Reads and returns the contents of a file

def _read_file(path):
    '''
    Reads and returns the contents of a file
    '''
    try:
        with salt.utils.files.fopen(path, 'rb') as rfh:
            lines = salt.utils.stringutils.to_unicode(rfh.read()).splitlines()
            try:
                lines.remove('')
            except ValueError:
                pass
            return lines
    except Exception:
        return []