Since you know what you're aiming at, just use the yaml as a template. Load it into Perl and then dump the resulting data structure:

use YAML::XS qw(LoadFile);
use Data::Dump qw(pp);

pp LoadFile(\*DATA);

__DATA__
path: /export/home/frank
options:
  -
    param: i
    value: '1001'
  -
    param f
  -
    param: x
    value: eyes
  -
    flag: b
    value: toes
  -
    param: p
arguments:
  -
    value: test

[download]
Produces: 
{
  arguments => [{ value => "test" }],
  options => [
    { param => "i", value => 1001 },
    "param f",
    { param => "x", value => "eyes" },
    { flag => "b", value => "toes" },
    { param => "p" },
  ],
  path => "/export/home/frank",
}

[download]

Which after looking back at your original post, is essentially the same as your input (which has a missing comma). So its not a matter of finding a data structure that produces your desired YAML. Maybe it's better to have asked why you want a specific format to your YAML? Isn't any format that properly encodes your data, okay?

In reply to Re: Keeping Order with YAML::XS by Loops
in thread Keeping Order with YAML::XS by walkingthecow

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