If you want to include settings from an external file - the easiest way I have found to do this is to have the external file like:

#!/usr/bin/perl
$name = 'turd';
$blah = 'sample';
[download]

Then in your main program:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use vars qw($name $blah)
require './turd.pl';
[download]

That should allow you to read in the variables :)