use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $filename = 'hashref.txt';

my $hashRef = {a => '1',
               b => '2'};

open my $FH, '>', $filename or die
   "Unable to open $filename for output: $^E\n";

print $FH Dumper $hashRef;

close $FH;

my $testdata;

#  Since I'm using 'strict', must declare $VAR1 as it is used in
#  the dump file.
my $VAR1;

open $FH, '<', $filename or die $!;
{
    local $/;
    # Not sure what this line is for
    #  $DB::single=1;
    $testdata = eval <$FH>;
}
close $FH;

while (my ($key,$value) = each(%$testdata))
{
   print "$key $value\n";
}
#
#  This is what the file hashref.txt looks loke
#
__DATA__
$VAR1 = {
          'a' => '1',
          'b' => '2'
        };