def METHOD_NAME(status_file):
  if path.isfile(status_file):
    try:
      hdl = open(status_file, 'r')
    except IOError, e:
      print 'unable to open ' +  status_file + ': ', e
      print 'exiting ...'
      exit(1)
    the_line = hdl.readline()
    hdl.close()
    tmatch = re.search(r'\((.*) bytes\)', the_line)
    if tmatch:
      size =tmatch.group(1)
      return size
  return 0