XMLSTARLET USER'S GUIDE

                                  see also http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/




1. BASIC COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
====================================================

xml --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Command line utilities for XML
Usage: xml [<options>] <command> [<cmd-options>]
where <command> is one of:
  ed    (or edit)      - Edit/Update XML document(s)
  sel   (or select)    - Select data or query XML document(s) (XPATH, etc)
  tr    (or transform) - Transform XML document(s) using XSLT
  val   (or validate)  - Validate XML document(s) (well-formed/DTD/XSD/RelaxNG)
  fo    (or format)    - Format XML document(s)
  el    (or elements)  - Display element structure of XML document
  c14n  (or canonic)   - XML canonicalization
  ls    (or list)      - List directory as XML
  esc   (or escape)    - Escape special XML characters
  unesc (or unescape)  - Unescape special XML characters
  pyx   (or xmln)      - Convert XML into PYX format (based on ESIS - ISO 8879)
  p2x   (or depyx)     - Convert PYX into XML
<options> are:
  -q or --quiet        - no error output
  --doc-namespace      - extract namespace bindings from input doc (default)
  --no-doc-namespace   - don't extract namespace bindings from input doc
  --version            - show version
  --help               - show help
Wherever file name mentioned in command help it is assumed
that URL can be used instead as well.

Type: xml <command> --help <ENTER> for command help




2. Select/Query XML documents
====================================================

xml sel --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Select from XML document(s)
Usage: xml sel <global-options> {<template>} [ <xml-file> ... ]
where
  <global-options> - global options for selecting
  <xml-file> - input XML document file name/uri (stdin is used if missing)
  <template> - template for querying XML document with following syntax:

<global-options> are:
  -Q or --quiet             - do not write anything to standard output.
  -C or --comp              - display generated XSLT
  -R or --root              - print root element <xsl-select>
  -T or --text              - output is text (default is XML)
  -I or --indent            - indent output
  -D or --xml-decl          - do not omit xml declaration line
  -B or --noblanks          - remove insignificant spaces from XML tree
  -E or --encode <encoding> - output in the given encoding (utf-8, unicode...)
  -N <name>=<value>         - predefine namespaces (name without 'xmlns:')
                              ex: xsql=urn:oracle-xsql
                              Multiple -N options are allowed.
  --net                     - allow fetch DTDs or entities over network
  --help                    - display help

Syntax for templates: -t|--template <options>
where <options>
  -c or --copy-of <xpath>   - print copy of XPATH expression
  -v or --value-of <xpath>  - print value of XPATH expression
  -o or --output <string>   - output string literal
  -n or --nl                - print new line
  -f or --inp-name          - print input file name (or URL)
  -m or --match <xpath>     - match XPATH expression
  --var <name> <value> --break or
  --var <name>=<value>      - declare a variable (referenced by $name)
  -i or --if <test-xpath>   - check condition <xsl:if test="test-xpath">
  --elif <test-xpath>       - check condition if previous conditions failed
  --else                    - check if previous conditions failed
  -e or --elem <name>       - print out element <xsl:element name="name">
  -a or --attr <name>       - add attribute <xsl:attribute name="name">
  -b or --break             - break nesting
  -s or --sort op xpath     - sort in order (used after -m) where
  op is X:Y:Z, 
      X is A - for order="ascending"
      X is D - for order="descending"
      Y is N - for data-type="numeric"
      Y is T - for data-type="text"
      Z is U - for case-order="upper-first"
      Z is L - for case-order="lower-first"

There can be multiple --match, --copy-of, --value-of, etc options
in a single template. The effect of applying command line templates
can be illustrated with the following XSLT analogue

xml sel -t -c "xpath0" -m "xpath1" -m "xpath2" -v "xpath3" \
        -t -m "xpath4" -c "xpath5"

is equivalent to applying the following XSLT

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:call-template name="t1"/>
  <xsl:call-template name="t2"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="t1">
  <xsl:copy-of select="xpath0"/>
  <xsl:for-each select="xpath1">
    <xsl:for-each select="xpath2">
      <xsl:value-of select="xpath3"/>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="t2">
  <xsl:for-each select="xpath4">
    <xsl:copy-of select="xpath5"/>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>




