I tried that and it doesn't work because it only enters that part of the if condition, if $host (the machine you are logged into at that time, which I have set with
$host =`hostname`) doesn't equal
$system->{host}
if ( not $system->{host}{$host})
I need to be able to dreference $system->{host} so it will come up with the name of the hostname, but I don't think that will work because the hostname is the key rather than the value. I think I might have to change my hash.
Thanks for your help anyway.