how to define specific XML element in XPath to delete with xmlStarlet?

Question

I am trying to use xmlStarlet to delete a particular element in an XML file and I am having problems with the XPath specification. This is the node/element that I need to delete, i.e., specify in XPath:

   <ShowFrame/>
      <DoAction>
         <actions>
            <Stop/>
            <EndAction/>
         </actions>
      </DoAction>
   <ShowFrame/>

The problem is that there are other DoAction elements with an actions child that I do not want to delete. Only the DoAction elements with a child actions which has those 2 children: Stop and EndAction. The DoAction elements that I do not want to delete have different children in the actions child.

When I use this XPath specification in the delete xmlStarlet command only the Stop descendant is deleted:

"/swf/Header/tags/DoAction/descendant::actions/descendant::Stop"

but I want to delete the complete DoAction element. Actually, I really need to also delete the ShowFrame element following the DoAction element so there is not 2 adjacent ShowFrame elements remaining after the deletion.

I have been trying to study the XPath spec but I don't understand it. The examples I find use attributes but there are no attributes in this XML file.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Andres

har07 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-09 04:24:32Z

1

You can try this way :

/swf/Header/tags/DoAction[actions[Stop and EndAction]]

Above xpath select DoAction element with child actions contains both Stop and EndAction children.

answered May 9, 2015 at 4:24

har07

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Comments

anthonybell · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-09 04:23:34Z

0

This looks like it should work

//DoAction[*/EndAction or */Stop]

edited May 9, 2015 at 4:23

answered May 9, 2015 at 4:18

anthonybell

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