Bart: Thanks for that. It did not change the error message one iota. Here is the block that defines $config{'db'}. It parses a plain text config.db file which defines four connection variables (host, database, user, password). Similar blocks parse configuration parameters for different elements of the %config hash, which is returned with the Exporter with: 
 
our %config;

[download]
while (<DB>) {
  chomp;
  next if /^\s*\#/;              # Allow comments
  next if /^\s*$/;               # Allow blank lines
  unless (/=/) {                 # All other lines must look like: KEY
+ = VAL
    die "invalid variable assignment in supporters.db: $_";
  }
  my ($key, $val) = split(/\s*=\s*/,$_,2);   # Key and value are separ
+ated by equals and maybe space
  $key =~ s/^\s*//;      # Strip any leading space from the key
#  $val =~ s/(\$(\w+))/$config{$2}/g;  # Very simple (read: brittle) v
+ariable interpolation
  $val =~ s/ *$//g;           # Strip trailing white space from value
  $config{'db'}{'$key'} = $val;
}
close DB;

[download]
should this be creating references, instead of simply hash elements? Sorry for delay in responding. I was interrupted by a customer here. Thanks for your help and insight.

In reply to Re^2: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by hesco
in thread Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by hesco

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