Dir dka0:[000000...] ;) Not failed, just not licensed. that license covers a set of programs that happens to be on the hobbiest CD including C, Pascal, TCP/IP networking and a bunch of other things. VMS itself includes a fairly nice editor (TPU) and a raft of goodies. With DCL (command language{script}) you can do most anything. {there are lexical functions in DCL with would do things that grep can do} Dir *.dir works! Directories have the extension .DIR. Dir [...]foo*.asm Will find anything in the current or subordinate directories that match that pattern. Dir [-]FOO??.A?M A ? is a single character wild card and the "[-]" says search the directory level above the current one. VMS directories start at [000000] and decend from there. so dir dka300:[000000] will get you the top level directoy of the SCSI drive on bus A with ID 3. Help dir will get you info. VMS is known for the rather rich set of operators that modify the basic action. My favorite device modifier... Set device=flamethrower/temperature:plasma You get the picture. I have a list of DCL functions, ailiases, and logicals that I use to make things friendlier. Most often used are: UP same as SET DEF [-] {cd ..} DO*WN decend to either list of availabile directories or create a new one. {only one level down from current} same asCD FOO or mkdir At some point once I have a web page going I should make the DCL scripts I use frequently available as they can be handy. No law says you can't create a ailias to do exactly what MKDIR, CD, REMDIR and friends do in the unix world. Implement them in DCL and insert the code/defs in the login.com file. Hint, system is a dangerous account like root. Create a user account with some privs as a safety net. Also every account should have a login.com which is like a DOS autoexec.bat though DCL is more powerful. Allison