diff --git a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
index daef3678e..b215c9e44 100644
--- a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
+++ b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
@@ -274,6 +274,14 @@ sub setup_blacklist() {
 
 		progress_message "  \"$currentline\" added to blacklist";
 	    }
+
+	    if ( $first_entry && @$hosts ) {
+		warning_message q(There are interfaces or hosts with the 'blacklist' option but the 'blacklist' file is empty);
+		last BLACKLIST;
+	    } 
+	} elsif ( @$hosts ) {
+	    warning_message q(There are interfaces or hosts with the 'blacklist' option, but the 'blacklist' file is either missing or has zero size);
+	    last BLACKLIST;
 	}
 
 	my $state = $config{BLACKLISTNEWONLY} ? $globals{UNTRACKED} ? '-m state --state NEW,INVALID,UNTRACKED ' : '-m state --state NEW,INVALID ' : '';
diff --git a/Shorewall/changelog.txt b/Shorewall/changelog.txt
index 9afb7d754..c2a373ea3 100644
--- a/Shorewall/changelog.txt
+++ b/Shorewall/changelog.txt
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ Changes in Shorewall 4.4.8
 
 16) Distinguish between 'Started' and 'Restored' in ${VARDIR}/state
 
+17) Issue warnings when 'blacklist' but no blacklist file entries.
+
 Changes in Shorewall 4.4.7
 
 1)  Backport optimization changes from 4.5.