docs: def get_file_contents(path, binary=False):
      """
      Return the contents of the text file at path.
      If it is a binary file,raise an IOError
      """
      # if this isn't a text file, we should raise an IOError
      f = open(path, 'r')
      file_contents = f.read()
      f.close()
      if not binary and file_contents.find('\000') >= 0:
          raise IOError('Expected text file, got binary file')
      return file_contents