XML processing script only lists one element but there are multiple elements to list

Question

I put together a simple Python script to print out XML data for all package names that are associated with parent element attribute: Security Advisory.

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse('errata.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
for security in root.findall("*[@type='Security Advisory']"):
    packages = security.find('packages')
    print(packages.text)

The XML data is located here

However, the script only prints out the first package name but there are multiple package names. How would I go about getting all the package names that fall under parent attribute: Security Advisory?

@larsks Changed this: packages = security.findall('packages') Received this error: print(packages.text) AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'text' — alteredstate
– alteredstate, Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 19:00
That's correct. Because now you're getting a list instead of a single item, of course. — larsks
– larsks, Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 19:18

balderman · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-16 12:41:39Z

1

below (it seems to work)

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

import requests

r = requests.get('https://cefs.b-cdn.net/6010e333a44911e24b5112e23acbb346ae15f7b7/errata.latest.xml')
if r.status_code == 200:
    root = ET.fromstring(r.content)
    sec_elements = [e for e in root.findall("*[@type='Security Advisory']") if
                    e.find('os_release') is not None and int(e.find('os_release').text) > 6]
    for ele in sec_elements:
        packages = ele.findall('./packages')
        for p in packages:
            print(p.text)

edited Sep 16, 2020 at 12:41

answered Sep 14, 2020 at 12:45

balderman

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8 Comments

alteredstate Over a year ago

Thank you for this! This is much better since it pulls the XML directly. Why did you use: ('./packages') instead of: ('packages')?

balderman Over a year ago

@alteredstate I think both should work the same so I dont have a good explanation for that...

alteredstate Over a year ago

Would it be possible to take this one step further and print out the package list based on the 'Security Advisory' as well as the: os_release element text? Here is a small sample of the XML:

<CEBA-2020--0749> <os_arch>i686</os_arch> <os_arch>x86_64</os_arch> <os_release>6</os_release> <packages>nfs-utils-1.2.3-78.el6_10.2.i686.rpm</packages> <packages>nfs-utils-1.2.3-78.el6_10.2.src.rpm</packages> <packages>nfs-utils-1.2.3-78.el6_10.2.x86_64.rpm</packages> </CEBA-2020--0749>

balderman Over a year ago

What do you want to have? Do you want to find the packages if CEBA elements that their type is @type='Security Advisory' AND the os_release element has a specific value? Try to clarify.

alteredstate Over a year ago

Yes, exactly! Print out package list based on @type='Security Advisory' (as we have done) and os_release > 6.

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