refactoring: split helper functions into smaller scripts (#2420)

target/scripts/helpers/utils.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+
+function _escape
+{
+  echo "${1//./\\.}"
+}
+
+# Check if string input is an empty line, only whitespaces
+# or `#` as the first non-whitespace character.
+function _is_comment
+{
+  grep -q -E "^\s*$|^\s*#" <<< "${1}"
+}