bash-4.2$ cat dump use Data::Dumper; my %hash =( 'script' => 'foo.pm', 'params' => { 'err' => '99', 'FILE' => 'fileA' }, 'par_global' => { 'err' => '99', 'FILE_READ' => 'fileB', }, 'testset' => ['test1'] ); print Dumper( \%hash ) . "\n"; #### bash-4.2$ perl dump $VAR1 = { 'params' => { 'FILE' => 'fileA', 'err' => '99' }, 'script' => 'foo.pm', 'par_global' => { 'FILE_READ' => 'fileB', 'err' => '99' }, 'testset' => [ 'test1' ] };