I have a file with attributes as listed below. prw------- 1 raj dba 0 May 30 11:26 x.dat Could someone please tell me what 'prw' means ? I thought its always 'rwx' with a 'd' qualifier for directory. Also I cannot even list the contents of the file. If I issue 'cat x.dat' it just sits there. Please help. Raj

The character in column one is the type of file. - = ordinary (plain) disk file d = directory b = block special file c = character special file p = fifo file("named pipe")special file l = symbolic link

As correctly stated by endora57, the "p" indicates the type of file. A fifo file is normally used to communicate between programs. The next 3 bytes ("rw-") indicates the "user who owns the file(s)" privileges. That's followed by the "group" privileges "---" and lastly by anybody elses ("other") privileges (also "---". The way the x.dat files is set up means only the "user who owns the file" has read and write (rw) privileges to it. I believe the reason you are not seeing anything is that a fifo file only contains data while the processes that are using the file are executing. Thus, when you key "cat x.dat" - nothing is there.