In that case, here is the solution I have for you. Please forgive me for my mistaken assumption... 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

# the configuration parameters along with their defaults
my %config = ('key1' => 'default1',
              'key2' => 'default2',
              'key3' => undef
             );

while (<DATA>) {
        next if /^\s*#/;  # skip lines that start with # (comments)
        next if /^\s*$/;  # skip blank lines

        s/^\s*//;         # remove leading whitespace
        s/\s*$//;         # remove trailing whitespace


        # separate the parameter from the value ' = '
        my ($k,$v) = split(/\s*=\s*/,$_,2);
        if (exists($config{$k})) {
                $config{$k} = $v;
        }
        else {
                print "Config file contains a bad key: k\n";
        }
}

# verify that the required info has been supplied
while (my ($k,$v) = each %config) {
        unless (defined($v)) {
                print "$k needs to be set\n";
        }
}

print Dumper \%config;

__DATA__

# some comment

key1 = set to 1

some_bogus_key = some_bogus_value

[download]
Will give you this output. 
Config file contains a bad key: some_bogus_key
key3 needs to be set
$VAR1 = {
          'key1' => 'set to 1',
          'key2' => 'default2',
          'key3' => undef
        };

[download]

/\/\averick
perl -l -e "eval pack('h*','072796e6470272f2c5f2c5166756279636b672');"

In reply to Re: Re: Re: parsing config file by maverick
in thread parsing config file by Anonymous Monk

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