text: """Handles env variable configuration usage and sets up UTA connection."""
  
  import os, socket
  from configparser import ConfigParser
  
  import hgvs.dataproviders.uta
  
  PKGNAME = 'metavariant'
  
  DEBUG = bool(os.getenv('%s_DEBUG' % PKGNAME, False))
  ENV = os.getenv('%s_ENV' % PKGNAME, 'dev')
  
  UTA_HOST = os.getenv('UTA_HOST', 'default')
  UTA_PORT = os.getenv('UTA_PORT', 5432)
  UTA_SCHEMA = os.getenv('UTA_SCHEMA', 'uta_20171026')
  UTA_TIMEOUT = os.getenv('UTA_TIMEOUT', 3)
  UTA_USER = os.getenv('UTA_USER', 'uta_admin')
  UTA_PASS = os.getenv('UTA_PASS', 'uta_admin')
  
  ####
  import logging
  log = logging.getLogger(PKGNAME)
  if DEBUG:
      log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
  else:
      log.setLevel(logging.INFO)
  ####
  
  #log.debug('%s config dir: %s' % (PKGNAME, CFGDIR))
  #log.debug('%s env: %s' % (PKGNAME, ENV))
  
  def get_uta_connection(host=UTA_HOST, port=UTA_PORT, timeout=UTA_TIMEOUT, schema=UTA_SCHEMA, 
                          username=UTA_USER, password=UTA_PASS):
      """ Returns an open connection to a UTA host at given coordinates, if possible.
      
      If host=='default', returns connection to default UTA server (uta.biocommons.org).
  
      :return: open UTA connection
      :raises: socket, uta, hgvs Exceptions
      """
  
      timeout = int(timeout)
      port = int(port)
  
      uta_cnxn_tmpl = 'postgresql://{user}:{pwd}@{host}:{port}/uta/{schema}/'
      cnxn_desc = uta_cnxn_tmpl.format(host=host, port=port, schema=schema, user=username, pwd=password)
  
      if host == 'default':
          return hgvs.dataproviders.uta.connect()
  
      socket.create_connection((host, port), timeout=timeout)
      try:
          return hgvs.dataproviders.uta.connect(cnxn_desc, pooling=True)
      except:
          raise Exception('Cannot connect to UTA at {}'.format(cnxn_desc))
  
  