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in reply to Re^2: Logic trouble parsing a formatted text file into hashes of hashes (of hashes, etc.)
in thread Logic trouble parsing a formatted text file into hashes of hashes (of hashes, etc.)

He's speaking of building a SAX-style parser for your file format. Recognize tokens, call functions when you find them, and keep track of context with package variables...

Another alternative might be Parse::RecDescent or the YAPP module...