while (<CONFIG>) {
    if (/^\s*#/) {  # ignore comment line
    } elsif (/^\s*$/) { # ignore blank line
    } elsif (/(\w+)\s*=\s*[<]{2}(\w+)/) { # heredoc
      (my $name, local $/) = ($1, "\n$2"); # ++ysth
      $config{$name} = <CONFIG>;
      chomp $config{$name}; # as etcshadow points out.
    } elsif (/(\w+)\s*=\s*(.*?)\s*$/) { # regular pair
      $config{$1}=$2;
    } else {
       warn "Ptooey:  Could not parse config line: $_\n";
    }
 }