XML::LibXML::Error(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation XML::LibXML::Error(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

XML::LibXML::Error - Structured Errors

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
  eval { ... };
          if (ref($@)) {
            # handle a structured error (XML::LibXML::Error object)
          } elsif ($@) {
            # error, but not an XML::LibXML::Error object
          } else {
            # no error
          }
  $XML::LibXML::Error::WARNINGS=1;
  $message = $@->as_string();
  print $@->dump();
  $error_domain = $@->domain();
  $error_code = $@->code();
  $error_message = $@->message();
  $error_level = $@->level();
  $filename = $@->file();
  $line = $@->line();
  $nodename = $@->nodename();
  $error_str1 = $@->str1();
  $error_str2 = $@->str2();
  $error_str3 = $@->str3();
  $error_num1 = $@->num1();
  $error_num2 = $@->num2();
  $string = $@->context();
  $offset = $@->column();
  $previous_error = $@->_prev();
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The XML::LibXML::Error class is a tiny frontend to *libxml2*'s structured error support. If XML::LibXML is compiled with structured error support, all errors reported by libxml2 are transformed to XML::LibXML::Error objects. These objects automatically serialize to the corresponding error messages when printed or used in a string operation, but as objects, can also be used to get a detailed and structured information about the error that occurred.

Unlike most other XML::LibXML objects, XML::LibXML::Error doesn't wrap an underlying *libxml2* structure directly, but rather transforms it to a blessed Perl hash reference containing the individual fields of the structured error information as hash key-value pairs. Individual items (fields) of a structured error can either be obtained directly as $@->{field}, or using autoloaded methods such as $@->**field()** (where field is the field name). XML::LibXML::Error objects have the following fields: domain, code, level, file, line, nodename, message, str1, str2, str3, num1, num2, and \_prev (some of them may be undefined).

$XML::LibXML::Error::WARNINGS

```
  $XML::LibXML::Error::WARNINGS=1;
    
```

Traditionally, XML::LibXML was suppressing parser warnings by setting libxml2's global variable xmlGetWarningsDefaultValue to 0. Since 1.70 we do not change libxml2's global variables anymore; for backward compatibility, XML::LibXML suppresses warnings. This variable can be set to 1 to enable reporting of these warnings via Perl "warn" and to 2 to report hem via "die".

[as\_string](#as_string)

```
  $message = $@->as_string();
    
```

This function serializes an XML::LibXML::Error object to a string containing the full error message close to the message produced by *libxml2* default error handlers and tools like xmllint. This method is also used to overload "" operator on XML::LibXML::Error, so it is automatically called whenever XML::LibXML::Error object is treated as a string (e.g. in print $@).

[dump](#dump)

```
  print $@->dump();
    
```

This function serializes an XML::LibXML::Error to a string displaying all fields of the error structure individually on separate lines of the form 'name' => 'value'.

[domain](#domain)

```
  $error_domain = $@->domain();
    
```

Returns string containing information about what part of the library raised the error. Can be one of: "parser", "tree", "namespace", "validity", "HTML parser", "memory", "output", "I/O", "ftp", "http", "XInclude", "XPath", "xpointer", "regexp", "Schemas datatype", "Schemas parser", "Schemas validity", "Relax-NG parser", "Relax-NG validity", "Catalog", "C14N", "XSLT", "validity".

[code](#code)

```
  $error_code = $@->code();
    
```

Returns the actual libxml2 error code. The XML::LibXML::ErrNo module defines constants for individual error codes. Currently libxml2 uses over 480 different error codes.

[message](#message)

```
  $error_message = $@->message();
    
```

Returns a human-readable informative error message.

[level](#level)

```
  $error_level = $@->level();
    
```

Returns an integer value describing how consequent is the error. XML::LibXML::Error defines the following constants:

- XML\_ERR\_NONE = 0
- XML\_ERR\_WARNING = 1 : A simple warning.
- XML\_ERR\_ERROR = 2 : A recoverable error.
- XML\_ERR\_FATAL = 3 : A fatal error.

[file](#file)

```
  $filename = $@->file();
    
```

Returns the filename of the file being processed while the error occurred.

[line](#line)

```
  $line = $@->line();
    
```

The line number, if available.

[nodename](#nodename)

```
  $nodename = $@->nodename();
    
```

Name of the node where error occurred, if available. When this field is non-empty, libxml2 actually returned a physical pointer to the specified node. Due to memory management issues, it is very difficult to implement a way to expose the pointer to the Perl level as a XML::LibXML::Node. For this reason, XML::LibXML::Error currently only exposes the name the node.

[str1](#str1)

```
  $error_str1 = $@->str1();
    
```

Error specific. Extra string information.

[str2](#str2)

```
  $error_str2 = $@->str2();
    
```

Error specific. Extra string information.

[str3](#str3)

```
  $error_str3 = $@->str3();
    
```

Error specific. Extra string information.

[num1](#num1)

```
  $error_num1 = $@->num1();
    
```

Error specific. Extra numeric information.

[num2](#num2)

```
  $error_num2 = $@->num2();
    
```

In recent libxml2 versions, this value contains a column number of the error or 0 if N/A.

[context](#context)

```
  $string = $@->context();
    
```

For parsing errors, this field contains about 80 characters of the XML near the place where the error occurred. The field "$@->column()" contains the corresponding offset. Where N/A, the field is undefined.

[column](#column)

```
  $offset = $@->column();
    
```

See "$@->column()" above.

\_prev

```
  $previous_error = $@->_prev();
    
```

This field can possibly hold a reference to another XML::LibXML::Error object representing an error which occurred just before this error.

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

Matt Sergeant, Christian Glahn, Petr Pajas

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

2.0212

# [COPYRIGHT](#COPYRIGHT)

2001-2007, AxKit.com Ltd.

2002-2006, Christian Glahn.

2006-2009, Petr Pajas.

# [LICENSE](#LICENSE)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

2026-08-28 perl v5.44.0

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Document: XML::LibXML::Error(3pm) from perl-xml-libxml 2.0212-r3 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/shlomif/perl-XML-LibXML