R studio crashes when there is a syntax error in xsl file

[jmendys]

Hello! Thank you for this package. It is very useful but I find it difficult to work with as it causes R studio to crash.

Steps to reproduce:

1. have a file with XML data to be transformed as a valid XML document
2. have a file with an XSL stylesheet as a valid XML document but with errors in XSL calls. Some examples:
   • (invalid QName)
   • (test attribute missing)
3. Apply transformation to the data with xslt::xml_xslt(data file,xslt file).

The relevant error message will be displayed (like those provided in brackets in examples) but a few seconds later the R studio will crash.

PS If the XSL file is an invalid XML then when opening the file with xml2::read_xml(filename):

• the error message will be displayed
• the xml2 package will lock the file (the file can't be modified anymore)
• xml2 call seems to keep running in the background despite aborting the process
• ultimately after a few minutes/more calls like this the R studio will crash as well unless you manually reset the R session before.

R Studio version: 4.1.0 xml2 version: 1.3.3 xslt version: 1.4.3 (all installed packages are updated to the most recent version)

Sys.info():

• sysname: "Windows"
• release: "10 x64"
• version: "build 19044"
• machine: "x86-64"

[jeroen]

Can you please attach an example of an xml/xsl file and the R code that I can use to reproduce the crash?

[jmendys]

Example files are attached. While preparing the example I realized that the problem exists if the xsl:output method is set to 'text'. Without this declaration, the call behaves properly... test.zip

[jeroen]

Thanks, I can reproduce the crash on Windows (not on macos, strangely). I'll look into it.

[jeroen]

Thanks this is fixed now. You now get a proper R error if there is a problem with the xslt, instead of a crash.

You can download the new version from: https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/xslt

[jmendys]

Thank you for the super-fast response and the fix! It's working even better now :-) I need to reach out to xml2 team to fix a similar issue with their package