util.c is the proper place for those functions.

src/util.c

@@ -175,6 +175,46 @@ char *convert_utf8_to_ucs2(char *input, int *real_strlen) {
     return buffer;
 }
 
+/*
+ * This function resolves ~ in pathnames.
+ * It may resolve wildcards in the first part of the path, but if no match
+ * or multiple matches are found, it just returns a copy of path as given.
+ *
+ */
+char *resolve_tilde(const char *path) {
+        static glob_t globbuf;
+        char *head, *tail, *result;
+
+        tail = strchr(path, '/');
+        head = strndup(path, tail ? tail - path : strlen(path));
+
+        int res = glob(head, GLOB_TILDE, NULL, &globbuf);
+        free(head);
+        /* no match, or many wildcard matches are bad */
+        if (res == GLOB_NOMATCH || globbuf.gl_pathc != 1)
+                result = sstrdup(path);
+        else if (res != 0) {
+                die("glob() failed");
+        } else {
+                head = globbuf.gl_pathv[0];
+                result = scalloc(strlen(head) + (tail ? strlen(tail) : 0) + 1);
+                strncpy(result, head, strlen(head));
+                strncat(result, tail, strlen(tail));
+        }
+        globfree(&globbuf);
+
+        return result;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Checks if the given path exists by calling stat().
+ *
+ */
+bool path_exists(const char *path) {
+        struct stat buf;
+        return (stat(path, &buf) == 0);
+}
+
 /*
  * Goes through the list of arguments (for exec()) and checks if the given argument
  * is present. If not, it copies the arguments (because we cannot realloc it) and