Hello, I've got a subroutine that produces a nested hash, as below: 
sub build_quota_list
{
   my %users;

   open QUOTA, $quotareport;
   while (<QUOTA>) {
      if (m/ \+[ \-]/) {
         my ($username, $over, $used, $soft_block, $hard_block, $junk)
+=split " ", $_, 6;
         $users{$username}{uname}=$username;
         $users{$username}{used}=$used;
         $users{$username}{soft_block}=$soft_block;
         $users{$username}{hard_block}=$hard_block;
      }
   }
   close QUOTA;
   return %users;
}

[download]
I call it like this: my %users=build_quota_list; It seems to work fine; I've verified with the debugger that my nested hash contains what I expect it to contain. However, when I try to pass that selfsame has into a subroutine, all hell breaks loose. 
sub find_deletion_candidates
{
   my %users=@_;
   use User::pwent;
   foreach(keys %users) {
      my %user=$_;
      my $pw=getpwnam($user{uname});
      my $homedir=$pw->dir;
   }
   # do bunch o' stuff I haven't coded yet
   return %users;
}
%users=find_deletion_candidates(%users);

[download]

It's really wierd. With the debugger (ptkdb), I can verify that @_ looks like I'd expect, my nice nested hash. But after I do my %users=@_, %users doesn't contain what I expect. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks a ton,

Aaron

In reply to hash parameter question by PerlHeathen

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