DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

xml2c(1)               DragonFly General Commands Manual              xml2c(1)

NAME
       xml2c - convert an XML file into C struct/string declarations

SYNOPSIS
       xml2c xmlfile

DESCRIPTION
       xml2c reads in an XML file and produces equivalent C source code,
       suitable for #including in your program.  The C version is probably
       easier deal with in your code.  You don't have to read and parse the
       XML file and then look for the nodes you want; instead you just loop
       through a bunch of structs.  Or maybe you just don't want to distribute
       extra files with your app, and would rather build them into the
       executable.

       Example input:
       <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
       <list>
         <item id="1" value="17">this item</item>
         <item id="2" value="23">that item</item>
         <item id="3" value="42">the other item</item>
       </list>

       Example output:
       % xml2c sample.xml
       struct _item {
           char* id;
           char* value;
           char* TEXT;
           };
       struct _list {
           struct _item item[3];
           int N_item;
           };
       static struct _list list = {
           item: { {
               id: "1",
               value: "17",
               TEXT: "this item",
               }, {
               id: "2",
               value: "23",
               TEXT: "that item",
               }, {
               id: "3",
               value: "42",
               TEXT: "the other item",
               } },
           N_item: 3,
           };

PROBLEMS
       xml2c should be able to produce output for any valid XML input file.
       However, there are some valid XML inputs for which the C output will
       not compile.  For example, if there are XML elements with the same name
       but in different contexts, xml2c may not detect that they are the same
       and will produce two different struct definitions with the same name.
       That will result in a C compiler error, even if the two structs have
       the exact same fields:
       % cat bogus.xml
       <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
       <foo>
         <item>this item</item>
         <bar>
           <item>that item</item>
         </bar>
       </foo>
       % xml2c bogus.xml > bogus.c
       % cat bogus.c
       struct _item {
           char* TEXT;
           };
       struct _item {
           char* TEXT;
           };
       struct _bar {
           struct _item item;
           int N_item;
           };
       struct _foo {
           struct _item item;
           int N_item;
           struct _bar bar;
           int N_bar;
           };
       static struct _foo foo = {
           item: {
               TEXT: "this item",
               },
           N_item: 1,
           bar: {
               item: {
                   TEXT: "that item",
                   },
               N_item: 1,
               },
           N_bar: 1,
           };
       % gcc bogus.c
       bogus.c:4: redefinition of `struct _item'

       Another case that can result in C compiler errors is if you use
       #include to bring multiple xml2c result files into a single .c file.
       If two or more of the XML files have elements with the same name, then
       the result files will have multiple struct definitions with the same
       name, and again that's a compiler error.

AUTHOR
       Copyright (C) 2011 by Jef Poskanzer <jef@mail.acme.com>. All rights
       reserved.

                               15 September 2011                      xml2c(1)