Command xpath

xpath evaluate an XPATH expression and print the result

xpath [ serialization options ] [options] [xpath-expr]

if input is an XML expression then use it directly (dont treat as filename).

-f xpath-file -file xpath-file	read xpath expression from file
-input input -i input	use input as the source xml document, otherwise stdin
-n	do not use a source context
-q xpath-expr -query xpath-expr	xpath expression
-v	Read remaining pairs of arguments as name/value pairs to assign as xpath variables
-nons	Do not import global namespace declarations from the shell environment
-ns prefix=uri	Add a predeclared namespace delcaration
-s -string	Convert the result to a string if it is an attribute or element
-b -bool	Do not print anything. Treat the result as a boolean and exit with 0 if the value is true otherwise 1
-e -exists	Execute xpath but do not print anything. The exit status is 0 if there was any selected values otherwise 1

Supports the standard [ serialization options ]

Note that the "-q" is optional. It is only required if you need to specify both -n and -v
Examples

xpath-n -q expr -v variable some-value

If the result (or any node of the result if a sequence) is an Attribute the it is converted to a string.

xls | xpath '//file[1]/@name/string()'

Result

.classpath

Simplified example, you don't need to use /string()

xls | xpath '//file[1]/@name'

Result

.classpath

Namespace example using a renamed prefix for a namespace

echo "<x:a xmlns:x='foo' />" | xpath  -nons -ns y=foo /y:a

Result

<x:a xmlns:x="foo"/>

Returns 0 if the the xpath expression executed successfully and a non-empty result is returned. otherwise 1

xmlsh - XML Shell : CommandXpath