I just set logFile to NULL in the static declaration then in lou_logFile, as the first instruction tested it and if it was NULL set it to stderr. It compiles now. John -- John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer Abilitiessoft, Inc. http://www.abilitiessoft.com Madison, Wisconsin USA Developing software for people with disabilities For a description of the software and to download it go to http://www.jjb-software.com