use Storable qw(nstore retrieve);

# these are the vars replaced by load_from_file
my %conf = (a=>'A',b=>'B');
my %help = (a=>'letter A',b=>'letter B');

load_from_file('/path/to/file.sto'); 

sub load_from_file {
    my $file = shift;
    unless (defined $file){ return ; }
    my $pfile = File::Spec->catfile($drive,$directories,'conf',$file);
    if (defined $file && -e $pfile)  {
        
        my $mconf; 
        my $mhelp;
        
        eval {($mconf, $mhelp )= @{retrieve ($pfile)}} ;
        if ($@){ warn "WARNING no configuration in '$file'!\n"; return;}
        else {
                %conf = %{$mconf};
                %help = %{$mhelp};
                print  "OK $file profile loaded.\n";
                return 1;
       }

    }
    else {warn "WARNING profile $file not found!\n";return}
}