3. Editing XML documents
====================================================

xml ed --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Edit XML document(s)
Usage: xml ed <global-options> {<action>} [ <xml-file-or-uri> ... ]
where
  <global-options>  - global options for editing
  <xml-file-or-uri> - input XML document file name/uri (stdin otherwise)

<global-options> are:
  -P, or -S           - preserve whitespace nodes.
     (or --pf, --ps)    Note that space between attributes is not preserved
  -O (or --omit-decl) - omit XML declaration (<?xml ...?>)
  -L (or --inplace)   - edit file inplace
  -N <name>=<value>   - predefine namespaces (name without 'xmlns:')
                        ex: xsql=urn:oracle-xsql
                        Multiple -N options are allowed.
                        -N options must be last global options.
  --net               - allow network access
  --help or -h        - display help

where <action>
  -d or --delete <xpath>
  --var <name> <xpath>
  -i or --insert <xpath> -t (--type) elem|text|attr -n <name> [-v (--value) <value>]
  -a or --append <xpath> -t (--type) elem|text|attr -n <name> [-v (--value) <value>]
  -s or --subnode <xpath> -t (--type) elem|text|attr -n <name> [-v (--value) <value>]
  -m or --move <xpath1> <xpath2>
  -r or --rename <xpath1> -v <new-name>
  -u or --update <xpath> -v (--value) <value>
                         -x (--expr) <xpath>




4. Using XSLT to transform XML documents
====================================================

xml tr --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Transform XML document(s) using XSLT
Usage: xml tr [<options>] <xsl-file> {-p|-s <name>=<value>} [<xml-file>...]
where
  <xsl-file>      - main XSLT stylesheet for transformation
  <xml-file>      - input XML document file/URL (stdin is used if missing)
  <name>=<value>  - name and value of the parameter passed to XSLT processor
  -p              - parameter is XPATH expression ("'string'" to quote string)
  -s              - parameter is a string literal
<options> are:
  --help or -h    - display help message
  --omit-decl     - omit xml declaration <?xml version="1.0"?>
  --embed or -E   - allow applying embedded stylesheet
  --show-ext      - show list of extensions
  --val           - allow validate against DTDs or schemas
  --net           - allow fetch DTDs or entities over network
  --xinclude      - do XInclude processing on document input
  --maxdepth val  - increase the maximum depth
  --html          - input document(s) is(are) in HTML format




5. Formatting XML documents
====================================================

xml fo --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Format XML document
Usage: xml fo [<options>] <xml-file>
where <options> are
  -n or --noindent            - do not indent
  -t or --indent-tab          - indent output with tabulation
  -s or --indent-spaces <num> - indent output with <num> spaces
  -o or --omit-decl           - omit xml declaration <?xml version="1.0"?>
  --net                       - allow network access
  -R or --recover             - try to recover what is parsable
  -D or --dropdtd             - remove the DOCTYPE of the input docs
  -C or --nocdata             - replace cdata section with text nodes
  -N or --nsclean             - remove redundant namespace declarations
  -e or --encode <encoding>   - output in the given encoding (utf-8, unicode...)
  -H or --html                - input is HTML
  -h or --help                - print help




6. Validating XML documents
====================================================

xml val --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Validate XML document(s)
Usage: xml val <options> [ <xml-file-or-uri> ... ]
where <options>
  -w or --well-formed        - validate well-formedness only (default)
  -d or --dtd <dtd-file>     - validate against DTD
  --net                      - allow network access
  -s or --xsd <xsd-file>     - validate against XSD schema
  -E or --embed              - validate using embedded DTD
  -r or --relaxng <rng-file> - validate against Relax-NG schema
  -e or --err                - print verbose error messages on stderr
  -S or --stop               - stop on first error
  -b or --list-bad           - list only files which do not validate
  -g or --list-good          - list only files which validate
  -q or --quiet              - do not list files (return result code only)

NOTE: XML Schemas are not fully supported yet due to its incomplete
      support in libxml2 (see http://xmlsoft.org)




7. Displaying structure of XML documents
====================================================

xml el --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Display element structure of XML document
Usage: xml el [<options>] <xml-file>
where
  <xml-file> - input XML document file name (stdin is used if missing)
  <options> is one of:
  -a    - show attributes as well
  -v    - show attributes and their values
  -u    - print out sorted unique lines
  -d<n> - print out sorted unique lines up to depth <n>





8. Escape/Unescape special XML characters
====================================================

xml esc --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Escape special XML characters
Usage: xml esc [<options>] [<string>]
where <options> are
  --help      - print usage
  (TODO: more to be added in future)
if <string> is missing stdin is used instead.





