Well, it describes a little more about what you want to accomplish but it still isn't clear. You need to write a CGI program that accesses a file on an AIX machine. Will the CGI program run on the AIX machine or do you need to access the text file from a web application running 'outside' (whatever 'outside' means)?

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print map { my ($m)=1<<hex($_)&11?' ':'';
$m.=substr('AHJPacehklnorstu',hex($_),1) }
split //,'2fde0abe76c36c914586c';
[download]

ok.."outside" means this. my perl script will be on my PC. and this particular perl script needs to access the AIX machine and gets the text file out so I can use its information to for my web application. Is that clear? THanks a lot..

It's more clear, but it's still trivial. Unless you can produce specific code that you've attempted to write that produces an error which you can't understand the entry for which in perldoc perldiag, you're probably not going to get someone jump forward and offer to write your program for you. Your best bet is to either show the code that's not working, or avail yourself of a tutorial or book (or any of the number of code samples available in the Snippets Section).

Thanks for all you help first of all I appreicate it. the thing is, I have no idea how to start like I don't know where to look...is this a socket client/server communication type of thing or what? like....if u see what I mean...yes it is just a simple opening a file on unix system problem...if my program/script is on the unix system then it's easy, evena beginner knows...but the problem is I have to access that file OUTSIDE of the system. like...I have no idea perl could do taht before and I had been searching for days I don;'t know where to look. If someone could give me some ideas or some hints as to wehre to look for answer that would be great. I had been looking at differnet functions, POSIX and stuff....no idea....I am really lost.

You need to determine how the file can be accessed from 'outside'. If the file is accessable through an FTP server, you can read it with Net::FTP. If it is available on a web server, you can try various modules including LWP::Simple.

---
print map { my ($m)=1<<hex($_)&11?' ':'';
$m.=substr('AHJPacehklnorstu',hex($_),1) }
split //,'2fde0abe76c36c914586c';
[download]

OK in our company we have a RS6000 machine...that uses AIX as its OS, and there is a text file on it that I need to gain access from the outside because I need to write a CGI program/webpage that collects information from taht text file, that's why I need a perl program taht have access to that text file on the Unix system, is that more clear?

ok I am very sorry for being unclear and also I would really like to thank you all for helping! :) anyways it is telnet enabled. And as a person I would login thru telnet and the file is places in my root directary. IS there anything else I missed? I am sorry.