pyuppsala

Python bindings for the Uppsala XML library -- a zero-dependency, pure-Rust implementation of XML 1.0, Namespaces, XPath 1.0, and XSD validation.

pyuppsala gives you a fast, correct, and memory-safe XML toolkit from Python with no C dependencies to compile and no transitive native libraries to audit.

This release is against 0.11.0 of Uppsala library.

Features

• XML 1.0 parsing with full well-formedness checking
• Namespace-aware DOM with tree mutation (create, append, insert, remove, detach)
• XPath 1.0 evaluation (all axes, functions, predicates)
• XSD validation (structures + datatypes, 40+ built-in types, facets, complex types)
• XSD regex pattern matching (Unicode categories, blocks, character class subtraction)
• XSLT 1.0 transforms with bounded template recursion
• Imperative XML builder (XmlWriter) for constructing output without a DOM
• Serialization with pretty-printing, compact output, and streaming to files
• Automatic encoding detection for UTF-8 and UTF-16 (LE/BE)
• lxml.etree-compatible API via pyuppsala.etree, a near drop-in for much of lxml.etree backed by Uppsala's secure parser
• Native batch and fast etree paths for parsing many documents and running simple large-tree aggregates without one Python object per matched node

Read the full documentation

Security defaults

pyuppsala keeps the main XML attack classes bounded by default:

• Parser resource caps are enabled by default for element depth, entity expansion size, and entity-reference nesting.
• DTDs and entity declarations are accepted by default for compatibility, but entity expansion is capped. Use forbid_dtd=True or forbid_entities=True when parsing untrusted XML that should not contain DTDs or entity declarations.
• XPath evaluation is capped by expression depth and by a per-evaluation node visit budget. Do not let untrusted callers choose max_depth or max_node_visits.
• XSD regex matching has group-depth and backtracking-step limits. Do not let untrusted callers raise max_steps.
• XSLT template recursion is capped by default. Treat stylesheets as trusted application configuration; EXSLT compatibility is enabled by default.
• Document mutators reject Node handles from another document. Use Document.import_subtree() for intentional cross-document copies.
• pyuppsala.etree keeps parser caps on by default. huge_tree=True lifts those caps for lxml compatibility and should only be used with trusted XML.
• XInclude processing is explicit. Remote includes require network_access=True; local includes are restricted to the including document's base directory and are size-limited.
• Native fetch helpers (available only in builds with the default-on net feature; gate use on pyuppsala._HAS_NET) cap response bodies at 128 MiB by default, including file:// reads, and keep TLS verification enabled by default. Apply your own URL allowlist before fetching attacker-controlled URLs.

See the resource limits and hardening guide and the API security notes for all knobs and default values.

Installation

python3 -m pip install pyuppsala

Or with uv:

uv add pyuppsala

Wheels are compiled from Rust via maturin. Python 3.10+ is required.

Quick start

Parse and query

from pyuppsala import Document, XPathEvaluator

doc = Document("<bookstore><book><title>Moby Dick</title></book></bookstore>")
doc.prepare_xpath()

xpath = XPathEvaluator()
title = xpath.evaluate(doc, "string(//title)")
print(title)  # "Moby Dick"

Build XML

from pyuppsala import XmlWriter

w = XmlWriter()
w.write_declaration()
w.start_element("catalog", [("xmlns", "urn:example")])
w.start_element("item", [("id", "1")])
w.text("Widget")
w.end_element("item")
w.end_element("catalog")
print(w.to_string())

Validate against an XSD schema

from pyuppsala import XsdValidator

schema = """\
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:element name="greeting" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:schema>
"""

validator = XsdValidator(schema)
print(validator.is_valid_str("<greeting>Hello!</greeting>"))  # True
print(validator.is_valid_str("<greeting><bad/></greeting>"))  # False

Mutate the DOM

from pyuppsala import Document

doc = Document("<root><a/></root>")
root = doc.document_element
b = doc.create_element("b")
doc.append_child(root, b)
print(doc.to_xml())  # <root><a/><b/></root>

XSD regex

from pyuppsala import XsdRegex

regex = XsdRegex(r"[0-9]{5}")
print(regex.is_match("12345"))  # True
print(regex.is_match("abcde"))  # False

lxml-compatible etree API

Code written for lxml.etree runs after swapping the import. Elements are live views over the underlying document, with stable identity and the familiar .text/.tail/.attrib model.

from pyuppsala import etree  # instead of: from lxml import etree

root = etree.fromstring("<catalog><book id='1'>Dune</book></catalog>")
print(root.find("book").text)        # Dune
print(root[0].get("id"))             # 1

cat = etree.Element("catalog")
book = etree.SubElement(cat, "book", {"id": "2"})
book.text = "Neuromancer"
print(etree.tostring(cat, encoding="unicode"))
# <catalog><book id="2">Neuromancer</book></catalog>

See the etree documentation for the supported and unsupported feature matrix.

API overview

Exceptions

All exceptions inherit from Exception.

Type stubs

Type stubs (pyuppsala/__init__.pyi and pyuppsala/etree.pyi, marked with py.typed) ship with the package for full IDE auto-completion and type-checking with mypy/pyright.

Development

Builds use Uppsala 0.11.0 from crates.io, including the XSLT parameter and reserved xml namespace fixes. A sibling Uppsala checkout is not required.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kushaldas/pyuppsala.git
cd pyuppsala

# Set up the environment with uv
uv sync

# Build the native extension in development mode
uv run maturin develop

# Run the test suite
uv run pytest

# Build a release wheel
uv run maturin build --release

License

BSD-2-Clause