You're correct in assuming that if the ESL wasn't working you couldn't run the program. However, the "announce" business doesn't touch the ESL, but I'm sure that is not the problem.

On a Novell system, I believe the "FLAG" command is what is used to ensure uses have the necessary rights to a directory. For example, "flag *.* ros" sets all files to "read only" and "share" in the current directory. I don't remember how to set files to "read-write".

I'm still thinking there is an access problem with "announce.bin". If you can't resolve the problem, rename "announce.bin" to something else. This shouldn't cause any problems.