--- name: "xmllint" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "libxml2" version: "2.15.4-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux", "macos"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/xmllint" --- # xmllint(1) command line XML tool ## NAME xmllint - command line XML tool ## SYNOPSIS **xmllint** \[**--version** \| **--debug** \| **--quiet** \| **--shell** \| **--xpath "***XPath\_expression***"** \| **--xpath0 "***XPath\_expression***"** \| **--copy** \| **--recover** \| **--huge** \| **--nocompact** \| **--nodefdtd** \| **--nodict** \| **--noenc** \| **--noent** \| **--nofixup-base-uris** \| **--noout** \| **--nonet** \| **--path "***PATH(S)***"** \| **--load-trace** \| **--valid** \| **--postvalid** \| **--dtdvalid** *URL* \| **--dtdvalidfpi** *FPI* \| **--timing** \| **--output** *FILE* \| **--repeat** \| **--insert** \| **--strict-namespace** \| **--compress** \| **--html** \| **--xmlout** \| **--push** \| **--memory** \| **--max-ampl** *INTEGER* \| **--maxmem** *NBBYTES* \| **--nowarning** \| **--noblanks** \| **--nocdata** \| **--format** \| **--pretty** *INTEGER* \| **--encode** *ENCODING* \| **--dropdtd** \| **--nsclean** \| **--catalogs** \| **--nocatalogs** \| **--auto** \| **--xinclude** \| **--noxincludenode** \| **--loaddtd** \| **--dtdattr** \| **--stream** \| **--walker** \| **--pattern** *PATTERNVALUE* \| **--relaxng** *SCHEMA* \| **--schema** *SCHEMA* \| **--schematron** *SCHEMA* \| **--c14n** \| **--c14n11** \| **--exc-c14n** \| **--pedantic** \| **--sax** \| **--sax1** \| **--oldxml10**\] {*XML-FILE(S)*... \| -} ## 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 part of the libxml2 library. ## VALIDATION OPTIONS Options enabling validation. - **--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. - **--relaxng** *SCHEMA* Use RelaxNG file named *SCHEMA* for validation. - **--schema** *SCHEMA* Use a W3C XML Schema file named *SCHEMA* for validation. - **--schematron** *SCHEMA* Use a Schematron file named *SCHEMA* for validation. - **--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. - **--strict-namespace** Return an error if the document is well-formed, but has namespace errors. This enforces namespace-well-formedness. ## PARSER OPTIONS The following options set the respective parser options. - **--dtdattr** Fetch external DTD and populate the tree with inherited attributes. Implies **--loaddtd**. - **--huge** Ignore some hardcoded parser limits. - **--loaddtd** Fetch an external DTD and external parameter entities. - **--max-ampl** *INTEGER* Set the maximum amplification factor which protects against exponential entity expansion ("billion laughs"). The default value is 5. Documents making heavy use of entity expansion may require a higher value. - **--noblanks** Drop "ignorable" blank spaces. This option is unreliable and shouldn't be used. - **--nocatalogs** Do not use any catalogs. - **--nocdata** Substitute CDATA section by equivalent text nodes. - **--nodefdtd** Do not set default HTML doctype (parser option HTML\_PARSE\_NODEFDTD). - **--noenc** Ignore encoding declaration (parser option XML\_PARSE\_IGNORE\_ENC). - **--noent** Substitute entity values for entity references. By default, **xmllint** leaves entity references in place. This enables loading of external DTDs and entities. - **--nofixup-base-uris** Don't fix xml:base URIs when processing XIncludes (parser option XML\_PARSE\_NOBASEFIX). - **--nonet** Do not use the Internet to fetch DTDs or entities. Has no effect with libxml2 2.15 or later. - **--nowarning** Do not emit warnings from the parser and/or validator. - **--nsclean** Remove redundant namespace declarations. - **--oldxml10** Use deprecated parsing rules before XML 1.0, 5th edition. - **--pedantic** Enable additional warnings. - **--recover** Output any parsable portions of an invalid document. Exact behavior is unspecified. Use of this option is discouraged. - **--xinclude** Do XInclude processing. ## MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS Options that don't fall in another category. - **--catalogs** Use the SGML catalog(s) from **SGML\_CATALOG\_FILES**. XML catalogs are loaded by default. - **--dropdtd** Remove DTD after parsing. - **--html** Use the HTML parser. - **--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. - **--quiet** Don't print informational messages to stderr. - **--sax** Print SAX callbacks for debugging. Can be used for streaming DTD and Schema validation when used with **--noout**. - **--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. - **--version** Display the version of libxml2 used. ## OUTPUT OPTIONS Options controlling output. Except for **--noout** these have no effect in SAX or stream mode. - **--compress** Turn on [**gzip**(1)](/gzip/1.md) compression of output. - **--c14n**, **--c14n11**, **--exc-c14n** Use the W3C XML Canonicalisation (C14N) to serialize the result of parsing to stdout. It keeps comments in the result. - **--encode** *ENCODING* Output in the given encoding. Note that this works for full document not fragments or result from XPath queries. - **--format** Reformat and reindent the output. The **XMLLINT\_INDENT** environment variable controls the indentation. The default value is two spaces " "). Especially in the absence of a DTD, this feature has never worked reliably and is fundamentally broken. - **--noout** Suppress output. By default, **xmllint** outputs the result tree. - **--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. - **--pretty** *INTEGER* Value 0 means no formatting, 1 means XML\_SAVE\_FORMAT (same as --format), 2 means XML\_SAVE\_WSNONSIG. - **--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. ## DEBUG OPTIONS The following options can be used to debug the libxml2 library. Behavior of these options may change without notice. - **--auto** Generate a small document for testing purposes. - **--copy** Test the internal copy implementation. - **--debug** Parse a file and output an annotated tree of the in-memory version of the document. - **--insert** Test for valid insertions. DEPRECATED: This feature will be removed. - **--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. - **--nocompact** Do not generate compact text nodes (parser option XML\_PARSE\_COMPACT). Only for debugging. - **--nodict** Don't use dictionaries (parser option XML\_PARSE\_NODICT). Only for debugging. - **--noxincludenode** Do XInclude processing but do not generate XInclude start and end nodes. - **--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. - **--repeat** Repeat 100 times, for timing or profiling. - **--sax1** Use deprecated SAX1 interface (only for debugging). - **--timing** Output information about the time it takes **xmllint** to perform the various steps. - **--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. - **--xpath "***XPath\_expression***"** Run an XPath expression given as argument and print the result. In case of a nodeset result, each node in the node set is serialized in full in the output. In case of an empty node set the "XPath set is empty" result will be shown and exit code 11 will be returned.. ## 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. **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. ## 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 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 space-separated list of catalogs. Use percent-encoding to escape spaces or other characters. An empty variable should deactivate loading the default 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 " ". ## 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** Document isn't well-formed or couldn't be read **5** Error in schema compilation **6** Error writing output **7** Error in pattern (generated when **--pattern** option is used) **9** Out of memory error **10** XPath evaluation error **11** XPath result is empty ## SEE ALSO More information can be found in the libxml2 repo at **https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2** ## AUTHORS **John Fleck** \ **Ziying Sherwin** \ **Heiko Rupp** \ ## COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2001, 2004\