Chop.exe did just what i wanted. As a test run I picked a 2,7MB file, consisting of 365 e-mail messages. Chop handled this just fine and I ended up with 365 new files (max number of chops set on command line). Chop named the new files using the basename from the original, and incrementing the extensions, in my case test.1 through test.365. The only *minor* problem I have found so far with CHOP, is that if I insert a string in the original file by use of a replace utility (e.g ALTER.EXE), where the string is to serve as return character (Chop's name for what I referred to as *splitmarker*), the string will be left as part of the output. There are switches to decide if the CHOP should be performed before (-H) or after (-A) the return characters. The former leaves the return charter at the beginning of each output file, the latter leaves it at the end. But as said, this is only a *minor* problem. Since I insert a unique string, it can easily be *reversed (removed) the same way without affecting the original text. But one thing that do worry me is that this will result in a lot of writing to disk (cf fragmentation). For instance, in my example above CHOP wrote 355 new files to disk. If I am to use a search/replace utility it would have to read/write the same files all over to remove the string. Guess I simple solution to avoid this would be to do it all on a RAM disk (if enough ram), thus avoid disk fragmentation - and gain some speed as well. As I write this, I'm thinking: Since I want to insert a unique string in my files to be split, I better make sure the string is really unique - just in case (even if picking an *odd* string not likely to occur in the files I want to split should be easy). I'm thinking I could set the string in a variable (STRING=), then use the %string% format in my batch files, and as part of the routine test the original file for any occurrence of %string% (abort if found) before the next step which insert it. Hey...this is fun... and CHOP did just what I wanted (almost:-)! Thanks for all suggestions, thanks to Gary for the files :-), and a special thanks to Travis who so generously offered to re-write one of his utilities to suit my needs! :-) All the best, Bjorn To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
