def get_requirements(requirements_file):
    """
    Parse the specified requirements file and return a list of its non-empty,
    non-comment lines. The returned lines are without any trailing newline
    characters.
    """
    with open(requirements_file, 'r') as fp:
        lines = fp.readlines()
    reqs = []
    for line in lines:
        line = line.strip('\n')
        if not line.startswith('#') and line != '':
            reqs.append(line)
    return reqs