Re: [xml] inconsistent behavior by "xmlChildElementCount()"

[JerryWRice <JerryWRice fabnexus com>]

Hello,

      This is my first posting, but I've been using 'libxml2' on Linux 
for about a year.  During some of my recent testing, I've encountered 
something that appears to be a problem.  While parsing what should be a 
valid XML document from a 'c' program (not "c++), I've found that the 
"xmlChildElementCount()" function returns an erroneous child element 
count for certain documents.  Below is one such document (I've added 
line numbers on the left column - these are not a part of the XML document):

> 1 <?xml version="1.0"?> <methodCall>
> 2 <methodName>filtermap.add</methodName>
> 3 <params>
> 4 <param>
> 5 <value><string>fname</string></value>
> 6 </param>
> 7 <param name="input">
> 8 <value>
> 9 <array>
> 10 <data>
> 11 <value><string>portid1</string></value>
> 12 <value><string>portid2</string></value>
> 13 <value><string>portid3</string></value>
> 14 </data>
> 15 </array>
> 16 </value>
> 17 </param>
> 18 <param name="output">
> 19 <value>
> 20 <array>
> 21 <data>
> 22 <value><string>monitor_portid1</string></value>
> 23 <value><string>monitor_portid2</string></value>
> 24 <value><string>monitor_portid3</string></value>
> 25 </data>
> 26 </array>
> 27 </value>
> 28 </param>
> 29 <param>
> 30 <value>
> 31 <array>
> 32 <data>
> 33 <value><int>10</int></value>
> 34 <value><string>arg1</string></value>
> 35 <value><i4>100</i4></value>
> 36 <value>
> 37 <array>
> 38 <data>
> 39 <value><int>1000</int></value>
> 40 <value><string>hello</string></value>
> 41 <value><string>goodbye</string></value>
> 42 </data>
> 43 </array>
> 44 </value>
> 45 </data>
> 46 </array>
> 47 </value>
> 48 </param>
> 49 </params>
> 50 </methodCall>
My program places this XML document into a zero-terminated char text 
buffer and creates a reader for it using "xmlReaderForDoc()".  Then I 
perform a series of "xmlTextReaderRead()" calls to advance my current 
node to element "<params>" on line 3.  I've confirmed I'm at the opening 
"<params>" node by using function "xmlTextReadName()" to verify.  While 
positioned at node "<params>", I call function "xmlChildElementCount()" 
and expect to get a child element count of "4" (there are four "<param>" 
sub-element nodes), but instead receive return count value of "3".  I've 
experimented by changing the number of "<param>" nodes, but get various 
erroneous counts (always less than the actual count) as long as I have 
deeply nested "<param>" element sub-nodes.  If I replace the "<array>" 
(deeply nested) nodes with simpler less deeply nested ones, the child 
node count seems to be returned properly.

This is a real problem for my program.

Any ideas what what might be happening?

Thanks in advance.