Sort XML in alphabetic Order

Question

I have an xml config file:

 <icecast>
    <mount>
    <mount-name>/yourradio.mp3</mount-name>
    <accesslog>
    <name>/access/yourradio/yourradiomp3.log</name>
    <duration>86400</duration>
    <archive>true</archive>
    <size>20000000</size>
    </accesslog>
    </mount>

    <mount>
    <mount-name>/aire.mp3</mount-name>
    <accesslog>
    <name>/access/yourradio/yourradiomp3.log</name>
    <duration>86400</duration>
    <archive>true</archive>
    <size>20000000</size>
    </accesslog>
    </mount>
 </icecast>

How can I sort this in alphabetic order using the <mount-name> as the sorting element and output it back into xml. I have seen you can do some stuff with xmllint using a xslt but I cant seem to get my head around it and get it to work.

Ideally would love to be able to run this in a bash script to then sort all of the mounts I have in a configuration file.

Thank you for all of your help!

Place XSLT tried so far, and what is the required result?, your XML is not well formed, because there is no ROOT element. — Rudramuni TP, Feb 04 '15 at 13:34
I will have a look at the sort XML nodes one. Rudramuni thank you for this I only did a snipit of the code the root element is — Stuart, Feb 04 '15 at 14:15
I have tried to replicate the example they have used but I can't get it to work. When i create the xslt how do i generate the new xml? I have been trying: xmllint sorted.xml unsorted.xml --output output.xml Is this right? — Stuart, Feb 04 '15 at 14:21
I don't think you can do an XSLT transform with xmllint. I think you'd have to use xsltproc or xmlstarlet (or my preference: saxon (java jar)). — Daniel Haley, Feb 04 '15 at 17:21

Rudramuni TP · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-04T17:24:44.353

3

Try this:

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
         <xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/></xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="icecast">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()">
                <xsl:sort select="mount-name"/>
            </xsl:apply-templates>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

edited Feb 04 '15 at 17:24

answered Feb 04 '15 at 16:04

Rudramuni TP

1,268
2
16
26

1

You've already got the identity transform; why use `xsl:for-each`? Just use `xsl:apply-templates` with an `xsl:sort` inside of it. Like this (sorry for pasting code in a comment): `` – Daniel Haley Feb 04 '15 at 17:11
@DanielHaley, You are welcome and once again thanks for smart code. – Rudramuni TP Feb 04 '15 at 17:27
I think im getting there thank you for all of your help! Just trying to work out how I can pass the XSLT so I can use it in a bash script. The xsltproc failed with a "xsl:version: only 1.0 features are supported" But if i try via the w3c tool it does come back in the correct format so I have the XSLT setup right now. – Stuart Feb 05 '15 at 10:19
I have this all working now thank you for everyones help! – Stuart Feb 05 '15 at 12:21

Sort XML in alphabetic Order

1 Answers1