xmlvalid

Name

xmlvalid — validate xml documents [version 1.2]

Synopsis

xmlvalid [ OPTION ...] [URL...]

Usage

xmlvalid -c --sum --novalidate --names foo*.xml

Description
General Options
Network Access Options
XML Catalog Options
Return Codes
Entity Resolution
Native Language Support
Feedback

Description

xmlvalid is a command-line utility for validating XML files. It is produced and maintained by ElCel Technology.

For each URL, xmlvalid validates the XML contents against a DTD. The DTD is determined by the DOCTYPE declaration within the XML file or may be specified explicitly by using the --dtd option. xmlvalid does not perform validation against an XML schema.

Each filename passed on the command line is treated as a URL. If no protocol is present in the URL, it is assumed to refer to a local file. For example 'c:\test.xml' is treated as being equivalent to the URL 'file:///c:\test.xml'. To read from the standard input specify a URL of '-'.

xmlvalid can be configured to route HTTP network requests via a proxy server. See Network Access Options for further details.

On Microsoft Windows platforms, to compensate for the lack of shell file name expansion, xmlvalid automatically expands file names containing wild-card characters ('*' and '?') into a list of matching files. This expansion only occurs when the URL(s) look like file names, i.e. they do not contain a protocol such as "file:".

Messages produced by xmlvalid can be translated into your native language. This is described in the section titled Native Language Support.

General Options

Single character option names may be concatenated together. POSIX-style option names (those beginning with --) must be specified separately, but may be abbreviated.

-c --context

Enhance error messages by displaying a fragment of the input document with an arrow beneath indicating the position in the input document where the error was detected.

--dtd DTD

Treat each document as if it contains a reference to the specified DTD URL. This option may be useful when a document needs to be validated but is lacking a DOCTYPE declaration. It may also be useful when the DTD referenced by the document has moved (or the document itself has moved) making the DTD inaccessible. However this situation may be better addressed by the use of a XML catalog - see the section titled Entity Resolution.

This option has no effect on the internal DTD subset that may be present in the input file(s).

-d --nonsdecl

Disable the validation of namespace declaration attributes (e.g. xmlns:foo="xxx"). By default, when validating, all attributes are validated - including those prefixed with the xmlns namespace prefix. This is the correct behaviour according to the XML 1.0 and XML namespace recommendations. This option only takes effect when the --namespaces option is specified.

-e --noextentities

Prevent the reading of external entities, including the external DTD subset.

-E --nopes

Disable the processing of parameter entities, including those in the internal DTD subset.

-h --help

Display a brief help page with available options and exit.

-i --interop

Enable additional tests that check the xml for interoperability with SGML-based systems.

-I --interactive

Prompt for console input after each input file that contained errors. Useful when validating many files in one go on environments that do not support the more command.

-m --maxerrors COUNT

Limit the number of error messages displayed for each input file to COUNT.

-n --namespaces

Enable XML namespace processing. When specified, xmlvalid becomes namespace aware and checks that element and attribute names conform to the QName production and that namespace prefixes are correctly specified.

-q --quiet

Prevents the display of status messages.

-Q --veryquiet

Prevents the display of all messages, even errors. This option may be useful when calling xmlvalid from a batch script when you only need the final return code or when using the --summary option.

-s --summary

After processing all input files, display a summary of the warnings, errors, and fatal errors encountered.

-v --novalidate

Disable validation tests. This effectively turns xmlvalid into a well-formedness checker. However, the external DTD subset and other external entities are still read in the same way as when xmlvalid is acting as a validating processor.

--verbose

Display progress information.

-V --version

Display the version number and exit.

-w --warnings

The XML 1.0 recommendation specifies a number of conditions that XML processors may report as warnings but that are not errors. This option enables these tests which are disabled by default.

Network Access Options

xmlvalid uses the capabilities of the ElCel Technology library to access files from the Internet. In some organizations access to the Internet is provided via a proxy server, sometimes requiring authentication.

The following options can be used to control how xmlvalid accesses network resources.

--httpproxy SERVER[:PORT]: This option, or the use of the ET_HTTP_PROXY environment variable, causes xmlvalid to use the specified HTTP proxy server to satisfy HTTP network requests. If a port number is not specified then 8080 is used by default.
-p --password PASSWORD: This option, or the use of the ET_HTTP_PASSWORD environment variable, specifies the password to send to origin HTTP servers for authentication.
-P --proxypassword PASSWORD: This option, or the use of the ET_HTTP_PROXY_PASSWORD environment variable, specifies the password to send to the HTTP proxy server for authentication.
-u --user USER: This option, or the use of the ET_HTTP_USER environment variable, specifies the user name to send to origin HTTP servers for authentication.
-U --proxyuser USER: This option, or the use of the ET_HTTP_PROXY_USER environment variable, specifies the user name to send to the HTTP proxy server for authentication.

