XQuery from the command line

-backup:(on|off)

Only relevant when -update:on is specified. Default is on. When backup is enabled, any file that is updated by the query will be preserved in its original state by renaming it, adding ".bak" to the original filename. If backup is disabled, updated files will be silently overwritten.

-config:filename

Indicates that configuration information should be taken from the supplied configuration file. Any options supplied on the command line override options specified in the configuration file.

-dtd:(on|off|recover)

Setting -dtd:on requests DTD-based validation of the source file and of any files read using the doc() function. Requires an XML parser that supports validation. The setting -dtd:off (which is the default) suppresses DTD validation. The setting -dtd:recover performs DTD validation but treats the error as non-fatal if it fails. Note that any external DTD is likely to be read even if not used for validation, because DTDs can contain definitions of entities.

-expand:(on|off)

Normally, if validation using a DTD or schema is requested, any fixed or default values defined in the DTD or schema will be expanded. Specifying -expand:off suppresses this. (In the case of DTD-defined defaults, this might not work with all XML parsers. It does work with the Xerces parser (default for Java) and the Microsoft parser (default for .NET).)

-explain[:filename]

Display a query execution plan. This is a representation of the expression tree after rewriting by the optimizer. If no file name is specified the output is sent to the standard error stream. The output is a tree in XML format.

-init:initializer

The value identifies user-supplied code that is called during the initialization process, and may be used to set any options required on the Saxon configuration.

For SaxonJ, the value is the name of a user-supplied class that implements the interface Initializer. The class must be on the classpath.

For SaxonCS, the value is the filename of a user-written assembly that contains an implementation of the interface Saxon.Api.IProcessorInitializer. For details see Callbacks.

-json:file-name

Selects a JSON file to act as the primary input of the query. The file is parsed (typically producing a map or array) following the rules of the json-doc function, and the resulting item becomes the initial context item for the query.

This option cannot be combined with -s.

-l[:(on|off)]

If -l or -l:on is specified, causes line and column numbers to be maintained for source documents. These are accessible using the extension functions saxon:line-number() and saxon:column-number(). Line numbers are useful when the purpose of the query is to find errors or anomalies in the source XML file. Without this option, line numbers are available while source documents are being parsed and validated, but they are not retained in the tree representation of the document.

-ns:(uri|##any|##html5)

Defines the handling of unprefixed element names appearing as name tests in path expressions.

• Supplying a URI sets the default namespace for elements and types (effectively a default value for declare default element namespace — note that an explicit declaration in the Query prolog takes precedence).
• The value ##any declares that unprefixed names are treated as a test on the local name of the element only: they will match regardless of namespace.
• The value ##html5 declares that an unprefixed element name will match either a name in the XHTML namespace, or a name in no namespace. This is useful when the source document is HTML or XHTML.

-now:yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+hh:mm

Sets the value of current-dateTime() (and implicit-timezone()) for the query. This is designed for testing, to enable repeatable results to be obtained for comparison with reference results, or to test that queries can handle significant dates and times such as end-of-year processing.

-o:filename

Send output to named file. In the absence of this option, the results go to standard output. The output format depends on whether the -wrap option is present. The file is created if it does not already exist; any necessary directories will also be created. If the file does exist, it is overwritten (even if the query fails).

-opt:[-]flags

Allows individual optimizations to be enabled or disabled selectively. There is a set of single-letter flags identifying particular optimizations:

• c: (no longer used)
• d: detect void path expressions
• e: cache regular expressions
• f: inline functions
• g: extract global variables
• j: just-in-time compilation of template rules (currently XSLT-only)
• k: create keys
• l: loop lifting
• m: miscellaneous
• n: constant folding
• p: predicate reordering
• r: template rule-sets (not relevant to XQuery)
• s: extract common subexpressions
• t: tail call optimization
• v: inline variables
• w: create switch statements
• x: index predicates

A value such as opt:gs runs with only the selected optimizations; opt:-gs runs with the selected optimizations disabled and all others enabled. The value opt:0 suppresses all optimizations. The default is full optimization; this feature allows optimization to be suppressed in cases where reducing compile time is important, or where optimization gets in the way of debugging, or causes extension functions with side-effects to behave unpredictably. (Note however, that even with no optimization, lazy evaluation may still cause the evaluation order to be not as expected.)

