diff --git a/src/server/slavefuncs.c b/src/server/slavefuncs.c
--- a/src/server/slavefuncs.c
+++ b/src/server/slavefuncs.c
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ xmlNodePtr xml_quickxpath(xmlXPathContex
 
   xmlXPathObjectPtr xmlxpathobjptr;
   xmlxpathobjptr = xmlXPathEval(path, xpathctxt);
-  if(!xmlxpathobjptr->nodesetval->nodeNr)
+  if(!xmlxpathobjptr
+     || !xmlxpathobjptr->nodesetval->nodeNr)
     {
       fprintf(stderr, "XPath resolution failed for ``%s'' in ``%s'' (``%s'')\n", path, xpathctxt->doc->name, xpathctxt->doc->URL);
       return (xmlNodePtr)NULL;
diff --git a/src/server/slavefuncs.h b/src/server/slavefuncs.h
--- a/src/server/slavefuncs.h
+++ b/src/server/slavefuncs.h
@@ -19,10 +19,13 @@
 
 #ifndef _DISTREN_SLAVEFUNCS_H
 #define _DISTREN_SLAVEFUNCS_H
+
 #include "blendjob.h"
+
+#include <libxml/xpath.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 
-int buildstruct(struct blendjob* blendjob, char *pathtoxml);
+xmlNodePtr xml_quickxpath(xmlXPathContextPtr xpathctxt, xmlChar *path);
 void tell_the_server(char *stuff);
 size_t curl_writetodisk(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, FILE *stream);
 int curlget(char *url, char *out);
@@ -32,6 +35,7 @@ int register_user(char *username, char *
 int login_user(char *username);
 int conf_replace(char *username);
 void exec_blender(struct blendjob* blendjob, char *input, char *output, char *outputres, int frame);
-
+void xmlinit();
+void xmlcleanup();
 
 #endif