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xmlstarlet — A XML/XSLT toolkit. Note: You will likely need to know XPath: <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/d

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the xmlstarlet command: A XML/XSLT toolkit. Note: You will likely need to know XPath: <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XPath>. More information: <https://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/docs.php>.

Solution

xmlstarlet — A XML/XSLT toolkit. Note: You will likely need to know XPath: <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XPath>. More information: <https://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/docs.php>.

Format an XML document and print to stdout:

xmlstarlet format {{path/to/file.xml}}

XML document can also be piped from stdin:

{{cat path/to/file.xml}} | xmlstarlet format

Print all nodes that match a given XPath:

xmlstarlet select --template --copy-of {{xpath}} {{path/to/file.xml}}

Insert an attribute to all matching nodes, and print to stdout (source file is unchanged):

xmlstarlet edit --insert {{xpath}} --type attr --name {{attribute_name}} --value {{attribute_value}} {{path/to/file.xml}}

Update the value of all matching nodes in place (source file is changed):

xmlstarlet edit --inplace --update {{xpath}} --value {{new_value}} {{file.xml}}

Delete all matching nodes in place (source file is changed):

xmlstarlet edit --inplace --delete {{xpath}} {{file.xml}}

Escape or unescape special XML characters in a given string:

xmlstarlet [un]escape {{string}}

List a given directory as XML (omit argument to list current directory):

xmlstarlet ls {{path/to/directory}}

Code Snippets

Format an XML document and print to `stdout`

xmlstarlet format {{path/to/file.xml}}

XML document can also be piped from `stdin`

{{cat path/to/file.xml}} | xmlstarlet format

Print all nodes that match a given XPath

xmlstarlet select --template --copy-of {{xpath}} {{path/to/file.xml}}

Insert an attribute to all matching nodes, and print to `stdout` (source file is unchanged)

xmlstarlet edit --insert {{xpath}} --type attr --name {{attribute_name}} --value {{attribute_value}} {{path/to/file.xml}}

Update the value of all matching nodes in place (source file is changed)

xmlstarlet edit --inplace --update {{xpath}} --value {{new_value}} {{file.xml}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/xmlstarlet

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