expands a path that starts with an ~ to an absolute path
        :param path:
        :return:

def get_expanded_path(self, path):
        """
        expands a path that starts with an ~ to an absolute path
        :param path:
        :return:
        """
        if path.startswith('~'):
            return os.path.expanduser('~') + path[1:]
        else:
            return path