» pip install xmldiff
Use the xmldiff to perform this exact task.
main.py
from xmldiff import main
diff = main.diff_files("file1.xml", "file2.xml")
print(diff)
output
[DeleteNode(node='/ngs_sample/results/gastro_prelim_st/type[2]')]
You can switch to the XMLFormatter and manually filter out the results:
...
# Change formatter:
formatter = formatting.XMLFormatter(normalize=formatting.WS_BOTH)
...
# after `out` has been retrieved:
import re
for i in out.splitlines():
if re.search(r'\bdiff:\w+', i):
print(i)
# Result:
# <type st="9999" diff:delete=""/>
» pip install xml-diff
Two approaches that I use are (a) to canonicalize both XML files and then compare their serializations, and (b) to use the XPath 2.0 deep-equal() function. Both approaches are OK for telling you whether the files are the same, but not very good at telling you where they differ.
A commercial tool that specializes in this problem is DeltaXML.
If you have things that you consider equivalent, but which aren't equivalent at the XML level - for example, elements in a different order - then you may have to be prepared to do a transformation to normalize the documents before comparison.
Good answer here:
Question: How can I diff two XML files? | Super User
Answer: How can I diff two XML files? | Super User
$ xmllint --format --exc-c14n one.xml > 1.xml
$ xmllint --format --exc-c14n two.xml > 2.xml
$ diff 1.xml 2.xml
Apologies for any failure to adhere to serverfault conventions ... I'm sure someone will let me know and I will amend appropriately.