xmllint
command line XML tool
Synopsis
xmllint
[--version --debug
--shell --debugent
--copy --recover --noent
--noout --nonet
--path "PATH(S)"
--load-trace --htmlout
--nowrap --valid
--postvalid
--dtdvalid URL
--dtdvalidfpi FPI
--timing
--output FILE
--repeat --insert
--compress --html
--xmlout --push --memory
--maxmem NBBYTES
--nowarning --noblanks
--nocdata --format
--encode ENCODING
--dropdtd --nsclean
--testIO --catalogs
--nocatalogs --auto
--xinclude --noxincludenode
--loaddtd --dtdattr
--stream --walker
--pattern PATTERNVALUE
--chkregister
--relaxng SCHEMA
--schema SCHEMA
--c14n] {XML-FILE(S)...
-}
xmllint
--help
add an example, a script, a trick and tips
examples
source
xmllint --format ugly.xml >pretty.xml
source
xmllint --noout --schema TDL.xsd "$1"
source
cat $1 | xmllint --format -
source
exec xmllint --format -
else
exec xmllint --format
"$@"
fi
description
The
xmllint program parses one or more XML files,
specified on the command line as XML-FILE (or
the standard input if the filename provided is
- ). It prints various types of output,
depending upon the options selected. It is useful for
detecting errors both in XML code and in the XML parser
itself.
xmllint
is included in libxml(3).
options
xmllint
accepts the following options (in alphabetical order):
--auto
Generate a small document for testing purposes.
--catalogs
Use the SGML catalog(s) from
SGML_CATALOG_FILES. Otherwise XML catalogs starting
from /etc/xml/catalog are used by default.
--chkregister
Turn on node registration.
Useful for developers testing libxml(3) node tracking
code.
--compress
Turn on gzip(1)
compression of output.
--copy
Test the internal copy implementation.
--c14n
Use the W3C XML Canonicalisation (C14N) to serialize the
result of parsing to stdout. It keeps comments in the
result.
--dtdvalid
URL
Use the DTD specified by an
URL for validation.
--dtdvalidfpi
FPI
Use the DTD specified by a
Formal Public Identifier FPI for validation, note
that this will require a catalog exporting that Formal
Public Identifier to work.
--debug
Parse a file and output an
annotated tree of the in-memory version of the
document.
--debugent
Debug the entities defined in
the document.
--dropdtd
Remove DTD from output.
--dtdattr
Fetch external DTD and populate
the tree with inherited attributes.
--encode
ENCODING
Output in the given
encoding.
--format
Reformat and reindent the
output. The XMLLINT_INDENT environment variable
controls the indentation. The default value is two spaces
" ").
--help
Print out a short usage summary for xmllint.
--html
Use the HTML parser.
--htmlout
Output results as an HTML file.
This causes xmllint to output the necessary HTML tags
surrounding the result tree output so the results can be
displayed/viewed in a browser.
--insert
Test for valid insertions.
--loaddtd
Fetch an external DTD.
--load-trace
Display all the documents
loaded during the processing to stderr.
--maxmem
NNBYTES
Test the parser memory support.
NNBYTES is the maximum number of bytes the library is
allowed to allocate. This can also be used to make sure
batch processing of XML files will not exhaust the virtual
memory of the server running them.
--memory
Parse from memory.
--noblanks
Drop ignorable blank
spaces.
--nocatalogs
Do not use any catalogs.
--nocdata
Substitute CDATA section by
equivalent text nodes.
--noent
Substitute entity values for
entity references. By default, xmllint leaves entity
references in place.
--nonet
Do not use the Internet to
fetch DTDs or entities.
--noout
Suppress output. By default,
xmllint outputs the result tree.
--nowarning
Do not emit warnings from the
parser and/or validator.
--nowrap
Do not output HTML doc
wrapper.
--noxincludenode
Do XInclude processing but do
not generate XInclude start and end nodes.
--nsclean
Remove redundant namespace
declarations.
--output
FILE
Define a file path where
xmllint will save the result of parsing. Usually the
programs build a tree and save it on stdout, with
this option the result XML instance will be saved onto a
file.