-outval:(recover|fatal)

Normally, if validation of result documents is requested, a validation error is fatal. Setting the option -outval:recover causes such validation failures to be treated as warnings. The validation message is written both to the standard error stream, and (where possible) as a comment in the result document itself.

-p[:(on|off)]

Enable recognition of query parameters (such as xinclude=yes) in the StandardURIResolver. This option is available in Saxon-PE and Saxon-EE only. It cannot be used in conjunction with the -r option, and it automatically switches on the -u and -sa options. The effect is that Saxon-specific query parameters are recognized in a URI. One query parameter that is recognized is validation. This may take the values strict, lax, or strip. For example, source.xml?validation=strict loads a document with strict schema validation.

-projection:(on|off)

Use (or don't use) document projection. Document projection is a mechanism that analyzes a query to determine what parts of a document it can potentially access, and then while building a tree to represent the document, leaves out those parts of the tree that cannot make any difference to the result of the query. Requires Saxon-EE.

-q:queryfile

Identifies the file containing the query. If this is the last option then the -q: prefix may be omitted. The file can be specified as "-" to read the query from standard input: in this case the base URI is that of the current directory.

-qs:querystring

Allows the query to be specified inline (if it contains spaces, you will need quotes around the expression to keep the command line processor happy). The static base URI of the query is taken from the current working directory. So, for example, java net.sf.saxon.Query -qs:doc('a.xml')//p[1] selects elements within the file a.xml in the current directory.

-repeat:integer

Performs the transformation N times, where N is the specified integer. This option is useful for performance measurement, since timings for the first few runs of the query are often dominated by Java warm-up time.

-s:filename-or-URI

Take input from the specified file. If the -u option is specified, or if the name begins with "file:" or "http:", then the name is assumed to be a URI rather than a filename. This file must contain an XML document. The document node of the document is made available to the query as the context item. The filename can be specified as "-" to read the source document from standard input: in this case the base URI is that of the current directory.

-sa

Invoke a schema-aware query. Requires Saxon-EE to be installed.

-scmin:filename

Loads a precompiled schema component model from the given file. The file should be generated in a previous run using the -export option. When this option is used, the -xsd option should not be present. Schemas loaded from an SCM file are assumed to be valid, without checking.

This option is retained for compatibility. From Saxon 9.7, SCM files can also be supplied in the -xsd option.

-stream:(on|off)

Use (or don't use) streaming. Streaming allows simple queries to be executed while the source document is being read, avoiding the need to build a tree representation of the document in memory. For information about the kind of queries that can be streamed, see Streaming XQuery. If the query cannot be streamed, execution will fail with diagnostic errors. Requires Saxon-EE.

-strip:(all|none|ignorable)

Specifies what whitespace is to be stripped from source documents (applies both to the principal source document and to any documents loaded for example using the doc() function). The default is none: no whitespace stripping.

-t

Display version and timing information to the standard error output. The output also traces the files that are read and written, and extension modules that are loaded.

-T[:classname]

Notify query tracing information. Also switches line numbering on for the source document. If a classname is specified, it is a user-defined class, which must implement TraceListener. If the classname is omitted, a system-supplied trace listener is used. This traces execution of function calls to the standard error output. For performance profiling, set classname to net.sf.saxon.trace.TimingTraceListener. This creates an output file giving timings for each instruction executed. This output file can subsequently be analyzed to give an execution time profile for the query. See Performance analysis.

