my %ini;
my $group = "global";

while (<DATA>) {
   chomp;
   next if /^\s*;/ || !/\S/;   # skip comments/blank lines
   $group = lc($1), next if /^\s*\[([^\]]+)\]/;
   if (/^\s*(\w+)=/) {
      $ini{$group}->{lc($1)} = $';
   } else {
      warn "Parse error on line $.: $_\n";
   }
}

print $ini{global}->{this}, "\n";
print $ini{section}->{this}, "\n";

__DATA__

; sample data, this could be from
; a real .ini file for example..
; I hope I got the comment delimiter
; right.. maybe it's ' instead..

Some=sample data
this=this is an .ini file

[Section]
THIS=this will be in 'section' (note lower case) instead of 'global'
[download]