thank you to everyone who helped me with this. in the end i cp'd the default file [bsd.pkg.defaults.mk] to /etc/mk.conf and editied it. all is well. again, thanks. Y --- Jose Alberto Muniz Technical Support Specialist (Unix) Cambridge Unversity Press 40 West 20th Street New York, New York 10011 212.824.3900 x420 jmuniz@cup.org