def _get_properties (properties_file):
    """
    Reads a property file and returns the key value pairs as dictionary.
    """
    with open (properties_file) as f:
        l = [line.strip().split("=", 1) for line in f.readlines() if not line.startswith('#') and line.strip()]
        d = {key.strip(): value.strip() for key, value in l}
    return d