my $dir = "/Path/to/a/data/directory";
my %hash;

open my $grep_fh, '-|', "grep '^' $dir/* /dev/null"
    or die "Can't grep: $!\n";
while ( my $line = <$grep_fh> ) {
    $line =~ s/^([^:])://;
    my $file = $1;
    next if $file =~ /\~$/;
    %{$hash{$file}} = (%{$hash{$file}}, %{hashify_line( $line )});
}
close $grep_fh or die "Error closing grep pipe: $!\n";