man basex (1): XML database system and XPath/XQuery processor (command line mode)

SYNOPSIS

basex [-bcdiIoqrRstuvVwxXz] [input]

DESCRIPTION

basex is a fast and powerful, yet light-weight and platform independent XML database system and XPath/XQuery processor.

OPTIONS

A short description of option can be obtained from

    $ basex -h

or by browsing http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Command-Line_Options#Standalone

DATABASE COMMANDS

A list of supported Database commands can be obtained from

    $ basex -c help

or by browsing http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Commands

EXAMPLES

XQuery evaluation (no database, no interaction, script mode):

   $ basex 19+23
   42
   $ basex -q "<answer>{ 23+19 }</answer>"
   <answer>42</answer>

Import an XML file into database, output its content (query its root) and be verbose:

    $ basex -Vc "CREATE DB input /usr/share/doc/basex/examples/input.xml; XQUERY /"
    Database 'input' created in 136.84 ms.
    <html>
      <!-- Header -->
      <head id="0">
        <title>XML</title>
      </head>
      <!-- Body -->
      <body id="1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000CC">
        <h1>Databases &amp; XML</h1>
        <div align="right">
          <b>Assignments</b>
          <ul>
            <li>Exercise 1</li>
            <li>Exercise 2</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </body>
      <?pi bogus?>
    </html>
    Query: /
    Compiling:
    Result: root()
    Parsing: 5.08 ms
    Compiling: 27.2 ms
    Evaluating: 0.87 ms
    Printing: 13.7 ms
    Total Time: 46.86 ms
    Hit(s): 1 Item
    Updated: 0 Items
    Printed: 358 Bytes
    Query executed in 42.52 ms.

XPath evaluation (with existing database):

    $ basex -c "OPEN input; XQUERY //li[1]"
    <li>Exercise 1</li>

Retrieve XML from the web and perform XPath query:

    $ basex -q "doc('http://files.basex.org/examples/input.xml')//li"
    <li>Exercise 1</li>
    <li>Exercise 2</li>

W3C XQuery Full-Text (make use of full-text index and perform fuzzy query with a typing error):

    $ basex
    BaseX 7.1 [Standalone]
    Try "help" to get more information.
    > SET FTINDEX on 
    Full-Text Index: ON
    > CREATE DB input /usr/share/doc/basex/examples/input.xml
    Database 'input' created in 94.42 ms.
    > XQUERY //b[text() contains text 'Asisgnment' using fuzzy] 
    <b>Assignments</b>
    Query executed in 8.37 ms.

Update the database and show result:

    > XQUERY delete node //ul
    Query executed in 2.79 ms.
    > XQUERY replace value of node //b with 'Debian rules'
    Query executed in 2.94 ms.
    > XQUERY //div
    <div align="right">
      <b>Debian rules</b>
    </div>
    Query executed in 1.01 ms.

Open an input xml file, execute a query and write result into file:

    $ basex -i /usr/share/doc/basex/examples/input.xml -q //div -o out.xml
    $ cat out.xml
    <div align="right">
      <b>Assignments</b>
      <ul>
        <li>Exercise 1</li>
        <li>Exercise 2</li>
      </ul>
    </div>

Query an already existing database called 'input'. If a file named 'input' exists in current working directory it takes precedence:

    $ basex -i input -q //div
    <div align="right">
      <b>Assignments</b>
      <ul>
        <li>Exercise 1</li>
        <li>Exercise 2</li>
      </ul>
    </div>

Let basex process query input from standard in:

   $ echo '19+23' | basex -q-
   42

Execute commands from script file:

   $ cat commands.txt
   create db debian <debian_db/>
   xquery /
   list
   $ basex -C commands.txt | grep debian
   <debian_db/>
   debian              1          4639       debian.xml

Parse non well-formed HTML (needs libtagsoup-java installed):

   $ cat bad.html         
   <html>
     <ul>
       <li>A
       <li>B
     </ul>
   </html>
   $ basex -c 'set parser html; set htmlopt method=html,nons=true; create db htmldb bad.html'
   $ basex -q "doc('htmldb')"
   <html>
     <body>
       <ul>
         <li>A</li>
         <li>B</li>
       </ul>
     </body>
   </html>
   Alternative:
   $ basex -q 'declare option db:parser "html"; doc("bad.html")' 
   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
     <body>
       <ul>
         <li>A</li>
         <li>B</li>
       </ul>
     </body>
   </html>
   For further documentation on how to configure the HTML Parser refer to 
   http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Parsers#HTML_Parser

HISTORY

BaseX started as a research project of the Database and Information Systems Group (DBIS) at the University of Konstanz in 2005 and soon turned into a feature-rich open source XML database and XPath/XQuery processor.

LICENSE

New (3-clause) BSD License

AUTHOR

BaseX is developed by a bunch of people called 'The BaseX Team' <http://basex.org/about-us/> led by Christian Gruen <[email protected]>.

The man page was written by Alexander Holupirek <[email protected]> while packaging BaseX for Debian GNU/Linux.