def METHOD_NAME(configpath=None, specpath=None, checks=None,
                report_extra=False):
    """
    get a (validated) config object for given config file path.
    :param configpath: path to config-file or a list of lines as its content
    :type configpath: str or list(str)
    :param specpath: path to spec-file
    :type specpath: str
    :param checks: custom checks to use for validator.
        see `validate docs <http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/validate.html>`_
    :type checks: dict str->callable,
    :param report_extra: log if a setting is not present in the spec file
    :type report_extra: boolean
    :raises: :class:`~alot.settings.errors.ConfigError`
    :rtype: `configobj.ConfigObj`
    """
    checks = checks or {}
    try:
        config = ConfigObj(infile=configpath, configspec=specpath,
                           file_error=True, encoding='UTF8')
    except ConfigObjError as e:
        msg = 'Error when parsing `%s`:\n%s' % (configpath, e)
        logging.error(msg)
        raise ConfigError(msg)
    except IOError:
        raise ConfigError('Could not read %s and/or %s'
                          % (configpath, specpath))
    except UnboundLocalError:
        # this works around a bug in configobj
        msg = '%s is malformed. Check for sections without parents..'
        raise ConfigError(msg % configpath)
    if specpath:
        validator = Validator()
        validator.functions.update(checks)
        try:
            results = config.validate(validator, preserve_errors=True)
        except ConfigObjError as e:
            raise ConfigError(str(e))
        if results is not True:
            error_msg = ''
            for (section_list, key, res) in flatten_errors(config, results):
                if key is not None:
                    if res is False:
                        msg = 'key "%s" in section "%s" is missing.'
                        msg = msg % (key, ', '.join(section_list))
                    else:
                        msg = 'key "%s" in section "%s" failed validation: %s'
                        msg = msg % (key, ', '.join(section_list), res)
                else:
                    msg = 'section "%s" is missing' % '.'.join(section_list)
                error_msg += msg + '\n'
            raise ConfigError(error_msg)
        extra_values = get_extra_values(config) if report_extra else None
        if extra_values:
            msg = ['Unknown values were found in `%s`. Please check for '
                   'typos if a specified setting does not seem to work:'
                   % configpath]
            for sections, val in extra_values:
                if sections:
                    msg.append('%s: %s' % ('->'.join(sections), val))
                else:
                    msg.append(str(val))
            logging.info('\n'.join(msg))
    return config