Hi Anyone can explain me this result: $ cat x d a b $ cat y a b $ join -11 -21 x y $ join reports nothing. The man page tells some magic about the need of sort if -t is not used, but using -t gives the same result: $ cat x d a:b $ cat y a:b $ join -t: -11 -21 x y $ -- Emmanuel Dreyfus manu@netbsd.org