I don't ever use the xargs command and unfortunately, my bash book doesn't really cover it and it's really tricky. What I want to do is to distribute some new files which I put into /etc/skel to existing users (all users for that matter)... so I tried... ls /home > users # so I can edit list cd /home cat users > xargs cp /etc/skel/.procmailrc ### didn't work cp /etc/skel/.procmailrc < xargs users cp: overwrite `users'? ### clearly didn't work I've tried a bunch of different things but none seem to be happening... man xargs is never gonna get through to this thick head Craig