@lines = split /\n/, $buffer;
my ( $name, $end ) = ( '', '' );

for ( @lines ) {
   next if (/^\s*#/ or /^\s*$/ ); # skip comments, blank lines
   if ( $name ) {
      if ( /^$end$/ ) {
         chomp $config{$name};  #remove trailing "\n"
         $name = '';
      } else {
         $config{$name} .= "$_\n";
      }
   }
   elsif ( /(\w+)\s*=\s*(.*?)\s*$/ ) { # regular pair
      $config{$1} = $2;
   }
   elsif ( /(\w+)\s*=\s*<<(\w+)/ ) { # heredoc
      ( $name, $end ) = ( $1, $2 );
   }
   else {
      warn "Ptooey:  Could not parse config line: $_\n";
   }
}