def _read_params_from_file(filepath, seperator=None):
    """Extract key=value pairs from a file.

    :param filepath: path to a file containing key=value pairs separated by
                     whitespace or newlines.
    :returns: a dictionary representing the content of the file
    """
    with open(filepath) as f:
        cmdline = f.read()

    options = cmdline.split(seperator)
    params = {}
    for option in options:
        if '=' not in option:
            continue
        k, v = option.split('=', 1)
        params[k] = v

    return params