Check if an XML file is well-formed in Linux

Do you want to know if a particular XML file is well-formed or malformed in Linux? Consider using xmllint.

If the return result is 0, then the XML file is well-formed:

oracle@soahost1:/tmp> xmllint --noout config.xml; echo $? 

0

If the return result is 1, then the XML is malformed:

oracle@soahost1:/tmp> xmllint --noout config.xml; echo $? 

config.xml:7: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: domain line 2 and configuration-property 

  </configuration-property> 

                           ^ 

config.xml:8: parser error : Extra content at the end of the document 

  <domain-version>12.2.1.1.0</domain-version> 

  ^ 

1

If you want to recursively check all XML files, this command will do it for you:

for i in `find . -name "*.xml"`; do echo $i; xmllint --noout $i; echo $?; done