Hi, all. on http://docs.python.org/library/bdb.html canonic(filename) Auxiliary method for getting a filename in a canonical form, that is, as a case-normalized (on case-insensitive filesystems) absolute path, stripped of surrounding angle brackets. Is " stripped of surrounding angle brackets." means it removes "<" on left end and ">" on right end? In the code: def canonic(self, filename): if filename == "<" + filename[1:-1] + ">": return filename canonic = self.fncache.get(filename) if not canonic: canonic = os.path.abspath(filename) canonic = os.path.normcase(canonic) self.fncache[filename] = canonic return canonic canonic() doesn't remove "<" and ">". -- INADA Naoki  <songofacandy@gmail.com>