9. List directory as XML
====================================================

xml ls --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: List directory as XML
Usage: xml ls [ <dir> | --help ]
Lists current directory in XML format.
Time is shown per ISO 8601 spec.





10. XML canonicalization
====================================================

xml c14n --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: XML canonicalization
Usage: xml c14n [--net] <mode> <xml-file> [<xpath-file>] [<inclusive-ns-list>]
where
  <xml-file>   - input XML document file name (stdin is used if '-')
  <xpath-file> - XML file containing XPath expression for
                 c14n XML canonicalization
    Example:
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <XPath xmlns:n0="http://a.example.com" xmlns:n1="http://b.example">
    (//. | //@* | //namespace::*)[ancestor-or-self::n1:elem1]
    </XPath>

  <inclusive-ns-list> - the list of inclusive namespace prefixes
                        (only for exclusive canonicalization)
    Example: 'n1 n2'

  <mode> is one of following:
  --with-comments         XML file canonicalization w comments (default)
  --without-comments      XML file canonicalization w/o comments
  --exc-with-comments     Exclusive XML file canonicalization w comments
  --exc-without-comments  Exclusive XML file canonicalization w/o comments





11. Convert XML into PYX format (based on ESIS - ISO 8879)
====================================================

xml pyx --help
XMLStarlet Toolkit: Convert XML into PYX format (based on ESIS - ISO 8879)
Usage: xml pyx {<xml-file>}
where
  <xml-file> - input XML document file name (stdin is used if missing)

The PYX format is a line-oriented representation of
XML documents that is derived from the SGML ESIS format.
(see ESIS - ISO 8879 Element Structure Information Set spec,
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 N931 (ESIS))

A non-validating, ESIS generating tool originally developed for
pyxie project (see http://pyxie.sourceforge.net/)
ESIS Generation by Sean Mc Grath http://www.digitome.com/sean.html





12. Examples:
====================================================

Input1
examples/xml/table.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Input2
examples/xml/tab-obj.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <object name="Obj1">
        <property name="size">10</property>
        <property name="type">Data</property>
      </object>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Input3
examples/html/hello1.html

<html>
<head>
  <title>Hello World</title>
  <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body>
  <div align="center">Hello World!<br></div>
</body>
</html>
 


Input4
examples/sgml/docbook1.sgml

<!DOCTYPE book
  PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
<book>

 <bookinfo>
  <title>DocBook document example</title>
  <author>
   <firstname>Mikhail</firstname>
   <surname>Grushinskiy</surname>
  </author>

  <copyright>
   <year>2002</year>
   <holder>Mikhail Grushinskiy</holder>
  </copyright>
 </bookinfo>

 <preface>
  <title>Sample document</title>

  <para>A simple DocBook example document.</para>
 </preface>

 <chapter>
  <title>XMLStarlet Example</title>

  <para>The <emphasis>XMLStarlet</emphasis> command line toolkit
  allows querying/checking/editing/transforming/formatting XML documents
  from command line</para>

  <para>To find out more on how to use the
  <emphasis>XMLStarlet</emphasis> for XML processing, point
  your browser to <ulink
  url="http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/">http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/</ulink>.
  </para>

 </chapter>

</book>



Stylesheet1
examples/xsl/sum1.xsl

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:param name="inputFile">-</xsl:param>
<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:call-template name="t1"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="t1">
  <xsl:value-of select="sum(/xml/table/rec/numField)"/>
  <xsl:value-of select="'&#10;'"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


Stylesheet2
examples/xsl/hello1.xsl

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:param name="inputFile">-</xsl:param>
<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:call-template name="t1"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="t1">
  <xsl:for-each select="/">
    <xsl:value-of select="/html/body/div"/>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


