No recursion needed here. This is simple awk-style stream processing like in the (untested!) sample. Re-arrange the sequence of the matching rules to include/exclude the leading/ending patterns for your hostname sections. 
while (<>)
{
        /^hostname/ and do {
                $host_section = 1;
                ++$tot;         # number of hostnames
        };
        if ($host_section) {
                print $_;
                ++$tot2;        # lines in host sections
                # do some processing...
        }
        /^end-of-hostname-pattern/ and do {
                $host_section = 0;
        };
}

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In reply to Re: Too much recursion by pklausner
in thread Too much recursion by jrvd

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