It is possible to have no hosts database at all. Pointed out in

Subject: [PATCH: 7131] PWPASSWD problem for passwd less pwd's
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.10.10010031203470.388222-100000@aspara.forte.com>

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@7139

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/Configure b/Configure
index ae6712fb23..dadb98acae 100755
--- a/Configure
+++ b/Configure
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 
 # $Id: Head.U,v 3.0.1.9 1997/02/28 15:02:09 ram Exp $
 #
-# Generated on Tue Oct  3 05:18:15 EET DST 2000 [metaconfig 3.0 PL70]
+# Generated on Wed Oct  4 01:09:27 EET DST 2000 [metaconfig 3.0 PL70]
 # (with additional metaconfig patches by perlbug@perl.org)
 
 cat >/tmp/c1$$ <<EOF
@@ -7116,18 +7116,23 @@ case "$myhostname" in
 					/[	 ]$myhostname[	. ]/p" > hosts
 		}
 		tmp_re="[	. ]"
-		$test x`$awk "/[0-9].*[	 ]$myhostname$tmp_re/ { sum++ }
+		if $test -f hosts; then
+			$test x`$awk "/[0-9].*[	 ]$myhostname$tmp_re/ { sum++ }
 			     END { print sum }" hosts` = x1 || tmp_re="[	 ]"
-		dflt=.`$awk "/[0-9].*[	 ]$myhostname$tmp_re/ {for(i=2; i<=NF;i++) print \\\$i}" \
-			hosts | $sort | $uniq | \
-			$sed -n -e "s/$myhostname\.\([-a-zA-Z0-9_.]\)/\1/p"`
-		case `$echo X$dflt` in
-		X*\ *)	echo "(Several hosts in /etc/hosts matched hostname)"
+			dflt=.`$awk "/[0-9].*[	 ]$myhostname$tmp_re/ {for(i=2; i<=NF;i++) print \\\$i}" \
+				hosts | $sort | $uniq | \
+				$sed -n -e "s/$myhostname\.\([-a-zA-Z0-9_.]\)/\1/p"`
+			case `$echo X$dflt` in
+			X*\ *)	echo "(Several hosts in the database matched hostname)"
+				dflt=.
+				;;
+			X.) echo "(You do not have fully-qualified names in the hosts database)"
+				;;
+			esac
+		else
+			echo "(I cannot locate a hosts database anywhere)"
 			dflt=.
-			;;
-		X.) echo "(You do not have fully-qualified names in /etc/hosts)"
-			;;
-		esac
+		fi
 		case "$dflt" in
 		.)
 			tans=`./loc resolv.conf X /etc /usr/etc`