XALAN(1)

📦 version 1.12, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 XALAN — the manual page, but make it make sense

okay bestie, this is the xalan page from the General Commands Manual (section 1, the command section, iykyk). sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

xalan — process XML documents with XSLT stylesheets. that's the whole vibe. XML goes in, a stylesheet does its thing, something new comes out. iconic behavior, honestly.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

xalan [options]

that's it. that's the whole thing. options only, no positional args, no cap.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so. Xalan-C++ — named after a rare musical instrument, which is such a main character name, we love that for it — implements the W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999 XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0 and the XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0. periodt.

XSLT is the first part of the XSL stylesheet language for XML. it includes the XSL Transformation vocabulary and XPath, which is a language for addressing parts of XML documents. so basically: one language to say what you want, another to say where it lives. 💖

for links to background materials, discussion groups, frequently asked questions, and tutorials on XSLT, see Getting up to speed with XSLT.

you use the XSLT language to compose XSL stylesheets. an XSL stylesheet contains instructions for transforming XML documents from one document type to another document type — could be XML, HTML, or other, we're flexible like that. 🌈

in structural terms (get ready, this part is lowkey gorgeous): an XSL stylesheet specifies the transformation of one tree of nodes (the XML input) into another tree of nodes (the output, aka the transformation result). tree in, tree out. glow up achieved. 🌸

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

⚠️ heads up bestie: options are case-sensitive. -v and -V are NOT the same girl. be careful.
  • -in URL — sets the input URL. if you don't set anything, stdin is used. no input? it'll just read from standard in, nbd.
  • -xsl URL — sets the XSLT sheet URL. this is your stylesheet, your blueprint, your little instruction manual.
  • -out file — sets the output filename.
  • -v — show version information only. just the version, that's it, that's all it does.
  • -qc — quiet pattern conflicts warnings. shhh. 🤫
  • -q — use quiet mode.
  • -indent n — controls how many spaces to indent. default is 0. (zero. no spaces. it's giving minimalist.)
  • -validate — controls whether validation occurs. validation is off by default.
  • -tt — trace the templates as they are being called.
  • -tg — trace each generation event.
  • -ts — trace each selection event.
  • -ttc — trace the template children as they are being processed.
  • -xml — use XML formatter and add XML header.
  • -text — use simple Text formatter.
  • -html — use HTML formatter.
  • -dom — use DOM formatter. formats to DOM, then formats XML for output.
  • -xst — use source tree formatter. formats to Xalan source tree, then formats XML for output.
  • -param name expression — sets a stylesheet parameter.
  • -xd — use Xerces DOM instead of Xalan source tree.
  • -de — disable built-in extension functions.

💜 the picky ones (options that only work with a specific formatter)

the following option is valid only with -HTML:

  • -noindent — turn off HTML indenting.

the following option is valid only with -XML:

  • -nh — don't write XML header.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The Apache Software Foundation. (the whole foundation. all of them. 💅)

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go read them, they're free, and they're the receipts for everything above. 🫶

Copyright (c) 1999-2012 The Apache Software Foundation

This product includes software developed at The Apache Software Foundation ( http://www.apache.org/ ).

This software is based on the ASF XERCES-C project.

Portions of this software were originally based on the following:

As of version 1.8, Xalan is now distributed under the Apache license v2.0.

🧚 and that's the whole page, bestie. go forth and transform some trees. ✨

shoutout to the Debian GNU/Linux crew — this page is dated 2001, and it lives in section XALAN(1). mwah. 🎀

📦 where this page comes from