XML Catalog Options

The DTD and other external entities referenced within the input file(s) can be resolved using an XML Catalog. This is further described in the section titled Entity Resolution.

-g --catalog CATALOG: This option, or the use of the ET_XMLCAT_CATALOG environment variable, causes xmlvalid to use the specified XML catalog entry file for Entity Resolution.
--nocatalogpis: Disable the processing of <?oasis-xml-catalog?> processing instructions.
--prefer [system|public]: This option, or the ET_XMLCAT_PREFER environment variable, is used to set the application preference for system or public identifiers. The default value is 'public', which means that public catalog entries may be used to resolve external entities even when a system identifier exists for the resource. Note that system catalog entries still take precedence over public catalog entries even when this option is set to 'public'.

Return Codes

0 - Success, 1 - Warnings issued, 2 - Errors detected, 3 - Fatal errors detected

Entity Resolution

xmlvalid can use a XML catalog to look up and resolve public and system identifiers. This important feature is present in SGML systems but was originally absent from most XML tools. The XML catalog file is specified with the --catalog option, the ET_XMLCAT_CATALOG environment variable or the <?oasis-xml-catalog?> processing instruction imbedded in the prolog (before the DOCTYPE declaration) of your XML document.

The format and semantics of the XML catalog entries follow the OASIS XML Catalog specification.

Control over whether public or system identifiers are preferred is provided by means of the --prefer option or the ET_XMLCAT_PREFER environment variable.

The OASIS XML Catalog specification. describes a powerful set of features which cannot adequately be described here. However a brief example of a valid catalog entry file is shown below:-

<catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog">
 <public publicId="-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
         uri="docbookx.dtd"/>
 <system systemId="docbookx.dtd" uri="docbookx.dtd"/>
 <delegateSystem systemIdStartString="doc" 
                 catalog="http://www.acme.org/DocBook/catalog"/>
 <delegatePublic publicIdStartString="-//OASIS" 
                 catalog="file:///usr/doc/oasis/catalog.xml"/>
</catalog>

Note how the example makes use of the default namespace. All catalog elements must be within the urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog namespace.

If no catalog is specified (either using the --catalog option, the ET_XMLCAT_CATALOG environment variable or the <?oasis-xml-catalog?> processing instruction) or a catalog match fails to occur, then xmlvalid will read external entities by dereferencing the system identifiers. The <?oasis-xml-catalog?> processing instruction can be disabled by specifying the --nocatalogpis option.

Note: it is possible to see the effect that the XML Catalog is having on entity resolution by using the --verbose option.

Native Language Support

By default, xmlvalid produces error messages in the English language but these can be replaced with messages written in a native language of your choice.

The ElCel Technology Native Language Authoring Kit contains message catalogs translated into other languages. You may be lucky and find that messages for your native language have already been translated. More likely, if you wish to use native language messages you will need to undertake the translation work yourself. The Kit contains pro-forma message catalogs written in English which form the basis for the native language versions. It is not necessary to translate all messages for the exercise to be useful, translating just the common messages is feasible.

Once you have the necessary message catalogs, it is quite straight forward to configure xmlvalid to use them. This is achieved by setting two environment variables: LANG and ET_MSG_DIR.

LANG: This is used by many programs and utilities to determine the locale category for native language, local customs and coded characters. It normally contains a language and region code such as "en_GB", "en_AU" or "fr_FR";
ET_MSG_DIR: This is used to specify the base directory under which the native language message catalogs are located. On UNIX systems this is commonly /usr/share or /usr/share/locale but may be any valid directory name.

When searching for message catalogs, xmlvalid concatenates the environment variables like this: $ET_MSG_DIR/elcel/$LANG/. Within the message directory, the message catalog files have a suffix of .msg and are named in accordance with the library or application to which they refer.

For example, if ET_MSG_DIR=/usr/share and LANG=fr_FR the message catalog file containing XML validation messages (in the French language) would be /usr/share/elcel/fr_FR/xml.msg. These messages may be shared by other tools built with . The catalog file containing messages specific to xmlvalid would be named /usr/share/elcel/fr_FR/xmlvalid.msg.

Feedback

We welcome feedback about our products. If you have a bug report, a suggested enhancement or simply enjoy using xmlvalid please let us know. support@elcel.com.

xmlvalid version 1.2, March 2003