Okay, I was doing some simple batch programming, and experienced the need to somehow get the first line of some files (I have a directory of files, and the files contain the path to another file in their contents as the first and only line) into some usable form such as an environment variable. However, I have no idea as to how to do this... I tried a couple things involving redirection and pipes, as well as CON, but none of them worked. So, simply stated, could I redirect something's output to an environment variable instead of a file? I guess that would not be required, and there are probably other ways of doing it... it would just enable to me to do what I'm trying to do - which is view the contents of a file which the path of is specified in another file... and I need to integrate that into a batch file - like I said, I have a directory full of files that have the path to another file in their contents. A file is specified on the command line of the batch file... and it needs to view the file specified in that file's contents. I believe I've stated that point enough now. Thanks, -Chris

Hi Chris. Laurence Soucy did post the following script a couple of days ago (snipped script): @ECHO off :: ASCII Assembler by Laura Fairhead ECHO XPYP[*'CC-\1P\QX,=P,APZ5O!PQ2O~5aaI~}Ksx>%temp%.\echos.com ECHOS.COM will echo a string without CR/LF character on the end. So, use it like this: @ECHO off :: ASCII Assembler by Laura Fairhead ECHO XPYP[*'CC-\1P\QX,=P,APZ5O!PQ2O~5aaI~}Ksx>%temp%.\echos.com %temp%.\echos.com SET VAR=> %temp%.\temp.bat type filename.ext >> %temp%.\temp.bat call %temp%.\temp.bat del %temp%.\echos.com del %temp%.\temp.bat Watch out for line wrapping. FILENAME.EXT is the file which has the string to be sent to %VAR%. This script actually gets the text into FILENAME.EXT, inputs a prefix on it ("SET VAR="), send to a batch file and runs it. -- Secret_Doom - Leonardo Pignataro -- PS: Hey Laurence, that ASCII code is very useful, I must say! secret_doom@hotmail.com www.batch.hpg.com.br