You should read the docs (perlreftut and perlref) to have a better understanding.

That said, it seems like you can get rid of some intermediate variables that add to the clutter. I have reconstructed the first two hash references for @LITERALS. Perhaps this is what you're looking for?

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

use Data::Dumper;

my @LITERALS = (
    # this is equivalent to \%H00
    { 
        "--system" => 'Apache',
        "--slinks" => [
                          {
                              "--link" => "/etc/httpd/SSL",
                              "--fold" => "/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/SSL",
                          },

                          {
                              "--link" => "/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf"
+,
                              "--file" => "/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/conf/httpd.conf",
                          },

                          {
                              "--link" => "/etc/httpd/conf.d/httpd.con
+f",
                              "--file" => "/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/conf.d/nagios.conf",
                          },
                      ],
    },

    # this is equivalent to \%H01
    { 
        "--system" => 'Logrotate',
        "--slinks" => [
                          {
                              "--link" => "/etc/logrotate.d/nagios",
                              "--file" => "/usr/local/private/QA/logro
+tate/nagios",
                          },
                      ],
    },
);

print <<"EOT";
Example: --file of 2nd --slinks of 1st LITERAL (--system is Apache) is
+:
$LITERALS[0]->{"--slinks"}->[1]->{"--file"}

EOT

print Dumper(\@LITERALS);

__DATA__
Example: --file of 2nd --slinks of 1st LITERAL (--system is Apache) is
+:
/usr/local/private/QA/apache/conf/httpd.conf

$VAR1 = [
          {
            '--slinks' => [
                            {
                              '--fold' => '/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/SSL',
                              '--link' => '/etc/httpd/SSL'
                            },
                            {
                              '--file' => '/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/conf/httpd.conf',
                              '--link' => '/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf'
                            },
                            {
                              '--file' => '/usr/local/private/QA/apach
+e/conf.d/nagios.conf',
                              '--link' => '/etc/httpd/conf.d/httpd.con
+f'
                            }
                          ],
            '--system' => 'Apache'
          },
          {
            '--slinks' => [
                            {
                              '--file' => '/usr/local/private/QA/logro
+tate/nagios',
                              '--link' => '/etc/logrotate.d/nagios'
                            }
                          ],
            '--system' => 'Logrotate'
          }
        ];

[download]

In reply to Re: How to initialize an array of hash references to hashes using literals by repellent
in thread How to initialize an array of hash references to hashes using literals by jpietras

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