[XML-SIG] Parsing XML file with Minidom has problem with cr/lf

[Stefan Behnel]

Dieter Maurer, 10.05.2010 09:07:
> Stefan Behnel wrote at 2010-5-10 08:57 +0200:
>> Dieter Maurer, 10.05.2010 07:50:
>>> Peterson, Wayne wrote at 2010-5-8 23:43 -0700:
>>>> I am parsing an XML file with Python 2.6.5 minidom in Windows and it is
>>>> mostly working but minidom seems to have problems dealing with Windows
>>>> cr/lf characters. It creates an extra textnode that needs to be ignored
>>>> instead of just returning the xml elements. I have tried different
>>>> methods of opening the file but it doesn't seem to make a difference. It
>>>> is happiest when reading a file in Unix format.
>>>
>>> The parser should not see these "cr/lf" characters at all.
>>>
>>> Python strings itself use only "\n" (aka "lf") to delimite lines.
>>> The "\r" (aka "cr") should only be introduced when those lines
>>> are written to text files. And they should be removed when
>>> those line are read in again.
>>>
>>> Are you sure that you access your files as "text" files?
>>
>> The correct way to parse XML files is as binary data.
>
> Why do you think so?
>
> The default "minidom" parser seems not to expect "\r\n" line endings....

Interesting. Then this might really be a bug. There was a change in Python 
2.6.5 that broke universal newline handling for the codecs module, this 
might hit here.

However, according to what the OP described, the cr/lf characters turn up 
correctly now, so ISTM that it's the plain '\n' line ending that needs fixing.

Stefan