sub read_the_config() {
 open(CFG, "<$file") || log_error("Problem reading $file - $!");
  while (<CFG>) {
    chomp;                    # remove newline
    s/\s+$//;                 # remove trailing space
    s/\s+/ /g;                # collapse white spaces to ' '
    next if /^ *\#/;          # skip comment lines
    next if /^\s*$/;          # skip empty lines
    if (/^ \S/) {             # multiline options
      $lines[$#lines] .= $_;
    } else {
      push @lines, $_;
    }
  }
  close CFG;
}