use Data::Dumper;
   # This is actually in @body in the larger code
   open(TMPL, "<my.template") or die $!;

   my %template =
       map /(\S+)\s+=\s+(.*)/, split m((?<!\\)\n),
       ( do { local $/; readline *TMPL; }
         =~ m(<template>((?s:.*?)</template>)))[0];

   $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys = \%template;
   print Dumper(\%template);