Edit xml file using shell script / command

Question

I need to do this using unix script or command There is a xml file in /home/user/app/xmlfiles like

<book>
   <fiction type='a'>
      <author type=''></author>
   </fiction>
   <fiction type='b'>
      <author type=''></author>
   </fiction>
   <Romance>
       <author type=''></author>
   </Romance>
</book>

I want to edit author type in fiction as local .

   <fiction>
      <author type='Local'></author>
   </fiction>

I need to change the author type which is in fiction tag with attribute b alone. Please help me with this using unix shell script or command. Thanks !

Why not use some text editor like vi / vim / emacs / gedit (pick any of your choice)? Or you can only use shell scripts and can't use any programs? — Darius, May 19 '15 at 13:11
I guess I'd recommend using xlst to transform the input into appropriate output, since that is the XMLish approach. you can perform XLST transformations in bash using `xlstproc` . http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/463/xslt-processor-command-line/ — Frank Thomas, May 19 '15 at 13:47
@FrankThomas Take a look at my XMLish answer and please tell what you think about it. — Marco M. von Hagen, Jun 11 '15 at 13:04

chaos · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-25T06:53:01.307

28

If you just want to replace <author type=''><\/author> with <author type='Local'><\/author>, you can use that sed command:

sed "/<fiction type='a'>/,/<\/fiction>/ s/<author type=''><\/author>/<author type='Local'><\/author>/g;" file

But, when dealing with xml, I recommend an xml parser/editor like xmlstarlet:

$ xmlstarlet ed -u /book/*/author[@type]/@type -v "Local"  file
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<book>
  <fiction>
    <author type="Local"/>
  </fiction>
  <Romance>
    <author type="Local"/>
  </Romance>
</book>

Use the -L flag to edit the file inline, instead to printing the changes.

edited Jul 25 '18 at 06:53

answered May 19 '15 at 13:29

chaos

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Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/24031/discussion-on-answer-by-chaos-edit-xml-file-using-shell-script-command). – Mokubai May 22 '15 at 17:06
Note that if your XML document has a default namespace (i.e. an `xmlns` attribute on the top-level tag), you'll need to [specify it to `xmlstarlet` as described here](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9030791/1175455). – Harry Cutts Mar 08 '21 at 01:40

Kit · Answer 2 · 2018-11-14T18:31:25.150

16

xmlstarlet edit --update "/book/fiction[@type='b']/author/@type" --value "Local" book.xml

edited Nov 14 '18 at 18:31

answered Nov 13 '18 at 14:00

Kit

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5

A litte more explanatation and a link to the documentation would make your answer more helpful. – davidbaumann Nov 13 '18 at 14:09
4

That does not really provide more info. It would be more helpful if you [edit]ed your post, used full sentences, and explained your one line of code. – slhck Nov 13 '18 at 14:41
3

`man xmlstarlet` – Kit Nov 14 '18 at 18:27
1

This answer is about as perfect as an answer can be, IMO! – wilbur4321 Apr 12 '19 at 04:30
I can't up-vote your answer more than one time, so this comment will have to suffice to express my gratitude: Thanks a million! Now I can update my CodeArtifact password in my maven settings.xml using a cronjob. – Richard Jan 22 '21 at 07:24

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

We could use a xsl-document doThis.xsl and process the source.xml with xsltproc into a newFile.xml.

The xsl is based on the answer to this question.

Put this into a doThis.xsl file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="UTF-8" omit-xml-declaration="no"/> 

<!-- Copy the entire document    -->

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

<!-- Copy a specific element     -->

<xsl:template match="/book/fiction[@type='b']/author">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>

<!--    Do something with selected element  -->
            <xsl:attribute name="type">Local</xsl:attribute>

        </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Now we produce the newFile.xml

$:   xsltproc -o ./newFile.xml ./doThis.xsl ./source.xml

This will be the newFile.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<book>
   <fiction type="a">
      <author type=""/>
   </fiction>
   <fiction type="b">
      <author type="Local"/>
   </fiction>
   <Romance>
       <author type=""/>
   </Romance>
</book>

The expression used to find type b fiction is XPath.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered May 19 '15 at 13:19

3

It is quite easy with sed. The following script will change the contents of file a.xml and will put the original to a.bak as a backup.

What it does is it searches each file for the string <author type=''> and replaces it with <author type='Local'>. The /g modifier means that it will try to make more than 1 replacement on each line if possible (not needed for your example file).

sed -i.bak "s/<author type=''>/<author type='Local'>/g" a.xml

answered May 19 '15 at 13:19

Marki555

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I need to change the author type which is in fiction tag alone.Is that possible to check. I think above code will change all author tags. – VRVigneshwara May 20 '15 at 06:00
Then you should have specified that in your question :) I see you edited the Q already... and also got better answer. – Marki555 May 20 '15 at 10:56

Edit xml file using shell script / command

4 Answers4