diff --git a/impermanence.pl b/impermanence.pl
index 6c7fd6f..6bc3a28 100755
--- a/impermanence.pl
+++ b/impermanence.pl
@@ -95,10 +95,10 @@ sub remove_transclusion {
 sub populate_ramdisk {
     my ($data, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user) = @_;
     saydebug("create the symlinks for files set");
-    create_links(@{$data->{"files"}}, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user);
+    create_links($data->{"files"}, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user);
 
     saydebug("create the symlinks for directories set");
-    create_links(@{$data->{"directories"}}, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user);
+    create_links($data->{"directories"}, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user);
 }
 
 # check if the mountpoint is already mounted with mfs
@@ -137,8 +137,9 @@ sub mount_mfs {
 
 # create the symbolic links listed in the yml file into the ramdisk destination
 sub create_links {
-    my ($list, $persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user) = @_;
-    foreach ($list) {
+    my $list = shift;
+    my ($persist_home, $impermanence_home, $user) = @_;
+    foreach (@{$list}) {
         my $old_file = $persist_home."/".$user."/".$_;
         my $new_file = $impermanence_home."/".$_;