Libxml2

Last updated

libxml2
Original author(s) The GNOME Project
Initial releaseSeptember 23, 1999;25 years ago (1999-09-23)
Stable release
2.15.0 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg /  ()
Repository
Written in C
Operating system cross-platform [2] [3]
Type XML parser, XML validator
License MIT License
Website xmlsoft.org   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

libxml2 is a software library for parsing XML documents. It is also the basis for the libxslt library which processes XSLT-1.0 stylesheets.

Contents

Description

Written in the C programming language, libxml2 provides bindings to C++, Ch, [4] XSH, C#, Python, Swift, Kylix/Delphi and other Pascals, Ruby, Perl, Common Lisp, [5] and PHP. [6] It was originally developed for the GNOME project, but can be used outside it. libxml2's code is highly portable [7] since it only depends on standard ANSI C libraries [8] and it is available under the MIT license. [3]

It includes the command-line utility xmllint and an HTML parser. [9]

While the maintainer is an unpaid volunteer, the library is used in commercial software. The maintainer has declared that he will treat security problem reports as normal bugs, fixed when there is time. They hope thus to force commercial users to contribute work or money for maintenance. [10]

On 15 September, the sole maintainer, Nick Wellnhofer, announced that he was stepping down. [11] [12] Regressions in the latest 2.15 release will be fixed through to the end of 2025.

See also

References

  1. "libxml2 2.15.0" . Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  2. "Introduction". 28 November 2017. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 "GNOME / libxml2 / Wiki / Home". gitlab.gnome.org. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  4. "ch libxml2 open source binding". chlibxml2.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  5. "cl-libxml2 High-level wrapper around libxml2 and libxslt libraries". code.google.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  6. "libxml". php.net. Archived from the original on 10 May 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  7. "Python bindings". gitlab.gnome.org. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  8. "The XML C parser and toolkit of Gnome". xmlsoft.org. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  9. Veillard, Daniel. "HTMLparser: interface for an HTML 4.0 non-verifying parser". libxml2 Reference Manual. GNOME. Archived from the original on 6 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  10. Brockmeier, Joe (25 June 2025). "Libxml2's 'no security embargoes' policy". LWN.net. Archived from the original on 10 July 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
  11. "Stepping down as libxml2 maintainer". discourse.gnome.org. Archived from the original on 15 September 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  12. jzb (17 September 2025). "Libxml2 2.15.0 released". lwn.net. Retrieved 18 September 2025.