Thanks Oombera
Still not taking it
# which convert
/usr/X11R6/bin/convert
and
# whereis convert
convert: /usr/X11R6/bin/convert /usr/bin/X11/convert
which seem to be aliases of the same proggy
substituting the full path
/usr/X11R6/bin/convert ‐resize 120x120 "$searchfile" "$tndir"
and unquoted
/usr/X11R6/bin/convert ‐resize 120x120 $searchfile $tndir
yeilds the same problem.
What your saying reminds me of all those times I was banging my head trying to get a script called 'test' to work..... but alas it doesn't seem to be my problem on this occasion. The quest continues....
My Bash powers are weak but my next guess is to use 'here document' or command substitution... am I thinking right? How would I recast the syntax to use an alternative method of calling convert?