Stylesheet3
examples/xsl/param1.xsl

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:param name="Text"/>
<xsl:param name="Count"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:call-template name="t1"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="t1">
  <xsl:for-each select="/xml">
    <xsl:value-of select="$Text"/>
    <xsl:value-of select="$Count"/>
    <xsl:value-of select="'&#10;'"/>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>



Command:
# XML canonicalization
xml c14n --with-comments ../examples/xml/structure.xml ; echo $?
Result Output:
<a1>
  <a11>
    <a111>
      <a1111></a1111>
    </a111>
    <a112>
      <a1121></a1121>
    </a112>
  </a11>
  <a12></a12>
  <a13>
    <a131></a131>
  </a13>
</a1>0


Command:
# XML exclusive canonicalization
xml c14n --exc-with-comments ../examples/xml/c14n.xml ../examples/xml/c14n.xpath
Result Output:
<n1:elem1 xmlns:n1="http://b.example">
content
</n1:elem1>

Command:
# Count elements matching XPath expression
xml sel -T -t -v "count(/xml/table/rec/numField)" xml/table.xml
Result Output:
3

Command:
# Count all nodes in XML document
xml sel -T -t -f -o " " -v "count(//node())" --nl xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
xml/table.xml 32
xml/tab-obj.xml 41


Command:
# Delete elements matching XPath expression
xml ed -d '/xml/table/rec[@id="2"]' xml/table.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
# Generate HTML from given SGML docbook document
xml tr --omit-decl --docbook /usr/share/sgml/docbook/yelp/docbook/html/docbook.xsl  sgml/docbook1.sgml | \
    xml fo --html --indent-spaces 2
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html>
  <head>
    <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
    <title>DocBook document example</title>
    <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.48"/>
  </head>
  <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF">
    <div class="book">
      <div class="titlepage">
        <div>
          <h1 class="title"><a name="id2765244"/>DocBook document example</h1>
        </div>
        <div>
          <h3 class="author">Mikhail Grushinskiy</h3>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="copyright">Copyright  2002 Mikhail Grushinskiy</p>
        </div>
        <hr/>
      </div>
      <div class="toc">
        <p>
          <b>Table of Contents</b>
        </p>
        <dl>
          <dt>
            <a href="#id2765482">Sample document</a>
          </dt>
          <dt>1. <a href="#id2767329">XMLStarlet Example</a></dt>
        </dl>
      </div>
      <div class="preface">
        <div class="titlepage">
          <div>
            <h2 class="title"><a name="id2765482"/>Sample document</h2>
          </div>
        </div>
        <p>A simple DocBook example document.</p>
      </div>
      <div class="chapter">
        <div class="titlepage">
          <div>
            <h2 class="title"><a name="id2767329"/>Chapter 1. XMLStarlet Example</h2>
          </div>
        </div>
        <p>The <span class="emphasis"><i>XMLStarlet</i></span> command line toolkit
  allows querying/checking/editing/transforming/formatting XML documents
  from command line</p>
        <p>To find out more on how to use the
  <span class="emphasis"><i>XMLStarlet</i></span> for XML processing, point
  your browser to <a href="http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/</a>.
  </p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>


Command:
# Validate XML document against DTD
xml val --dtd dtd/table.dtd xml/tab-obj.xml >/dev/null 2>&1; echo $?
Result Output:
1


Command:
# Validate XML document against DTD
xml val --dtd dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml >/dev/null 2>&1; echo $?
Result Output:
0


Command:
# Validate XML document against DTD
xml val --dtd xml/foo.dtd xml/foo.xml 2>/dev/null
Result Output:
xml/foo.xml - invalid


Command:
# make sure we don't look for embedded dtd if not asked
xml val --dtd dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml
Result Output:
xml/table.xml - valid


Command:
xml ed \
    -s /xml/table/rec -t elem -n new-field -v new-value \
    -i '$prev' -t attr -n new-attr -v new-attr-value \
    xml/table.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value</new-field>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value</new-field>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value</new-field>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
xml ed \
    -s /xml/table/rec -t elem -n new-field -v new-value \
    --var new-field '$prev' \
    -i '$new-field' -t attr -n new-attr -v new-attr-value \
    -s '$new-field' -t elem -n new-subelem -v '' \
    xml/table.xml | xml c14n
Result Output:
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value<new-subelem></new-subelem></new-field>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value<new-subelem></new-subelem></new-field>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
      <new-field new-attr="new-attr-value">new-value<new-subelem></new-subelem></new-field>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>

