note sdetweil thank you. <br><br> using your example I tested on my platform, and it worked. <br><br> but my app didn't.. <br><br> the difference was that I called $ENV{} from the thread code (&routine below), vs the main app code.. <br><br> <code> threads->create(&routine); </code> <br><br> moving the $ENV{} to the main code allows it to work. <br><br> <code> $ENV{'SKIP_SYSTEM'}='1'; threads->create(&routine); </code> 1013046 1013057