I'd parse it in the following way... (haven't tested) 
sub ReadIniFile {
    my ($iniFile) = @_;
    my %config = ();

    local ($/) = undef;
    unless (open (INI, $iniFile)){
    print (LOG "Error: couldn't read from INI $iniFile: $!\n");
    die ("Error: couldn't read from INI $iniFile: $!\n");
    }
    my $ini = <INI>;
    close (INI);

    my (@mainpoints) = ($ini =~ /(\[\w+?\])\n/g); # extract [.....]
    my ($x, @contents) = split(/\[\w+?\]/, $ini);

    @config{@mainpoints} = @contents;
    
    foreach (keys %config){
    my %subHash = ();
    my @values = split(/\n+/, $config{$_});
    foreach (@values){
        my ($key, $val) = split(/\s*\:\s*/, $_, 2);
        next unless defined $key;
        next if $key eq '';
            next if $key =~ /^\s*\#/;
        $subHash{lc($key)} = $val;
    }
    $config{$_} = \%subHash;
    }               

    return (\%config);
} # ReadIniFile

[download]

Best regards,
perl -e "$_=*F=>y~\*martinF~stronat~=>s~[^\w]~~g=>chop,print"

In reply to Re: hash reference by strat
in thread hash reference by hotshot

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