[xslt] <copy-of> problems

[Stephen Knox <stephenknox73 gmail com>]

I have an issue with the XLST library and <copy-of>

I have distilled my problem into a simple test.

Using the following xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<MD_Metadata xmlns="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd">

  <language/>

  <characterSet/>

  </MD_Metadata>

and this stylesheet:

    <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"

     xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:gmd="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd" >

  <xsl:template match="/gmd:MD_Metadata">

     <xsl:copy-of select="@*|node()"/>

  </xsl:template>

  </xsl:stylesheet>

If I run xsltproc I get the result:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

  <language xmlns="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd"/>

  <characterSet xmlns="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd"/>

Whereas I was expecting the MD_Metadata root element to also be included. There is more information on this SO question (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19915933/copy-of-xlst-tag-not-being-applied-consistently-in-different-processors) (and interestingly I don't get the <characterSet> tag in the first case when using lxml in python).

I assume this isn't a bug, but can anyone explain to someone who is quite green at this what is going on here?

Thanks

Stephen