#%vars has the structure $vars{$name} = [$local, $value]
return \%vars
##</code><code>##

my $vars = get_vars_hash($file);

Dumper(\%$vars);  #just for testing.
#outputs
#$var1 = {
#         'DATE'=>[
#                  'G234_DATE',
#                  'ZERO'
#                 ],
#         'STOP'=>[
#                  'G234_STOP''
#                  '60'
#                 ]
#         }
#Which is what I expected

foreach $key (keys(%$vars)){
    print "$key\n";
}
#outputs
#DATE
#ARRAY(0x1df50b0)
#STOP
#ARRAY(0x1df5074)