#! perl -sl use strict; use Data::Dump qw[ pp ]; sub parseConfig { my( $source, %config ) = shift; $source =~ s<(\S+)\s*(\{)\s*(.+)\}|(\S+)(\s+)([^;]+);> < my( $key, $f, $rest ) = ( $1 || $4, $2 || $5, $3 || $6 ); $config{ $key } = $f eq "{" ? parseConfig( $rest ) : $rest; >seg; return \%config; } my $config = parseConfig( do{ local $/; } ); pp $config; __DATA__ ## data per your OP ##

##

C:\test>junk70
{
  bob => {
           ed => {
                   larry => {
                         rule5 => {
                               action               => "allow",
                               application          => " any ",
                               category             => " any ",
                               destination          => " any ",
                               from                 => " prod-L3 ",
                               "hip-profiles"       => " any ",
                               "log-end"            => "yes",
                               "log-setting"        => "orion_log",
                               "log-start"          => "no",
                               "negate-destination" => "no",
                               "negate-source"      => "no",
                               option               => { "disable-server-response-inspection" => "no" },
                               service              => " any ",
                               source               => " any ",
                               "source-user"        => " any ",
                               tag                  => " some_tag ",
                               to                   => " corp-L3 ",
                             },
                       },
                 },
         },
}