# First, open a lexical block to hold the configuration variables.
{
    # Now, open a configuration file to pull in data.
    my %settings;
    open my $config, "<configfile.dat" or 
        die "Can't get started.\n$!";
    while ( my $entry = <$config> ) {
        my ( $key, $value ) = split /\s+=\s+/, $entry;
        chomp $value;
        $settings{$key} = $value;
    }
    close $config;

    # Now, define the sub that will be the "getter" of 
    # the lexical variables.
    sub mysub {
        print "Configuration file settings:\n";
        foreach my $key ( %settings ) {
            print "$key = $settings{$key}\n";
        }
    }

# Next, close the lexical block.  Only things within this block
# will have access to the varibles declared with 'my' within it.
}

# This is the main program block:

mysub();