diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index fdd59d0d7..f16a46112 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@ Collate:
     'with.R'
     'with_id.R'
     'xml_nodes_to_lints.R'
+    'xml_utils.R'
     'yoda_test_linter.R'
     'zzz.R'
 Language: en-US
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 3cce15d9f..079431c75 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -86,17 +86,6 @@ names2 <- function(x) {
   names(x) %||% rep("", length(x))
 }
 
-safe_parse_to_xml <- function(parsed_content) {
-  if (is.null(parsed_content)) {
-    return(xml2::xml_missing())
-  }
-  tryCatch(
-    xml2::read_xml(xmlparsedata::xml_parse_data(parsed_content)),
-    # use xml_missing so that code doesn't always need to condition on XML existing
-    error = function(e) xml2::xml_missing()
-  )
-}
-
 get_content <- function(lines, info) {
   lines[is.na(lines)] <- ""
 
@@ -257,18 +246,6 @@ get_r_string <- function(s, xpath = NULL) {
   out
 }
 
-#' str2lang, but for xml children.
-#'
-#' [xml2::xml_text()] is deceptively close to obviating this helper, but it collapses
-#'   text across lines. R is _mostly_ whitespace-agnostic, so this only matters in some edge cases,
-#'   in particular when there are comments within an expression (`<expr>` node). See #1919.
-#'
-#' @noRd
-xml2lang <- function(x) {
-  x_strip_comments <- xml_find_all(x, ".//*[not(self::COMMENT or self::expr)]")
-  str2lang(paste(xml_text(x_strip_comments), collapse = " "))
-}
-
 is_linter <- function(x) inherits(x, "linter")
 
 is_tainted <- function(lines) {
diff --git a/R/xml_nodes_to_lints.R b/R/xml_nodes_to_lints.R
index 323a0f5be..32b49c905 100644
--- a/R/xml_nodes_to_lints.R
+++ b/R/xml_nodes_to_lints.R
@@ -96,10 +96,3 @@ xml_nodes_to_lints <- function(xml, source_expression, lint_message,
     ranges = list(c(col1, col2))
   )
 }
-
-is_node <- function(xml) inherits(xml, "xml_node")
-is_nodeset <- function(xml) inherits(xml, "xml_nodeset")
-is_nodeset_like <- function(xml) {
-  is_nodeset(xml) ||
-    (is.list(xml) && all(vapply(xml, is_node, logical(1L))))
-}
diff --git a/R/xml_utils.R b/R/xml_utils.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b0546da6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/xml_utils.R
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# utils for working with XML
+
+#' str2lang, but for xml children.
+#'
+#' [xml2::xml_text()] is deceptively close to obviating this helper, but it collapses
+#'   text across lines. R is _mostly_ whitespace-agnostic, so this only matters in some edge cases,
+#'   in particular when there are comments within an expression (`<expr>` node). See #1919.
+#'
+#' @noRd
+xml2lang <- function(x) {
+  x_strip_comments <- xml_find_all(x, ".//*[not(self::COMMENT or self::expr)]")
+  str2lang(paste(xml_text(x_strip_comments), collapse = " "))
+}
+
+
+safe_parse_to_xml <- function(parsed_content) {
+  if (is.null(parsed_content)) {
+    return(xml2::xml_missing())
+  }
+  tryCatch(
+    xml2::read_xml(xmlparsedata::xml_parse_data(parsed_content)),
+    # use xml_missing so that code doesn't always need to condition on XML existing
+    error = function(e) xml2::xml_missing()
+  )
+}
+
+is_node <- function(xml) inherits(xml, "xml_node")
+is_nodeset <- function(xml) inherits(xml, "xml_nodeset")
+is_nodeset_like <- function(xml) {
+  is_nodeset(xml) ||
+    (is.list(xml) && all(vapply(xml, is_node, logical(1L))))
+}