# see also InstallBootstrapFS in bootmanager that does similar things
     def get_nodefamily (self, node):
         try:
-            (pldistro,arch) = file("/etc/planetlab/nodefamily").read().split("-")
+            (pldistro,arch) = file("/etc/planetlab/nodefamily").read().strip().split("-")
         except:
             (pldistro,arch) = ("planetlab","i386")
             
 
     def bootcd_version (self):
         try:
-            f = open (self.BOOTCDDIR + "/build/version.txt")
-            version=f.readline().strip()
-        finally:
-            f.close()
-        return version
+            return file(self.BOOTCDDIR + "/build/version.txt").readline().strip()
+        except:
+            raise Exception,"Unknown boot cd version - probably wrong bootcd dir : %s"%self.BOOTCDDIR
     
     def cleantrash (self):
         for file in self.trash: