diff --git a/bin/swift-recon-cron b/bin/swift-recon-cron
index 8b3450b1a2..3c939a1b22 100755
--- a/bin/swift-recon-cron
+++ b/bin/swift-recon-cron
@@ -20,9 +20,8 @@ import os
 import sys
 
 from gettext import gettext as _
-from six.moves.configparser import ConfigParser
 
-from swift.common.utils import get_logger, dump_recon_cache
+from swift.common.utils import get_logger, dump_recon_cache, readconf
 from swift.obj.diskfile import ASYNCDIR_BASE
 
 
@@ -46,17 +45,13 @@ def get_async_count(device_dir, logger):
 
 
 def main():
-    c = ConfigParser()
     try:
         conf_path = sys.argv[1]
     except Exception:
         print("Usage: %s CONF_FILE" % sys.argv[0].split('/')[-1])
         print("ex: swift-recon-cron /etc/swift/object-server.conf")
         sys.exit(1)
-    if not c.read(conf_path):
-        print("Unable to read config file %s" % conf_path)
-        sys.exit(1)
-    conf = dict(c.items('filter:recon'))
+    conf = readconf(conf_path, 'filter:recon')
     device_dir = conf.get('devices', '/srv/node')
     recon_cache_path = conf.get('recon_cache_path', '/var/cache/swift')
     recon_lock_path = conf.get('recon_lock_path', '/var/lock')