protected function extractVariables($variablesFile)
    {
        $str   = file_get_contents($variablesFile);
        $parts = explode(';', preg_replace('/(\/\/.*?\n|\s\n|\s{2,})/', '', $str));
        $vars  = array();

        foreach ($parts as $part) {
            $varMeta = explode(':', $part);
            if (empty($varMeta[0]) || empty($varMeta[1])) {
                continue;
            }
            $vars[substr(trim($varMeta[0]), 1)] = trim($varMeta[1]);
        }

        return $vars;
    }