Found the problem.

The prototype being used by Config::Std::read_config isn't supported until perl 5.7.3 - see perl573delta.

Minimal test case: 

sub read_config ($\[%$]) {}
read_config( 'example.conf' => my %conf );

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In reply to Re^3: problem with Config::Std on FreeBSD box? by imp
in thread problem with Config::Std on FreeBSD box? by leocharre

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