sub populatemessagedefs {
        my $hashref = shift;
        my $string = shift;
        my @list = split(',', $string);
        while (@list) {
                my $k = shift @list;
                my $v = shift @list;
                $$hashref{$k}=$v unless exists($$hashref{$k}) and $v <= $$hashref{$k};
        }
        my %hash2 = split(',', $string);
}