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Check xml

Overview

Fetches an XML document via HTTP(S) and checks for a matching string using XPath expressions. Supports namespace prefixes (important for testing WSDL responses) and HTTP Basic Authentication. If --expect is omitted, the check simply verifies that the XPath expression returns a non-empty result.

Data Collection:

  • Fetches the XML document from the given --url via HTTP(S)
  • Evaluates the --xpath expression against the parsed XML using lxml
  • Namespace prefix-to-URI mappings can be provided via --namespace (repeatable)
  • Supports HTTP Basic Authentication via --username and --password

Fact Sheet

Fact Value
Check Plugin Download https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/tree/main/check-plugins/xml
Nagios/Icinga Check Name check_xml
Check Interval Recommendation Every minute
Can be called without parameters No (--url and --xpath are required)
Runs on Cross-platform
Compiled for Windows No
3rd Party Python modules lxml

Help

usage: xml [-h] [-V] [--always-ok] [--expect EXPECT] [--insecure]
           [--namespace NAMESPACES] [--no-proxy] [--password PASSWORD]
           [--timeout TIMEOUT] --url URL [--username USERNAME] --xpath XPATH

Fetches an XML document via HTTP(S) and checks for a matching string using
XPath expressions. Supports namespace prefixes and HTTP Basic Authentication.
Alerts when the expected value is not found or does not match.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit
  --always-ok           Always returns OK.
  --expect EXPECT       Expected string at the XPath location. If omitted,
                        just checks whether the XPath exists.
  --insecure            This option explicitly allows insecure SSL
                        connections.
  --namespace NAMESPACES
                        Namespace prefix-to-URI mapping for XPath expressions.
                        Can be specified multiple times. Example: `--
                        namespace="prefix1:https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/prefix1
                        /"`.
  --no-proxy            Do not use a proxy.
  --password PASSWORD   HTTP Basic Auth password.
  --timeout TIMEOUT     Network timeout in seconds. Default: 7 (seconds)
  --url URL             XML endpoint URL.
  --username USERNAME   HTTP Basic Auth username.
  --xpath XPATH         XPath expression to query. Must point to a single
                        value (attribute or node content). Lists/arrays are
                        not supported.

Usage Examples

Check if node /note/heading exists in XML:

./xml --url=https://www.w3schools.com/xml/note.xml --xpath=/note/heading

Output:

Everything is ok.

Search for string "emi" in XML tag <note><heading>:

./xml --url=https://www.w3schools.com/xml/note.xml --xpath=/note/heading --expect=emi

Output:

Everything is ok, "emi" found in result "Reminder".

Search for a string in a WSDL definition (namespace prefixes required):

./xml --url='https://www.xignite.com/xCurrencies.asmx?wsdl' \
    --xpath=/wsdl:definitions/wsdl:documentation \
    --namespace=wsdl:http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/ \
    --expect='exchange information'

Output:

Everything is ok, "exchange information" found in result "Provide real-time currency foreign exchange information and calculations.".

States

  • OK if the XPath expression returns a result and the expected string (if given) is found.
  • WARN if the XPath expression returns an empty result.
  • WARN if the expected string is not found in the XPath result.
  • UNKNOWN on XML parsing errors, wrong namespace syntax, XPath errors, or text search within non-text tags.
  • --always-ok suppresses all alerts and always returns OK.

Perfdata / Metrics

There is no perfdata.

Credits, License