Unix & Linux: Parse XML to get node value in bash script? (6 Solutions!!)

Unix & Linux: Parse XML to get node value in bash script?

The Question: I would like to know how I can get the value of a node with the following
paths:
config/global/resources/default_setup/connection/host
config/global/resources/default_setup/connection/username
config/global/resources/default_setup/connection/password
config/global/resources/default_setup/connection/dbname
from the following XML:
＜?xml version="1.0"?＞
＜config＞
＜global＞
＜install＞
＜date＞＜![CDATA[Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:31:25 +0000]]＞＜/date＞
＜/install＞
＜crypt＞
＜key＞＜![CDATA[70e75d7969b900b696785f2f81ecb430]]＞＜/key＞
＜/crypt＞
＜disable_local_modules＞false＜/disable_local_modules＞
＜resources＞
＜db＞
＜table_prefix＞＜![CDATA[]]＞＜/table_prefix＞
＜/db＞
＜default_setup＞
＜connection＞
＜host＞＜![CDATA[localhost]]＞＜/host＞
＜username＞＜![CDATA[root]]＞＜/username＞
＜password＞＜![CDATA[pass123]]＞＜/password＞
＜dbname＞＜![CDATA[testdb]]＞＜/dbname＞
＜initStatements＞＜![CDATA[SET NAMES utf8]]＞＜/initStatements＞
＜model＞＜![CDATA[mysql4]]＞＜/model＞
＜type＞＜![CDATA[pdo_mysql]]＞＜/type＞
＜pdoType＞＜![CDATA[]]＞＜/pdoType＞
＜active＞1＜/active＞
＜/connection＞
＜/default_setup＞
＜/resources＞
＜session_save＞＜![CDATA[files]]＞＜/session_save＞
＜/global＞
＜admin＞
＜routers＞
＜adminhtml＞
＜args＞
＜frontName＞＜![CDATA[admin]]＞＜/frontName＞
＜/args＞
＜/adminhtml＞
＜/routers＞
＜/admin＞
＜/config＞
Also I want to assign that value to the variable for further use. Let me know
your idea.

Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful

== This solution helped 3 people ==
The following works when run against your test data:
{ read -r host; read -r username; read -r password; read -r dbname; } ＜ ＜
(xmlstarlet sel -t -m /config/global/resources/default_setup/connection -
v ./host -n -v ./username -n -v ./password -n -v ./dbname -n)
This puts the content into variables host, username, password and dbname.

== This solution helped 3 people ==
A pure bash function, just for the unfortunate case when you are not allowed to
install anything appropriate. This may, and probably will, fail on more
complicated XML:
function xmlpath()
{
local expr="${1//// }"
local path=()
local chunk tag data

while IFS='' read -r -d '＜' chunk; do
IFS='＞' read -r tag data ＜＜＜ "$chunk"

case "$tag" in
'?'*) ;;
'!--'*) ;;
'![CDATA['*) data="${tag:8:${#tag}-10}" ;;
?*'/') ;;
'/'?*) unset path[${#path[@]}-1] ;;
?*) path+=("$tag") ;;
esac

[[ "${path[@]}" == "$expr" ]] && echo "$data"
done
}
Usage:
bash-4.1$ xmlpath 'config/global/resources/default_setup/connection/host' ＜
localhost
Known issues:
* slow
* searches only by tag names
* no character entity decoding