Python XML processing with lxml

Here begins the actual rnck script in literate form. First is the usual “pound-bang line” to make the script self-executing under Unix-based systems, followed by an opening comment pointing back at this documentation.

#!/usr/bin/env python
#================================================================
# rnck:  Validate XML files against an RNC schema.
#   For documentation, see:
#     http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/pylxml/
#----------------------------------------------------------------

Next come module imports. We use the Python 3.x style of print statement. We need the standard Python sys module for standard I/O streams and command line arguments.

# - - - - -   I m p o r t s

from __future__ import print_function
import sys

We'll need the lxml.etree module to read the XML files, but we'll call it et for short.

import lxml.etree as et

Finally, import the rnc_validate module described in Section 14, “rnc_validate: A module to validate XML against a Relax NG schema”.

import rnc_validate