I modified pdksh (from version 3.3 of freeBSD ), compiled it (with the -g option) and placed a breakpoint at c_print (the entry to executing the print / echo statements). This worked fine for simple print commands. However, a print command in a pipeline (e.g. print 'qwertyuiop;lkjhg' | cat - ) did not break, but core-dumped. Similarly for a print command in a sub process (e.g. ( print 'qwertyuiop;lkjhg' ) ). I believe the version of gdb that I got from version 3.3 of freeBSD is 4.18 . ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.