Libxml2

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

"libXML" redirects here; not to be confused with XML Library.

libxml2
Original author(s)	The GNOME Project
Initial release	September 23, 1999; 25 years ago (1999-09-23)
Stable release	2.14.5[1]  / July 15, 2025; 1 day ago (July 15, 2025)
Repository	gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2
Written in	C
Operating system	cross-platform[2]
Type	XML parser, XML validator
License	MIT License
Website	xmlsoft.org

Description

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

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]

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• libxslt (the LibXML2's XSLT module)
• XML validation
• Comparison of HTML parsers
• Expat (library)
• Saxon XSLT
• Xerces
• GNOME Project