sub get_assigned_dir {

    my $gpa_key = shift;
    my $gpa_ret = `$gpa $gpa_key`;
    warn $gpa_ret;
    if (  $gpa_ret =~ /[^=]+[=][']([^']+)[']/ ) { 
            my $assigned_dir = $1 } 
    else { die "couldn't determine assigned directory for            $gpa_key" 
    }
    log_msg "assigned dir for $gpa_key == $assigned_dir";

}