You can use Data::Dumper to do that. 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
$Data::Dumper::Indent = 1;

my  %services = (
    1 => {
        name => "service1",
        host => { host1 => 1 },
    },

    2 => {
        name => "dxuldm",
        host => { host0 => 2, host5 => 2 },
    },
);

open my $fh, '>', 'services.txt'
  or die "can't open to write: $!\n";
print $fh Data::Dumper->Dump([\%services], [qw(services_restored)]);
close $fh;

our $services_restored;
eval {do 'services.txt'};

print Dumper $services_restored;

[download]
output: 
$VAR1 = {
  '1' => {
    'name' => 'service1',
    'host' => {
      'host1' => 1
    }
  },
  '2' => {
    'name' => 'dxuldm',
    'host' => {
      'host0' => 2,
      'host5' => 2
    }
  }
};

[download]

In reply to Re: Reading from a flat text file database and storing contents in a hash by wfsp
in thread Reading from a flat text file database and storing contents in a hash by wishartz

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