XMLSTARLET(1)

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version 1.7.0 · 8 versions
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XMLSTARLET(1) 🦋

Okay bestie, welcome to the XMLSTARLET(1) manual — aka the whole XMLStarlet situation — and I promise we're gonna make it make sense 💅✨

✨ NAME ✨

xmlstarlet — command line XML/XSLT toolkit. Periodt. 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

xml [options...] {command} [cmd-options...]

🌸 INTRODUCTION 🌸

XMLStarlet is literally a set of command line utilities (tools) that can transform, query, validate, and edit XML documents and files using a simple set of shell commands — in a similar way to how it's done for plain text files with UNIX grep, sed, awk, diff, patch, join, etc. commands. Yes, the whole iconic text-tool energy but for XML 🫶

This set of command line utilities can be used by those who deal with many XML documents on a UNIX shell command prompt, as well as for automated XML processing with shell scripts. Main character energy for your terminal, no cap 💖

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --version — Display the version of xmlstarlet.
  • --help — Display help.

🌈 COMMANDS 🌈

Pro tip, bestie: xml command --help gives you command-specific help ✨

Available commands include:

  • 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 documents(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.

🔗 REFERENCES 🔗

XMLStarlet is a command line toolkit to query/edit/check/transform XML documents (for more information see http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/). Go browse, bestie 🦋

💀 BUGS 💀

Report bugs to the mailing list, <xmlstar-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>, or the bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=66612&atid=515106. Not me being dramatic, but bugs deserve their moment too 😭

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Mikhail Grushinskiy — XMLStarlet creator.

Copyright © 2012.

This iconic page is from the XMLStarlet Manual, version 1.7.0, dated 09/07/2026 — mwah, byeee 💋🎀✨

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