Thanks for your response. But doesn't the code just check 'mylist'?? It seems like it would always return 'found' to me.

Where is the comparison to the 'filelist'?
I didn't know how the iteration should be handled here using ksh script.

True that it can halt after finding one instance in filelist but it may still have to check the entire list, non? For example, the third file of 50 in mylist could be the 35th file listed in filelist...how do I handle the interation...I've only handle a single while read situation but not a dual case.

Gianni.