# parse the config file
while (<FILE>) {

  # remove leading spaces
  $_ =~ s/^\s+//g;

  # remove trailing spaces
  $_ =~ s/\s+$//g;

  # ignore comments
  next if $_ =~ /^#/;  

  # ignore blanks
  next unless /\S/;

  my @params = split /=/ , $_;

  $CONFIG_PARAMS{$params[0]}=$params[1];

}