Bug#403164: Ruby's XML Parser does not parse all valid XML

[Don Armstrong <don@donarmstrong.com>]

reassign 403164 libxml-parser-ruby1.8
severity 403164 minor
thanks

This is actually a bug in libxml-parser-ruby1.8. See a the
following comment from SOAP::Util:

# Q: why only '&' and '<' are encoded, but not '>'?
# A: because it is not required according to XML spec.
#
# [http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#syntax]
# The ampersand character (&) and the left angle bracket (<) may appear in 
# their literal form only when used as markup delimiters, or within a comment, 
# a processing instruction, or a CDATA section. If they are needed elsewhere, 
# they must be escaped using either numeric character references or the 
# strings "&amp;" and "&lt;" respectively. The right angle bracket (>) may be 
# represented using the string "&gt;", and must, for compatibility, be 
# escaped using "&gt;" or a character reference when it appears in the 
# string "]]>" in content, when that string is not marking the end of a 
# CDATA section.

Since there isn't any CDATA in this case, an unescaped > is perfectly
valid XML. 

More recent versions (post sarge) of SOAP::Util escape > as well just
to be on the safe side of broken XML parsers; I'll go ahead and update
it on the server here so it will start working again, though. [Try
running the XML generated through xmllint! ;-)]


Don Armstrong

-- 
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And what about SHAREHOLDER VALUE? 
 -- Matt Zimmerman in <gYuD3D.A.ayC.nGB39@murphy>

http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu