validate – Validate XML¶

The validate script can check if an XML source conforms to an XML schema language. You can also use validate to search for XML files that validate against an XML schema language.

Examples¶

Validate XHTML with the XHTML 1.0 strict XSD:

curl -s https://www.webstandards.org/learn/reference/templates/xhtml10s/ | \
   validate -x examples/xsd/xhtml1-strict.xsd

Validate XHTML with the XHTML 1.0 strict DTD:

curl -s https://www.webstandards.org/learn/reference/templates/xhtml10s/ | \
   validate -d examples/dtd/xhtml1-strict.dtd

Options¶

validate can be used with the following command-line options:

$ validate --help

usage: validate [-h] [-V] (-x XSD_SOURCE | -d DTD_SOURCE | -r RELAXNG_SOURCE) [-l | -L] [xml_source ...]

Validate an XML source with XSD, DTD or RELAX NG.

positional arguments:
  xml_source            XML source (file, <stdin>, http://...)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit

XML validator:
  choose an XML validator: XSD, DTD or RELAX NG

  -x XSD_SOURCE, --xsd XSD_SOURCE
                        XML Schema Definition (XSD) source
  -d DTD_SOURCE, --dtd DTD_SOURCE
                        Document Type Definition (DTD) source
  -r RELAXNG_SOURCE, --relaxng RELAXNG_SOURCE
                        RELAX NG source

file hit options:
  output filenames to standard output

  -l, -f, --validated-files
                        only the names of validated XML files are written to standard output
  -L, -F, --invalidated-files
                        only the names of invalidated XML files are written to standard output

XML schema languages¶

validate supports the following XML schema languages.

XML Schema Definition (XSD)¶

-x <xml_schema>, --xsd <xml_schema>¶

Use the --xsd option to validate an XML source with an XSD [1] file:

validate -x schema.xsd source.xml

Validate an XSD file with the XML Schema schema document:

validate -x examples/xsd/XMLSchema.xsd schema_file.xsd

Validate the XML Schema 1.1 XSD with the (identical) XML Schema schema document:

validate -x examples/xsd/XMLSchema.xsd http://www.w3.org/2009/XMLSchema/XMLSchema.xsd

And vice versa:

validate -x http://www.w3.org/2009/XMLSchema/XMLSchema.xsd examples/xsd/XMLSchema.xsd

Document Type Definition (DTD)¶

-d <dtd_schema>, --dtd <dtd_schema>¶

Validate an XML source with a DTD [2] file with the --dtd option:

validate -d doctype.dtd source.xml

Validate the XML Schema XSD with the DTD for XML Schema:

validate -d examples/dtd/XMLSchema.dtd examples/xsd/XMLSchema.xsd

RELAX NG¶

-r <relax_ng_schema>, --relaxng <relax_ng_schema>¶

The --relaxng option validates an XML source with a RELAX NG [3] file:

validate -r relaxng.rng source.xml

Validation Errors¶

If an XML source doesn’t validate the validate script will show the reason with some additional information:

validate -x TV-Anytime.xsd NED120200816E.xml

XML source 'NED120200816E.xml' does not validate
line 92, column 0: Element '{urn:tva:metadata:2019}Broadcaster': This element is not expected.
Expected is one of ( {urn:tva:metadata:2019}FirstShowing, {urn:tva:metadata:2019}LastShowing, {urn:tva:metadata:2019}Free ).

Searching XML files¶

validate can print the names of validated or invalidated XML files to standard output.

Validated XML files¶

-l, -f, --validated-files¶

The --validated-files command-line option only prints the names of validated XML files (similar to grep --files-with-matches).

Find XML files that validate:

validate -lx schema.xsd *.xml

Invalidated XML files¶

-L, -F, --invalidated-files¶

The --invalidated-files command-line option only prints the names of invalidated XML files (similar to grep --files-without-match).

Remove XML files that fail to validate:

validate -Lx schema.xsd *.xml | xargs rm

Footnotes