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I'm trying to update the value of a field in a specific block but that value is in a wrapped attribute (not sure what the proper name should be), ie: <target_tag name="my_tag" default="value_to_update"/> rather than: <target_tag name="my_tag">value_to_update</target_tag>

I've been searching how to this and it seems to be something like:

xmllint --shell my_file.xml << EOF
cd //target_tag[@name="my_tag"]/default
set new_value
save
EOF

but this would work if the XML was of the second kind. How can I access/update the wrapped attribute? I can't seem to find the answer...

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You were close!
The cd shell command must refer to the @default attribute

xmllint --shell tmp.xml << EOF
cd //target_tag[@name="my_tag"]/@default
cat .
set new_value
save
bye
EOF

cat tmp.xml

Console output

/ > cd //target_tag[@name="my_tag"]/@default
default > cat .
 -------
 default="value_to_update"
default > set new_value
default > save
default > bye
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
    <target_tag name="my_tag" default="new_value"/>
</root>

xmllint version

xmllint --version
xmllint: using libxml version 20914
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3 Comments

Ah nice, thank you! That works with the dummy file I posted but not with my actual file. It looks like loading with the xpath works: xmllint --xpath "//target_tag[@name=\"my_tag\"]/@default" /tmp/tmp.xml but when I try the EOF approach, I get warning: failed to load external entity "tmp.xml"
Nevermind, I'd accidentally typo'd the filename, thanks again!
Follow-up question, if you have any ideas there: stackoverflow.com/questions/77065040/…

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