xmlformat ☆

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Description:
Format XML documents

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: xml formatting developer-tools perl cli

Install: brew install xmlformat

About:
Xmlformat is a Perl-based utility designed to reformat XML documents into a more readable and consistent structure. It parses XML files and outputs them with standardized indentation and line breaks, making complex documents easier to view and manage. This tool is particularly useful for developers who need to visually inspect or normalize XML data without altering its semantic content.

Key Features:

Preserves XML validity while reformatting
Configurable indentation and formatting rules
Handles large XML files efficiently
Command-line interface for easy scripting integration

Use Cases:

Standardizing XML configuration files for readability
Preparing XML data for version control diffs
Cleaning up programmatically generated XML output

Alternatives:

xmllint – xmllint is part of libxml2 and offers more comprehensive XML validation and XPath support, but xmlformat is simpler for pure reformatting tasks.
tidy – tidy is primarily for HTML but can handle XML; xmlformat is more specialized for XML-specific formatting nuances.

Version History

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