def load_server_list
    $server_count = 0
    $servers = []
    File.open('serverlist.txt').each do |line|
        next if line =~ /^$/
        next if line =~ /^#.*$/
        $servers << line.chomp.sub(/\s+#.*$/, '')
        $server_count += 1
    end
end

load_server_list
p $server_count
p $servers

This has the added ability to remove comments after server names. My 
sample serverlist.txt contained the following:

server1
#server2
server3

#server4
server5
server6 # comment after

An alternative implementation that doesn't use global variables is as 
follows:

def load_server_list
    server_count = 0
    servers = []
    File.open('serverlist.txt').each do |line|
        next if line =~ /^$/
        next if line =~ /^#.*$/
        servers << line.chomp.sub(/\s+#.*$/, '')
        server_count += 1
    end
    [server_count, servers]
end

(server_count, servers) = load_server_list
p server_count, servers

-austin
-- Austin Ziegler, austin / halostatue.ca on 2002.10.21 at 13.12.15