perl -MData::Dumper -e ' $conf = { DEVICE => 'eth0', ONBOOT => 'yes', BOOTPROTO => 'static', TYPE => 'Ethernet', IPADDR => '10.9.0.200', NETMASK => '255.255.0.0', GATEWAY => '10.9.1.254', }; open( $fh, ">", "monkConfig.txt" ) or die; print $fh Data::Dumper->Dump([$conf],["config"]); ' #### $config = { 'TYPE' => 'Ethernet', 'ONBOOT' => 'yes', 'NETMASK' => 255.255.0.0, 'GATEWAY' => 10.9.1.254, 'DEVICE' => 'eth0', 'IPADDR' => 10.9.0.200, 'BOOTPROTO' => 'static' }; #### perl -le 'require "monkConfig.txt"; print $config->{'TYPE'}; ' __output__ Ethernet