Command:
# Display element structure of XML document
xml el ./xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
xml
xml/table
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec/object
xml/table/rec/object/property
xml/table/rec/object/property
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField


Command:
# Display element structure of XML document (including attributes)
xml el -a ./xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
xml
xml/table
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/@id
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec/object
xml/table/rec/object/@name
xml/table/rec/object/property
xml/table/rec/object/property/@name
xml/table/rec/object/property
xml/table/rec/object/property/@name
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/@id
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec
xml/table/rec/@id
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField


Command:
# Display element structure of XML document (including attribute values)
xml el -v ./xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
xml
xml/table
xml/table/rec[@id='1']
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec/object[@name='Obj1']
xml/table/rec/object/property[@name='size']
xml/table/rec/object/property[@name='type']
xml/table/rec[@id='2']
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField
xml/table/rec[@id='3']
xml/table/rec/numField
xml/table/rec/stringField


Command:
# Escape special XML characters
cat xml/structure.xml | xml esc
Result Output:
&lt;a1&gt;
  &lt;a11&gt;
    &lt;a111&gt;
      &lt;a1111/&gt;
    &lt;/a111&gt;
    &lt;a112&gt;
      &lt;a1121/&gt;
    &lt;/a112&gt;
  &lt;/a11&gt;
  &lt;a12/&gt;
  &lt;a13&gt;
    &lt;a131/&gt;
  &lt;/a13&gt;
&lt;/a1&gt;


Command:
# Calculate EXSLT (XSLT extentions) XPath value
echo "<x/>" | xml sel -T -t -v "math:abs(-1000)" --nl
Result Output:
1000


Command:
# Find XML files matching XPath expression (containing 'object' element)
xml sel -T -t -m //object -f --nl xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
xml/tab-obj.xml


Command:
# Generate XML document using command line xml sel
echo "<x/>" | xml sel -t -m / -e xml -e child -a data -o value | xml c14n
echo
Result Output:
<xml><child data="value"></child></xml>


Command:
# Apply XSLT stylesheet to HTML input file
xml tr --html xsl/hello1.xsl html/hello1.html
Result Output:
Hello World!

Command:
# Use local-name() XSLT function in XPath expression
xml sel -T -t -v "//*[local-name()='query']" --nl xsql/jobserve.xsql
Result Output:

  SELECT substr(title,1,26) short_title, title, location, skills
  FROM job
  WHERE UPPER(title) LIKE '%ORACLE%'
  ORDER BY first_posted DESC



Command:
# Select text value of an XML element mathing given XPath expression
xml sel -T -t -m "/xml/table/rec[@id='2']" -v numField --nl xml/table.xml
Result Output:
346


Command:
# Move element node
echo '<x id="1"><a/><b/></x>' | xml ed -m "//b" "//a"

Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<x id="1">
  <a>
    <b/>
  </a>
</x>


Command:
# Format XML document disabling indent
cat xml/tab-obj.xml | xml fo --noindent 
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
<table>
<rec id="1">
<numField>123</numField>
<stringField>String Value</stringField>
<object name="Obj1">
<property name="size">10</property>
<property name="type">Data</property>
</object>
</rec>
<rec id="2">
<numField>346</numField>
<stringField>Text Value</stringField>
</rec>
<rec id="3">
<numField>-23</numField>
<stringField>stringValue</stringField>
</rec>
</table>
</xml>


Command:
# Predefine namespaces for XPath expressions
xml sel -T -N xsql=urn:oracle-xsql -t -v /xsql:query --nl xsql/jobserve.xsql
Result Output:

  SELECT substr(title,1,26) short_title, title, location, skills
  FROM job
  WHERE UPPER(title) LIKE '%ORACLE%'
  ORDER BY first_posted DESC



Command:
# Recover malformed XML document
xml fo -R xml/malformed.xml 2>/dev/null
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<test_output>
  <test_name>foo</test_name>
  <subtest>...</subtest>
</test_output>


