Grc should warn, not fail with malformed xml

GNU Radio
1

I am creating xml files for my RDS block, in order to be able to use
it together with GRC.
I had forgotten to close a tag in an xml file that I had put into
/usr/local/share/gnuradio/grc/platforms/python/blocks/
The result was that I couldn’t run GRC anymore, it would exit with
these messages on the console:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/local/bin/grc”, line 45, in
ActionHandler(args, Platform())
File
“/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/platforms/python/Platform.py”,
line 61, in init
generator=Generator,
File
“/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/platforms/base/Platform.py”,
line 63, in init
self._load_blocks(os.path.join(dirpath, filename))
File
“/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/platforms/base/Platform.py”,
line 74, in _load_blocks
try: ParseXML.validate_dtd(f, self._block_dtd)
File
“/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/utils/ParseXML.py”,
line 38, in validate_dtd
xml = etree.parse(xml_file, parser=parser)
File “lxml.etree.pyx”, line 2583, in lxml.etree.parse
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:25057)
File “parser.pxi”, line 1465, in lxml.etree._parseDocument
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:63523)
File “parser.pxi”, line 1494, in lxml.etree._parseDocumentFromURL
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:63767)
File “parser.pxi”, line 1394, in lxml.etree._parseDocFromFile
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:62923)
File “parser.pxi”, line 968, in
lxml.etree._BaseParser._parseDocFromFile (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:60309)
File “parser.pxi”, line 542, in
lxml.etree._ParserContext._handleParseResultDoc
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:56659)
File “parser.pxi”, line 628, in lxml.etree._handleParseResult
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:57504)
File “parser.pxi”, line 568, in lxml.etree._raiseParseError
(src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:56902)
lxml.etree.XMLSyntaxError: Opening and ending tag mismatch: doc line
23 and block, line 29, column 9

Josh, shouldn’t GRC ignore malformed xml files (or maybe warn),
instead of failing to run?
Sorry, I am not yet familiar enough to submit a patch for this…

Dimitris S.
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with
a mosquito!” - Amnesty International

2

lxml.etree.XMLSyntaxError: Opening and ending tag mismatch: doc line
23 and block, line 29, column 9

Josh, shouldn’t GRC ignore malformed xml files (or maybe warn),
instead of failing to run?
Sorry, I am not yet familiar enough to submit a patch for this…

It was intentional. If the block definition is bad, it prints out the
problem and exits. The other possibility is to print the error, not
parse that block which contained the error, and continue loading.

My worry was that if somebody (including myself) makes a bad block, the
error would be missed or overlooked when the program opens, so rather,
it just exits with error.

Any strong opinions on this (error vs warn)? Either way is ok with me, I
just want it to be most useful for the majority of users.

-Josh

3

On Fri, Apr 03, 2009 at 08:32:50AM -0700, Josh B. wrote:

Any strong opinions on this (error vs warn)? Either way is ok with me, I
just want it to be most useful for the majority of users.

Error seems fine to me.

Eric

4

Josh B. wrote:

It was intentional. If the block definition is bad, it prints out the
problem and exits. The other possibility is to print the error, not
parse that block which contained the error, and continue loading.

My worry was that if somebody (including myself) makes a bad block, the
error would be missed or overlooked when the program opens, so rather,
it just exits with error.

Any strong opinions on this (error vs warn)? Either way is ok with me, I
just want it to be most useful for the majority of users.

Why not have it both ways? :slight_smile: I suggest a preferences option to specify
the behavior. That way you make it most useful to ALL the users!

@(^.^)@ Ed