I would suggest you look at the CPAN module Text::TreeFile which allows for the creation of hierarchical data structures directly from files.

Also, you might take a look at Lincoln Stein's Boulder and Stone classes (author ID: LDS) which do the same thing.

On second thought, look at LDS' stuff first as he is one of the most prominent Perl coders and everything he writes is widely used and tested... I'd even recommend him over anything I wrote myself! princepawn ... but Tye calls me "PrincePawn" <smile>