--path
"PATH(S)"
Use the (space- or
colon-separated) list of filesystem paths specified by
PATHS to load DTDs or entities. Enclose
space-separated lists by quotation marks.
--pattern
PATTERNVALUE
Used to exercise the pattern
recognition engine, which can be used with the reader
interface to the parser. It allows to select some nodes in
the document based on an XPath (subset) expression. Used for
debugging.
--postvalid
Validate after parsing has
completed.
--push
Use the push mode of the parser.
--recover
Output any parsable portions of
an invalid document.
--relaxng
SCHEMA
Use RelaxNG file named
SCHEMA for validation.
--repeat
Repeat 100 times, for timing or
profiling.
--schema
SCHEMA
Use a W3C XML Schema file named
SCHEMA for validation.
--shell
Run a navigating shell. Details
on available commands in shell mode are below (see the
section called “SHELL COMMANDS”).
--stream
Use streaming API -
useful when used in combination with
--relaxng or --valid
options for validation of files that are too large to be
held in memory.
--testIO
Test user input/output
support.
--timing
Output information about the
time it takes xmllint to perform the various
steps.
--valid
Determine if the document is a
valid instance of the included Document Type Definition
(DTD). A DTD to be validated against also can be specified
at the command line using the --dtdvalid
option. By default, xmllint also checks to determine
if the document is well-formed.
--version
Display the version of
libxml(3) used.
--walker
Test the walker module, which
is a reader interface but for a document tree, instead of
using the reader API on an unparsed document it works on an
existing in-memory tree. Used for debugging.
--xinclude
Do XInclude processing.
--xmlout
Used in conjunction with
--html. Usually when HTML is parsed the
document is saved with the HTML serializer. But with this
option the resulting document is saved with the XML
serializer. This is primarily used to generate XHTML from
HTML input.
diagnostics
xmllint return codes provide information that can be used
when calling it from scripts.
0
No error
1
Unclassified
2
Error in DTD
3
Validation error
4
Validation error
5
Error in schema compilation
6
Error writing output
7
Error in pattern (generated when --pattern option is used)
8
Error in Reader registration (generated when --chkregister
option is used)
9
Out of memory error
environment
SGML_CATALOG_FILES
SGML catalog behavior can be changed by redirecting queries to
the user’s own set of catalogs. This can be done by setting the
SGML_CATALOG_FILES environment variable to a list of
catalogs. An empty one should deactivate loading the default
/etc/sgml/catalog catalog.
XML_CATALOG_FILES
XML catalog behavior can be changed by redirecting queries to the
user’s own set of catalogs. This can be done by setting the
XML_CATALOG_FILES environment variable to a list of
catalogs. An empty one should deactivate loading the default
/etc/xml/catalog catalog.
XML_DEBUG_CATALOG
Setting the environment variable XML_DEBUG_CATALOG to
non-zero using the export command outputs debugging
information related to catalog operations.
XMLLINT_INDENT
Setting the environment variable XMLLINT_INDENT controls
the indentation. The default value is two spaces " ".
shell commands
xmllint offers an interactive shell mode invoked with the
--shell command. Available commands in shell mode include
(in alphabetical order):
base
Display XML base of the node.
bye
Leave the shell.
cat NODE
Display the given node or the current one.
cd PATH
Change the current node to the given path (if unique) or root if
no argument is given.
dir PATH
Dumps information about the node (namespace, attributes,
content).
du PATH
Show the structure of the subtree under the given path or the
current node.
exit
Leave the shell.
help
Show this help.
free
Display memory usage.
load FILENAME
Load a new document with the given filename.
ls PATH
List contents of the given path or the current directory.
pwd
Display the path to the current node.
quit
Leave the shell.
save FILENAME
Save the current document to the given filename or to the
original name.
validate
Check the document for errors.
write FILENAME
Write the current node to the given filename.
see also
libxml
More
information can be found at
•
libxml web page
http://www.xmlsoft.org/
•
W3C XSLT page http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
author
John Fleck
<jfleck[:at:]inkstain[:dot:]net>, Ziying Sherwin
<sherwin[:at:]nlm.nih[:dot:]gov>, Heiko Rupp
<hwr[:at:]pilhuhn[:dot:]de>.