#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use XML::Twig;

# create a new Twig object that will call the "config"
# subroutine once it's seen a complete "config" element

my $twig = XML::Twig->new(
			 twig_handlers => {
				 'config' => \&config
					  });

$twig->parsefile("configs.xml");

sub config {
   my ($t, $config ) = @_; # $config is a config element 
   my $logprefix = $config->child("logprefix")->text;
   my @items = $config->children("item");
   foreach my $item ( @items ) {
       my $name = $item->att('name');
       my $type = $item->att('type');
       # and so forth
    }
}