Hi Folks - I'm working on a mod to an existing program to write compressed output files. The following code works fine, but if I put the indicated code in a function, it drops core when I attempt to write to the ofile ostream - presumably because the filtering_streambuf<output> out was allocated on the stack and no longer exists after the function exits. #include <fstream> #include <iostream> #include <string> #include #include using namespace std; using namespace boost::iostreams; using namespace boost::iostreams::bzip2; int main() { string x; fstream infile; infile.open("00011.eph.org", ios::in); ostream *ofile; //******* To be put in function ************************ fstream *file2; file2 = new fstream; file2->open("00011.eph.org.bz2", ios_base::out | ios_base::binary); filtering_streambuf<output> out; out.push(bzip2_compressor()); out.push(*file2); ofile = new ostream(&out); //******* To be put in function ************************ while(!infile.eof()) { getline(infile, x); *ofile << x << endl; } return 0; } //***************************************************************************** Now if I attempt to dynamically allocate the filtering_streambuf. #include <fstream> #include <iostream> #include <string> #include #include using namespace std; using namespace boost::iostreams; using namespace boost::iostreams::bzip2; int main() { string x; fstream infile; infile.open("00011.eph.org", ios::in); ostream *ofile; //******* To be put in function ************************ fstream *file2; file2 = new fstream; file2->open("00011.eph.org.bz2", ios_base::out | ios_base::binary); filtering_streambuf<output> *out; out = new filtering_streambuf<output>; out->push(bzip2_compressor()); out->push(*file2); ofile = new ostream(out); //******* To be put in function ************************ while(!infile.eof()) { getline(infile, x); *ofile << x << endl; } return 0; } This code compiles and runs fine, but the compressed output file, 00011.eph.org.bz2, ends up empty. Moving the indicated code to a function again works fine - but again, no output?? The reasoning for all this is that I'd like to be able to open and set up the various output streams in a function, and then pass those streams around as needed. Which means they need to be dynamically allocated/built on the heap. But it's not working?? Ideas? What am I missing here? Thanks Eric