For my config files i use a perl module, then dereference the data structure. It may become difficult to use when scaled excessively, but works well in my situation.

Package Attr;

use strict;
use vars qw(%struct);

%struct = (
            foo => 'bar'.
            baz => {
                     blah => 1,
                   }
          );

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and to use it:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use Attr;
use vars qw(%struct);
*struct = \%Attr::struct;
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