How to pretty print XML from the command line?

This utility comes with libxml2-utils:

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    xmllint --format -

Perl’s XML::Twig

This command comes with XML::Twig perl module, sometimes xml-twig-tools package:

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    xml_pp

xmlstarlet

This command comes with xmlstarlet:

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    xmlstarlet format --indent-tab

tidy

Check the tidy package:

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    tidy -xml -i -

Python

Python’s xml.dom.minidom can format XML (works also on legacy python2):

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    python -c 'import sys; import xml.dom.minidom; s=sys.stdin.read(); print(xml.dom.minidom.parseString(s).toprettyxml())'

saxon-lint

You need saxon-lint:

echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    saxon-lint --indent --xpath '/' -

saxon-HE

You need saxon-HE:

 echo '<root><foo a="b">lorem</foo><bar value="ipsum" /></root>' |
    java -cp /usr/share/java/saxon/saxon9he.jar net.sf.saxon.Query \
    -s:- -qs:/ '!indent=yes'

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