unxml-rs 1.2.0

Pretty-print XML and HTML files in a light, YAML-like, readable format

Unxml

Simplify and "flatten" XML files into a YAML-like readable format.

This is a Rust clone of the original unxml F# tool.

See it in action → — a gallery of real-world XML documents, schemas, stylesheets, and Schematron rules rendered with unxml, with original-vs-rendered size comparisons.

Installation

Using uv (Easiest)

Install the published wheel from PyPI as a standalone tool:

uv tool install unxml-rs

This puts the unxml command on your PATH. To try it without installing anything:

uvx --from unxml-rs unxml <xml_file>

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from the GitHub Releases page:

• Linux (x86_64): unxml-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
• Windows (x86_64): unxml-windows-x86_64.zip
• macOS (Intel): unxml-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
• macOS (Apple Silicon): unxml-macos-arm64.tar.gz

Extract the archive and place the unxml binary in your PATH.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/unxml-rs
cd unxml-rs
cargo install --path .

Using Cargo

cargo install unxml

Usage

unxml <xml_file>

By default files render as plain XML. Pass --auto to pick the processing mode from each file's extension:

Extension	Mode applied
.xsl .xslt	--xslt
.sch	--schematron
.xsd	--xsd

An explicit mode flag (--xslt, --schematron, --xsd, --special) always overrides autodetection.

Each mode rewrites its vocabulary into a terser pseudocode. The full set of transformations, with side-by-side samples, is documented per format:

• XSLT transformations — xsl:* stylesheets
• XSD transformations — xs:* / xsd:* schemas
• Schematron transformations — .sch rule schemas

Syntax-highlighted output (--bat)

unxml --bat some.xsd      # implies --auto (detects --xsd), pipes through `bat -l unxml`

--bat renders the output through bat using the bundled unxml grammar (see editor/) for paged, colourised display. If bat is not installed it falls back to plain stdout.

Hiding noisy namespace prefixes (--hide-ns)

Vocabularies like UBL bury the signal under repeated prefixes (cbc:, cac:). --hide-ns drops the named prefixes from element names — and their xmlns: declarations — so the output reads as bare local names:

unxml --hide-ns cbc,cac invoice.xml   # repeatable and comma-separated

Signal-carrying prefixes you don't list (e.g. ext:, bim:) are kept, so an extension subtree still stands out.

Under --auto/--bat, unxml also sniffs the document type and hides a sensible set automatically. Currently it recognises UBL instance documents (an unprefixed root such as <Invoice> in a UBL namespace) and hides whichever prefixes are bound to the Common Basic/Aggregate Components namespaces. A stylesheet or schema that merely references UBL (e.g. an xsl:stylesheet translating to UBL) is left untouched, since there the prefixes are real syntax.

Introduction

This command line application was developed for comparing XML files (e.g. database/application state dumps). It takes an XML file and converts it to a YAML-like syntax that is easier to read and compare.

Example

Given this XML input:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
    <PackAsTool>true</PackAsTool>
    <Description>Unxml 'pretty-prints' xml files in light, yamly, readable format</Description>
    <PackageVersion>1.0.0</PackageVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="FileSystemHelper.fs"/>
    <Compile Include="MutableCol.fs"/>
    <Compile Include="Program.fs" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

The output would be:

Project
  [Sdk]: Microsoft.NET.Sdk
  PropertyGroup
    OutputType = Exe
    TargetFramework = netcoreapp2.1
    PackAsTool = true
    Description = Unxml 'pretty-prints' xml files in light, yamly, readable format
    PackageVersion = 1.0.0
  ItemGroup
    Compile
      [Include]: FileSystemHelper.fs
    Compile
      [Include]: MutableCol.fs
    Compile
      [Include]: Program.fs

Key Features

• Attributes in Square Brackets: Element attributes are displayed as [attribute]: value
• Text Content with Equals: Element text content is shown as ElementName = text content
• Hierarchical Indentation: Nested elements are properly indented
• Clean Format: Easy to read and compare, great for diffing

Technical Details

• Built with Rust for performance and safety
• Uses quick-xml for fast XML parsing
• Uses clap for command-line argument parsing
• Proper error handling with anyhow

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Creating Releases

To create a new release:

1. Update the version in Cargo.toml and src/main.rs
2. Commit the version changes
3. Create and push a version tag:

   git tag v1.0.1
   git push origin v1.0.1
   

4. The GitHub Actions workflow will automatically build binaries for all platforms and create a release

The CI workflow runs on every push to ensure code quality with formatting checks, linting, and tests.