David, if I call astPurgeWCS on an empty FitsChan before doing anything else to it, I get a SEGV: #include <stdio.h> #include "ast.h" const char *source(); void sink( const char * ); int main() { AstFitsChan *fc; fc = astFitsChan( source, sink, "" ); astPurgeWCS( fc ); } const char *source() { return NULL; } void sink( const char *line ) { } Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK [log in to unmask] +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/