text: ### CONFIGURATION
  
  #opj = os.path.join
  #
  #HOME = os.environ["HOME"]
  #PROJECTS = opj(HOME, "projects")
  #CLAB_HOME = "/home/changlab"
  #
  #SEARCH_PATH = [
  #    opj(HOME, "bin"),
  #    "/usr/local/bin",
  #    "/usr/bin",
  #    ]
  
  def read_config():
      import os
      import ConfigParser
      
      config_file = os.path.join(os.environ["HOME"], ".genomicoderc")
      assert os.path.exists(config_file), "File not found: %s" % config_file
  
      # Read the configuration.
      config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
      config.optionxform = str   # use case sensitive option names
      config.read(config_file)
  
      # Set a dictionary of name=value from the configuration file,
      # ignoring section headings.
      var_dict = {}
      for section in config.sections():
          for (name, value) in config.items(section):
              var_dict[name] = value
      return var_dict
  
  
  var_dict = read_config()
  for name, value in var_dict.iteritems():
      vars()[name] = value
  del var_dict
  