bash script to edit xml file

Question

I want to edit the config file of a program that is an XML:

<software>
   <settings>
       ...
       <setting name="local directory" type="string">/home/username/</setting>
       ...
   </settings>
</software>

What is the easiest way to do this from a bash script?

Thanks

What edit do you want to make? – mmmmmm Oct 12 '09 at 11:58 — mmmmmm, Oct 12 '09 at 11:58
the setting called local directory, its value – Gabriel Solomon Oct 12 '09 at 16:21 — Gabriel Solomon, Oct 12 '09 at 16:21

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '10 at 12:50

20

Using xmlstarlet:

xmlstarlet val -e file.xml
xmlstarlet ed -u "//settings/setting/@name" -v 'local directory2' file.xml
xmlstarlet ed -u "//settings[1]/setting/@name" -v 'local directory2' file.xml

# edit file inplace
xmlstarlet ed -L -u "//settings/setting/@name" -v 'local directory2' file.xml

answered Jul 08 '10 at 12:50

lmxy

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I don't have -L option to edit in place, what edition of xmlstartlet and unix are you using? – simpatico Apr 08 '11 at 07:26
Ah, brilliant - the -L option was just what I was looking for. – Apr 27 '12 at 07:14

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 08 '15 at 10:20

12

Depending on what you want to do, you may want to use some XML-specific tooling (to handle character encodings, to maintain XML well-formedness etc.). You can use the normal line-oriented tools, but unless you're careful (or doing something trivial) you can easily create non-compliant XML.

I use the XMLStarlet command line set. It's a set of command line utilities for specifically parsing/manipulating XML.

edited Oct 08 '15 at 10:20

Tomáš Zato

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answered Oct 12 '09 at 12:03

Brian Agnew

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+1 to above comment for use of the word dandy. +1 to post for great reference. – Cody Poll Jan 30 '13 at 16:44
But what about something that's installed by default? – Tomáš Zato Oct 08 '15 at 10:20
@TomášZato, ...then you end up using Python (which has several XML modules built in). – Charles Duffy Jul 28 '16 at 21:30

score -4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '09 at 12:02

-4

Most people would probably use sed to do line editing from a bash script. If you actually care about parsing the XML, then use something like Perl which has a ready XML parser.

answered Oct 12 '09 at 12:02

This could be a way of solving the problem. But in that case please try to add some sample codes for that. Don't give vague sentences. – Arun Sooraj Oct 04 '17 at 04:12

score -4 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '09 at 12:16

-4

An ugly/unsafe but sometimes the easiest is to call sed/perl/awk from bash

answered Oct 12 '09 at 12:16

dimba

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bash script to edit xml file

4 Answers4

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