Command:
# Rename attributes
xml ed -r "//*/@id" -v ID xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec ID="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <object name="Obj1">
        <property name="size">10</property>
        <property name="type">Data</property>
      </object>
    </rec>
    <rec ID="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec ID="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
# Rename elements
xml ed -r "/xml/table/rec" -v record xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <record id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <object name="Obj1">
        <property name="size">10</property>
        <property name="type">Data</property>
      </object>
    </record>
    <record id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </record>
    <record id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </record>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
# Validate against XSD schema
xml val -b -s xsd/table.xsd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
Result Output:
xml/tab-obj.xml
1


Command:
# xsl:copy-of in xml sel command
xml sel -B -t -e ROOT -m /xml/table/rec -c . -n xml/table.xml | xml c14n
Result Output:
<ROOT><rec id="1"><numField>123</numField><stringField>String Value</stringField></rec>
<rec id="2"><numField>346</numField><stringField>Text Value</stringField></rec>
<rec id="3"><numField>-23</numField><stringField>stringValue</stringField></rec>
</ROOT>

Command:
# Query XML document and produce sorted text table
xml sel -T -t -m /xml/table/rec -s D:N:- "@id" -v "concat(@id,'|',numField,'|',stringField)" -n xml/table.xml
Result Output:
3|-23|stringValue
2|346|Text Value
1|123|String Value


Command:
# Sort on two fields
xml sel -T -t -m /root/elem -s A:N:U @rank -s A:T:U @name -v @name -n xml/unsorted.xml

Result Output:
A
a
E
e
B
b
C
c
D
d


Command:
# lower case first
xml sel -T -t -m /root/elem -s A:T:L @name -v @name -n xml/unsorted.xml

Result Output:
a
A
b
B
c
C
d
D
e
E


Command:
# Print structure of XML element using xml sel (advanced XPath expressions and xml sel command usage)
xml sel -T -t -m '//*' \
-m 'ancestor-or-self::*' -v 'name()' -i 'not(position()=last())' -o . -b -b -n \
xml/structure.xml
Result Output:
a1
a1.a11
a1.a11.a111
a1.a11.a111.a1111
a1.a11.a112
a1.a11.a112.a1121
a1.a12
a1.a13
a1.a13.a131


Command:
# Calculating running sum on XML document
xml sel -T -t -v "sum(/xml/table/rec/numField)" --nl xml/table.xml
Result Output:
446


Command:
# Indent XML document with tabs
cat xml/tab-obj.xml | xml fo --indent-tab 
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
	<table>
		<rec id="1">
			<numField>123</numField>
			<stringField>String Value</stringField>
			<object name="Obj1">
				<property name="size">10</property>
				<property name="type">Data</property>
			</object>
		</rec>
		<rec id="2">
			<numField>346</numField>
			<stringField>Text Value</stringField>
		</rec>
		<rec id="3">
			<numField>-23</numField>
			<stringField>stringValue</stringField>
		</rec>
	</table>
</xml>


Command:
# Generate plain text table from XML document
xml sel -T -t -m /xml/table/rec -v "@id" -o "|" -v numField -o "|" -v stringField -n xml/table.xml
Result Output:
1|123|String Value
2|346|Text Value
3|-23|stringValue


Command:
# Generate plain text table from XML document
xml sel -T -t -m /xml/table/rec -v "concat(@id,'|',numField,'|',stringField)" -n xml/table.xml
Result Output:
1|123|String Value
2|346|Text Value
3|-23|stringValue


Command:
# Generate plain text table from XML document
xml sel -T \
    -t -o "===================" -n \
       -m xml/table/rec -v "concat(@id,'|',numField,'|',stringField)" -n \
    -t -o "===================" -n xml/table.xml
Result Output:
===================
1|123|String Value
2|346|Text Value
3|-23|stringValue
===================


Command:
# Print subtree of elements having given element as a descendant (advanced XPath)
xml ed -d '//node()[not(descendant-or-self::isbn or parent::isbn)] | //*[parent::isbn]' xml/books.xml

Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<books>
  <book type="hardback">
    <isbn id="1">0525934189</isbn>
  </book>
  <book type="paperback">
    <isbn id="2">0140185399</isbn>
  </book>
</books>


Command:
# Select from XML document containing unicode characters
xml sel -T -t -m "//test[@lang='français']/@lang" -v . -n xml/unicode.xml
Result Output:
français
français
français


