tphyahoo,
The obvious question is why? Typically when you pass by reference you keep it as a reference and not make a complete copy later on. To answer your question: 
my %arg = %{ shift() or die "Error" };

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Cheers - L~R

Update: Placed the or die inside hash key.

In reply to Re: Better way to dereference a shifted hashref arg? by Limbic~Region
in thread Better way to dereference a shifted hashref arg? by tphyahoo

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