def get_brlcad_param(brlcad_config, param_name):
    """
    Executes brlcad-config with the given param name and returns the result as a string.
    It will also do necessary parsing/checking of the result.
    """
    result = subprocess.check_output([brlcad_config, "--" + param_name])
    result = result.split("\n")[0]

    if param_name == "libs":
        # the libs are a special format, extract a list of library names:
        result = result.rsplit(None, 1).pop().split(";")
    #elif param_name in ["libdir", "includedir", "prefix"]:
    #    # these are dirs: check if they exist, raise exception if not
    #    if not os.access(result, os.R_OK):
    #        print("RAISING ERROR")
    #        raise SetupException("Directory for <{0}> not found: {1}".format(param_name, result))
    elif param_name == "version":
        result = StrictVersion(result)

    print("JJ", result)
    return result