You're probably better off using an array:

$/ = ":::\n"; # define ::: as paragraph delimiter

open(HOSTDB,"hostdb") or die "cannot open hostdb: $!";
while (<HOSTDB>) {
   chomp;
   push @records,map( { { split/:/ } } split/\n/ );  # updated to make
+ hashrefs....
close HOSTDB;

my $count = 0;
for my $rec (@records) {
   print "record $count\n";
   print "hostname: $rec->{hostname}\n";
   print "ip: $rec->{ip}\n";
   $count++;
}
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By the way; if you are not using the info anywhere else, you could also just print it as you go, instead of storing the records in the array.

Update: Added extra { } to map.

-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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Thank you both. and yes I am used to shell scripting , dont know how to shake that one off ..... barazani

you can use a simple array to hold the hosts, as in:

open(HOSTDB,"hostdb") or die "cannot open hostdb"; 
                                      # open hosts one time only.
my @hosts;                           # array to hold the hosts.
while(<HOSTDB>){
    push @hosts, chomp($_);
}

# using scalar on an array will give you the number of elements
print "number of records - ", scalar @hosts, "\n";
close(HOSTDB);

# instead of counting and selecting the hosts, use perl's foreach
# to loop inside the @hosts array

foreach my $host (@hosts){
    
    print "------host.$host--------\n";
         
    for my $field (split /\n/, $host ) {
       print "Field contains: '$field'\n";
    }
}
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