public static String getVar(Configuration conf, ConfVars var) {
    assert var.defaultVal.getClass() == String.class;
    String val = conf.get(var.varname);
    return val == null ? conf.get(var.hiveName, (String)var.defaultVal) : val;
  }
Get the variable as a string
@param conf configuration to retrieve it from
@param var variable to retrieve
@return value, or default value if value not in config file
standalone-metastore/metastore-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/metastore/conf/MetastoreConf.java