note wazoox IIRC Windows locks the file when opened. You may be able to check the file lock state, maybe something like this (I have no windows box to test): <c> open my $fh, "/some/file" or die "can't open!"; # try/catch file locking eval { flock $fh, 'LOCK_EX' or die "can't lock!" }; if ( $@) { warn "open file!" && exit; } </c> 153486 784527