unix - How to pretty print XML from the command line?

Friday 25 November 2016

Is there a (unix) shell script to format XML in human-readable form?

Basically, I want it to transform the following:

lorem

... into something like this:


    lorem

Answer

libxml2-utils

This utility comes with libxml2-utils:

echo 'lorem' |
    xmllint --format -

Perl's XML::Twig

This command comes with XML::Twig perl module, sometimes xml-twig-tools package:

echo 'lorem' |
    xml_pp

xmlstarlet

This command comes with xmlstarlet:

echo 'lorem' |
    xmlstarlet format --indent-tab

tidy

Check the tidy package:

echo 'lorem' |
    tidy -xml -i -

Python

Python's xml.dom.minidom can format XML (both python2 and python3):

echo 'lorem' |
    python -c 'import sys;import xml.dom.minidom;s=sys.stdin.read();print(xml.dom.minidom.parseString(s).toprettyxml())'

saxon-lint

You need saxon-lint:

echo 'lorem' |
    saxon-lint --indent --xpath '/' -

saxon-HE

You need saxon-HE:

 echo 'lorem' |
    java -cp /usr/share/java/saxon/saxon9he.jar net.sf.saxon.Query \
    -s:- -qs:/ '!indent=yes'

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