Here's an iterative solution, a recursive one is left as an exercise to the reader:
def convert(h={})
ret = {}
h.each do |k,v|
node = ret
k[0..-2].each {|x| node[x]||={}; node=node[x]}
node[k[-1]] = v
end
ret
end
convert(your_hash) # => {:f=>4, :a=>{:b=>{:c=>1, :d=>2}, :e=>3}}