> The PERL echo is back in distribution   
      
   I was wondering about that.  Posted there awhile ago and have yet to see   
   acknowledgement of it.  I did see one post come through there recently   
   about some zip file.   
      
   Life is good,   
   Maurice   
      
   --- WeBeBashing with VIM - Vi IMproved 7.3   
    * Origin: Pointy Stick Society (1:261/38.9)