Re: [xml] XPath "//namespace::*" and xml: weirdness

[Jason Viers <lists beanalby net>]

Daniel Veillard wrote:
> Read the spec, then raise an issue iif you think libxml2 behaviour
> deviates from the spec, thanks.
>   

I wasn't questioning libxml's behavior at all, just inquiring about the 
details of the implementation.  Digging in the source found me the 
answer to my question (reproduced here to hopefully help those of later 
generations encountering the same problem).

My example returned 3 different xmlNs structs, all for the xml 
namespace.  Where did those come from?  Are the referenced in the tree 
somewhere?  All the nodes have null nsDef fields, the doc's oldNs field 
is null.

Looking at xmlXPathFreeNodeSet in xpath.c verifies that those xmlNs 
structs were instantiated just for those XPath results (as each struct's 
"next" pointer points to the element it "came" from), as they're 
destroyed when the xmlXPathObject is freed.

Definite implications for wanting to keep the pointers from the 
xmlXPathObject around after it was closed. :)

Jason