Command:
# Update value of an attribute
xml ed -u '/xml/table/rec[@id=3]/@id' -v 5 xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>123</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <object name="Obj1">
        <property name="size">10</property>
        <property name="type">Data</property>
      </object>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="5">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
# Update value of an element
xml ed -u '/xml/table/rec[@id=1]/numField' -v 0 xml/tab-obj.xml
Result Output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml>
  <table>
    <rec id="1">
      <numField>0</numField>
      <stringField>String Value</stringField>
      <object name="Obj1">
        <property name="size">10</property>
        <property name="type">Data</property>
      </object>
    </rec>
    <rec id="2">
      <numField>346</numField>
      <stringField>Text Value</stringField>
    </rec>
    <rec id="3">
      <numField>-23</numField>
      <stringField>stringValue</stringField>
    </rec>
  </table>
</xml>


Command:
# Validate XML documents using well-formedness/DTD/XSD/RelaxNG checks
echo "==============================================="
echo "Well-Formedness Validation Tests"
echo "- 1 -------------------------------------------"
xml val xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 2 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -g xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 3 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -b xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 4 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -q xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?

echo "==============================================="
echo "DTD Validation Tests"
echo "- 1 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -d dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 2 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -g -d dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 3 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -b -d dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 4 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -q -d dtd/table.dtd xml/table.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?

echo "==============================================="
echo "Schema Validation Tests"
echo "- 1 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -s xsd/table.xsd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 2 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -g -s xsd/table.xsd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 3 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -b -s xsd/table.xsd xml/table.xml xml/tab-obj.xml xml/tab-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 4 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -q -s xsd/table.xsd xml/table.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?

echo "==============================================="
echo "RelaxNG Schema Validation Tests"
echo "- 1 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -r relaxng/address.rng relaxng/address.xml relaxng/address-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 2 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -g -r relaxng/address.rng relaxng/address.xml relaxng/address-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 3 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -b -r relaxng/address.rng relaxng/address.xml relaxng/address-bad.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
echo "- 4 -------------------------------------------"
xml val -q -r relaxng/address.rng relaxng/address.xml 2>/dev/null; echo $?
Result Output:
===============================================
Well-Formedness Validation Tests
- 1 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml - valid
xml/tab-obj.xml - valid
xml/tab-bad.xml - invalid
1
- 2 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml
xml/tab-obj.xml
1
- 3 -------------------------------------------
xml/tab-bad.xml
1
- 4 -------------------------------------------
0
===============================================
DTD Validation Tests
- 1 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml - valid
xml/tab-obj.xml - invalid
xml/tab-bad.xml - invalid
1
- 2 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml
1
- 3 -------------------------------------------
xml/tab-obj.xml
xml/tab-bad.xml
1
- 4 -------------------------------------------
0
===============================================
Schema Validation Tests
- 1 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml - valid
xml/tab-obj.xml - invalid
xml/tab-bad.xml - invalid
1
- 2 -------------------------------------------
xml/table.xml
1
- 3 -------------------------------------------
xml/tab-obj.xml
xml/tab-bad.xml
1
- 4 -------------------------------------------
0
===============================================
RelaxNG Schema Validation Tests
- 1 -------------------------------------------
relaxng/address.xml - valid
relaxng/address-bad.xml - invalid
1
- 2 -------------------------------------------
relaxng/address.xml
1
- 3 -------------------------------------------
relaxng/address-bad.xml
1
- 4 -------------------------------------------
0


Command:
# Include one XML document into another using XInclude
xml tr --xinclude xsl/cat.xsl xml/document.xml | xml c14n
Result Output:
<document xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude">
  <p>120 Mz is adequate for an average home user.</p>
  <disclaimer>
  <p>The opinions represented herein represent those of the individual
  and should not be interpreted as official policy endorsed by this
  organization.</p>
</disclaimer>
</document>

Command:
# Passing parameters to XSLT stylesheet
xml tr xsl/param1.xsl -p Count='count(/xml/table/rec)' -s Text="Count=" xml/table.xml
Result Output:
Count=3


Command:
# Applying XSLT stylesheet to XML document
xml tr xsl/sum1.xsl xml/table.xml
Result Output:
446