my (@hosts, @uphosts, @downhosts);

if ( -e "ship.cfg" ) {
        open (CFGFILE, "ship.cfg") || die $!;

##</code><code>##

        while (my @TMP=<CFGFILE>) {

##</code><code>##

        # while (<CFGFILE>) {

##</code><code>##

        # while (defined(my $line = <ARGV>)) {
        #     ...
        # }

##</code><code>##

                #if ( $_ =~ /^#/ ) { next }  # commented out in the OP

##</code><code>##

                foreach $_(@TMP) {

##</code><code>##

                        if ($_ =~ /^([\w.]+)$/) {

##</code><code>##

                                $_ = $1;

##</code><code>##

                                push (@hosts, $1);
                        } else {
                                next;
                        }

##</code><code>##

        close (CFGFILE);

##</code><code>##

# Just cleaning up the verbage is are host hosts etc...
if (scalar(@downhosts) == 1 ) {
        $verbage[2]="is";
        $verbage[3]="host"
if (scalar(@uphosts) == 1 ) {
        $verbage[0]="is";
        $verbage[1]="host";
}

##</code><code>##

# We don't care about things that don't exist...
unless (scalar(@downhosts) == 0) { print p,"There $verbage[2] ",scalar