Removing a line from XML file using xmllint in shell script

Question

I have a xml file in a particular directory now I want to remove a particular entry (see example) from the file and update the existing xml file using shell script.

Example: (See code) I have to remove line 4 (entry of a particular resource)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<manifest:manifest xmlns:manifest="....." manifest:version="1.2">
 <manifest:file-entry manifest:full-path="/" manifest:version="1.2" manifest:media-type="..."/>
"line to be deleted" <manifest:file-entry manifest:full-path="...." manifest:media-type="..."/>
 ......some more lines....
 </manifest:manifest>

Help will be appreciated :)
I am new at this and not much aware about editing a xml file, from some sources I have found that xmllint can be used but I am not sure about that.

It's good that you don't want to do this with line-based tools like grep or sed, since XML is not flat, but the question doesn't make it clear what exactly you want to remove (other than that it is a manifest:file-entry tag). What are the criteria? — Wintermute
– Wintermute, Commented May 20, 2015 at 13:23
I have to remove a particular file from a zip package to save the space. Since I have deleted the file directly from the shell script, now I want to remove the file entry from the manifest file to ensure proper functioning. — Beginner
– Beginner, Commented May 20, 2015 at 13:30
@Beginner I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. So, did you use my advice or something else? And what exactly happened? — Eenoku
– Eenoku, Commented May 20, 2015 at 13:56

Benjamin Loison · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-04 09:04:38Z

5

As far as I know, xmllint is not made for editing XML files, so you can't do that.

One possible solution to your problem is command:

grep -v your_pattern your_file > new_file

It will choose all other lines than the one and copy it into a new file.

Another, probably the better way, is using of xmlstarlet (documentation).

You can use it like this:

xmlstarlet ed --delete your_xpath input.xml > output.xml

edited Mar 4, 2024 at 9:04

Benjamin Loison

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answered May 20, 2015 at 13:13

Eenoku

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2 Comments

Eenoku Over a year ago

If you're content with this answer, you can accept it to make this question marked as "solved" :-)

Pierre François Over a year ago

I upvoted the solution using xmlscarlet, not the one using grep

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