my %properties;
my $propfilename = $opt{p} ? $opt{p} : "$FindBin::Bin/${FindBin::Script}.properties";
print "reading properties from $propfilename\n" if $opt{v};
my $pfh = IO::File->new("<$propfilename") or die "unable to open properties file $propfilename, $!";
while (my $propline = <$pfh>) {
   next if $propline =~ /^#/;
   print $propline if $opt{V};
   chomp $propline;
   my ($key, $value) = split(/=/, $propline);
   my ($key1, $key2, $key3, $key4) = split(/\./, $key);

   if (defined $key4) {
      $properties{$key1}{$key2}{$key3}{$key4} = $value;
   }
   elsif (defined $key3) {
      $properties{$key1}{$key2}{$key3} = $value;
   }
   elsif (defined $key2) {
      $properties{$key1}{$key2} = $value;
   }
   elsif (defined $key1) {
      $properties{$key1} = $value;
   }

}
$pfh->close;