xmldiff is a Python library and command-line utility for comparing XML documents structurally. Instead of reporting changes solely according to their physical line positions, it analyses XML trees and generates operations describing how one document can be transformed into another.
This makes it more suitable than a plain text diff for XML where formatting, indentation or element placement can obscure the meaningful changes. Generated edit scripts can also be applied back to XML through the companion patching functionality.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Provides xmldiff for generating structural XML comparisons and xmlpatch for applying generated edit scripts.
- Can compare files, XML strings and existing lxml trees.
- Returns edit operations directly through its Python API or formats them for command-line use.
- Provides XML-marked output for presenting changes within document structure.
- Offers configurable node-matching thresholds and matching strategies.
- Supports unique attributes to improve identification of corresponding elements.
- Can ignore selected attributes during comparison.
- Offers faster matching modes as well as modes that favour comparison accuracy.
- Handles namespace insertion and deletion operations.
- Supports moves involving namespace-prefixed nodes.
- Can preserve information about old text when formatting text updates.
- Supports replacement-style XML formatting that combines neighbouring delete and insert operations.
- Includes optimisations for faster structural comparison and improved node matching.
- Can signal through its exit status whether differences were found, making it useful in scripts.
- Uses lxml for XML processing and can be embedded directly into Python applications.
Website: github.com/Shoobx/xmldiff
Support:
Developer: Shoobx
License: MIT License
xmldiff is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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