-Tlevel:none|low|normal|high

Controls the level of detail of the tracing produced by the -T option. The values are:

• none effectively switches tracing off.
• low traces function calls.
• normal traces execution of significant expressions such as element constructors.
• high traces execution of finer-grained expressions such as the clauses of a FLWOR expression.

-Tout:filename

Directs the output of tracing to a specified file (assuming that -T is enabled).

-TP:filename

This is equivalent to setting -T:net.sf.saxon.trace.TimedTraceListener and -traceout:filename; that is, it causes trace profile information to be set to the specified file. This output file can subsequently be analyzed to give an execution time profile for the query. See Performance analysis.

-TPxsl:filename

Supplies a stylesheet for formatting the performance data generated by the -TP option, allowing it to be output in XML or JSON format rather than HTML. See Performance analysis.

-traceout:filename

Indicates that the output of the trace() function should be directed to a specified file. Alternatively, specify #out to direct the output to System.out, #err to send it to System.err (the default), or #null to have it discarded. This option is ignored when a trace listener is in use: in that case, trace() output goes to the registered trace listener.

-tree:(linked|tiny|tinyc)

Selects the implementation of the internal tree model. tiny selects the "tiny tree" model (the default), linked selects the linked tree model, tinyc selects the "condensed tiny tree" model. See Choosing a tree model.

-u

Indicates that the name of the source document is a URI; otherwise it is taken as a filename, unless it starts with http:, https:, file: or classpath:, in which case it is taken as a URL.

-update:(on|off|discard)

Indicates whether XQuery Update syntax is accepted. This option requires Saxon-EE. The value on enables XQuery update; any eligible files updated by the query are written back to filestore. A file is eligible for updating if it was read using the doc() or collection() functions using a URI that represents an updateable location. The context document supplied using the -s option is not eligible for updating. The default value off disables update (any use of XQuery update syntax is an error). The value discard allows XQuery Update syntax, but modifications made to files are not saved in filestore. If the document supplied in the -s option is updated, the updated document is serialized as the result of the query (writing it to the -o destination); updates to any other documents are simply discarded. Use of the -t option is recommended: it gives feedback on which files have been updated by the query.

-val[:(strict|lax)]

Requests schema-based validation of the source file and of any files read using the doc() function. This option is available only with Saxon-EE, and it automatically switches on the -sa option. Specify -val or -val:strict to request strict validation, or -val:lax for lax validation.

-wrap

Wraps the result sequence in an XML element structure that indicates the type of each node or atomic value in the query result. This format can handle any type of query result. In the absence of this option, the command effectively wraps a document{} constructor around the supplied query, so that the result is a single XML document, which is then serialized. This will fail if the query result includes constructs that cannot be added to a document node in this way, notably free-standing attribute nodes.

-xsd:file1;file2;file3...

Loads additional schema documents. The declarations in these schema documents are available when validating source documents (or for use by the validate{} expression). This option may also be used to supply the locations of schema documents that are imported into the query, in the case where the import schema declaration gives the target namespace of the schema but not its location.

-xsdversion:(1.0|1.1)

If -xsdversion:1.1 is specified (the default), allows schema documents using XML Schema 1.1 to be read, and permits XML Schema 1.1 constructs such as assertions.

-xsiloc:(on|off)

If set to on (the default) the schema processor attempts to load any schema documents referenced in xsi:schemaLocation and xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attributes in the instance document, unless a schema for the specified namespace (or non-namespace) is already available. If set to off, these attributes are ignored.

--feature:value

Set a feature defined in the Configuration interface. The names of features are defined in the Javadoc for class Feature (alternatively see Configuration features): the value used here is the part of the name after the last "/", for example --allow-external-functions:off. Only features accepting a string or boolean may be set; for booleans the values true/false, on/off, yes/no, and 1/0 are recognized.

-?

Display command syntax.

Note: under some shell languages, this needs to be escaped as -\?.

--?

Display a list of features that are available using the --feature:value syntax.

Note: under some shell languages, this needs to be escaped as --\?.