validate – Validate XML

The validate script can check if an XML source conforms to an XML schema. It supports the following XML schema languages.

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

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

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

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 Validation

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

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

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 ).

XSD Validation

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

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

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