code: def load_file_template(path):
      
      template = StringIO()
      if not os.path.exists(path):
          raise ValueError("path does not exist: %s" % path)
      with open(clean_path(path), "rb") as infile:  # opened as binary
          for line in infile:
              template.write(line.decode("utf-8"))  # ensure utf-8
      return template
docs: Load template from the specified filesystem path.