def _safe_read(path, length):
if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(HERE, path)):<EOL><INDENT>return '<STR_LIT>'<EOL><DEDENT>file_handle = codecs.open(os.path.join(HERE, path), encoding='<STR_LIT:utf-8>')<EOL>contents = file_handle.read(length)<EOL>file_handle.close()<EOL>return contents<EOL>
Read file contents.