Re: [docbook-apps] WARNING: cannot add @xml:base to node set root element. Relative paths may not work.

Thanks everyone for the reply. I'm not using Docbook 5 nor do I use profile-docbook.xsl. I'm also using saxon6.5.5 and the Docbook I'm processing is one big file which I preprocessed with an XInclude Ant tasks.

I will try to investigate further and if I find out more, I post this to the this group.

Thanks again everyone, Lars

2013/5/14 Alexey Neyman <>

Indeed, I've just checked and Xerxes seems to have the same issue.

So, this is one caveat to keep in mind when processing modular DocBook

documents with Saxon/Xerxes.

Regards,

Alexey.

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:00:50 pm Bob Stayton wrote:

> I don't think Saxon itself supports XIncludes.  Saxon uses the Xerces

> parser with the XInclude function turned on:

>

> http://www.saxonica.com/documentation/sourcedocs/controlling-parsing.html

>

> The XInclude spec says that xml:base attributes must be relative to the

> closest ancestor xml:base. I'm pretty sure that is how Saxon 6 behaves.  If

> Saxon9 is generating xml:base attributes always relative to the top level,

> then that is not what the XInclude spec says, nor what the DocBook

> stylesheet expects.

>

> Bob Stayton

> Sagehill Enterprises

> 

>

> --------------------------------------------------

> From: "Alexey Neyman" <>

> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 10:25 AM

> To: <>

> Cc: "Bob Stayton" <>; "Lars Vogel" <>

> Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] WARNING: cannot add @xml:base to node set root

> element. Relative paths may not work.

>

> > Hi Lars, Bob,

> >

> > Just one point: xsltproc does xml:base fixup on nodesets included through

> > XInclude, so inside the document there are xml:base elements added

> > properly.

> > However, Bob's point still stands: if the top-level document is in

> > non-current

> > directory, it will break the external references.

> >

> > Speaking of Saxon, I am not sure if it does xml:base fixup properly on

> > XIncluded modular documents from different directories. Originally, I was

> > investigating a bug in libxml2 regarding xml:base fixup (pushed to

> > master, will be in the next release), but I also tried Saxon. Here is a

> > link to the

> >

> > thread on libxml2 mailing list (which has a small test case attached):

> >  https://mail.gnome.org/archives/xml/2013-April/msg00024.html

> >

> > In brief, Saxon seems to emit xml:base relative to top-level document

> > rather

> > than to the most recent point of inclusion. DocBook stylesheets (at

> > least, 1.78.0 that I used) assume the location relative to the base of

> > the including

> > nodeset. xsltproc conforms to the expectations of DocBook stylesheets,

> > and as

> > far as I understand, to the XInclude specification.

> >

> > Regards,

> > Alexey.

> >

> > On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 09:01:37 am Bob Stayton wrote:

> >> Hi Lars,

> >> You should get that message only when two conditions are met:

> >>

> >> 1.  You are processing a DocBook 5 document with the non-namespaced

> >> stylesheets. or

> >>

> >>     You are single-step profiling by using profile-docbook.xsl (probably

> >>

> >> your case).

> >>

> >> and

> >>

> >> 2.  You are using xsltproc (which lacks an extension function to get the

> >> name of the current directory).

> >>

> >> With either condition in (1), the document is preprocessed into an

> >> internal

> >> nodeset (a nodeset held in memory) before being processed by the

> >> stylesheets.  The internal nodeset loses all contact with the filesystem

> >> where the files originated, so the preprocessing template tries to add

> >> relative directory references into the internal nodeset by adding

> >> xml:base

> >> attributes to preserve the relative locations.  It uses an extension

> >> function to get the original base directory of the document, but

> >> xsltproc does not have a function to fetch that information, while

> >> Saxon and Xalan do.

> >>

> >> So if you use modular doc and the modules are in various directories,

> >> that

> >> directory structure  information gets lost in the internal subset.  If

> >> your documents don't need such xml:base attributes, then it has no

> >> effect on your output.

> >>

> >> You can avoid it by either using Saxon, or by using two-step profiling.

> >>

> >> Bob Stayton

> >> Sagehill Enterprises

> >> 

> >>

> >>

> >> From: Lars Vogel

> >> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:13 AM

> >> To: DocBook Apps

> >> Subject: [docbook-apps] WARNING: cannot add @xml:base to node set root

> >> element. Relative paths may not work.

> >>

> >>

> >> Hello,

> >>

> >>

> >> since a while I get the following warning during the transformation with

> >> the docbook distribution:

> >>

> >>

> >> WARNING: cannot add @xml:base to node set root element.  Relative paths

> >> may

> >> not work.

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >> I'm not sure what triggers this warning, a Google search resulted in

> >> hints

> >> about Docbook V5.0 but I'm still using Docbook 4.5.

> >>

> >>

> >> I'm currently using the docbook-xsl-1.77.1 distribution and I think (but

> >> I'm not sure) that I have this warning since I upgraded from 1.76. The

> >> output looks ok to me, but this warning does not create a warm fussy

> >> feeling. ;-)

> >>

> >>

> >> Any hint how to get rid of this warning?

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >> Best regards, Lars

>

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