Very suprising results by combining BaseX, Saxon, XSLT-Packages and a custom Saxon-Initializer
Hi BaseX team, I admit, I'm pushing the combinations a bit, but otherwise it wouldn't be any fun... ;-) I want to call an XSLT stylesheet with Saxon in BaseX. However, the stylesheet should use an XSLT package. For XSLT packages, I wrote a Saxon initialiser some time ago that automatically recognises packages in the classpath and configures Saxon so that they are available. When embedding it in BaseX, however, I now encounter very strange behaviour when I execute the stylesheet twice (or more) in the same session. I have reproduced this in this GitHub project: https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue When you run either the shell script basex or basex.bat in the project, the following happens: 1. The Maven project fetches the necessary dependencies. - Saxon 12.9 & BaseX 12.2 - xpath-model - the XSLT package I want to use in my XSLTs (https://github.com/nkutsche/xpath-model/) - xslt-pkg-manager120 - the Saxon initialiser mentioned above 2. The system property SAXON_INITIALIZER is set to the Saxon initialiser 3. The XQuery script xquer.xq is executed with BaseX: - this executes test.xsl twice on test.xml with xslt:transform() - the sequence of both transformation results is the result of the main query. 4. test.xsl uses a function from the XPath model: the XPath expression in test.xml is parsed into an XML tree. The second result is then very surprising: ---- result 1 ---- <expr><operation type="step"><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="1"/></predicate></locationStep></arg><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="4"/></predicate></locationStep></arg></operation></expr> ---- result 2 ---- <expr><XPath><Expr Predicate="sequence"><EOF><ExprSingle><Expr Predicate="or"><EOF><Expr Predicate="and"><EOF><ComparisonExpr><Expr Predicate="concat"><EOF><Expr Predicate="range"><EOF><Expr Predicate="additive"><EOF><Expr Predicate="multiplicativ"><EOF><Expr Predicate="union"><EOF><Expr Predicate="intersect-except"><EOF><Expr Predicate="instance-of"><EOF><Expr Predicate="treat-as"><EOF><Expr Predicate="castable"><EOF><Expr Predicate="cast"><EOF><Expr Predicate="arrow"><EOF><Expr Predicate="unary"><EOF><ValueExpr><Expr Predicate="map"><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF><TOKEN>/</TOKEN></EOF><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF>[...] The complete output can also be found here: https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue/actions/runs/2240... The first result is as expected. I can hardly explain the second one. Except that the elements look similar to my intermediate results, but as far as I know, they never occur in this combination. My only guess is that a few templates in the package suddenly are no longer matching or no longer match as they should. Do you have any idea where this might be coming from? I couldn't reproduce the behaviour when I called Saxon directly twice in a JVM. The problem could still be in Saxon, of course, but I would first have to reproduce it without BaseX. Thank you for your help! Best Regards, Nico -- Nico Kutscherauer XML Developer data2type GmbH Im Breitspiel 6A 69126 Heidelberg Tel.: +49-(0)6221-73 912 60 www.data2type.de <https://www.data2type.de> Workingdays: Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri(HO) Workinghours: 10-18.30 Company’s head office: Heidelberg Commercial Register court: AG Mannheim HRB 715195 CEO: Manuel Montero Pineda
Hi, Sorry, forget it! I was able to reproduce it with Saxon alone. And it is a problem with my initialiser – but with a strange reaction from Saxon to it. I've created a Saxon ticket for this:https://saxonica.plan.io/issues/7032 Best Regards and once again, sorry for the false alert! Nico Am 25.02.2026 um 18:38 schrieb Nico Kutscherauer:
Hi BaseX team,
I admit, I'm pushing the combinations a bit, but otherwise it wouldn't be any fun... ;-)
I want to call an XSLT stylesheet with Saxon in BaseX. However, the stylesheet should use an XSLT package. For XSLT packages, I wrote a Saxon initialiser some time ago that automatically recognises packages in the classpath and configures Saxon so that they are available.
When embedding it in BaseX, however, I now encounter very strange behaviour when I execute the stylesheet twice (or more) in the same session. I have reproduced this in this GitHub project:
https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue
When you run either the shell script basex or basex.bat in the project, the following happens:
1. The Maven project fetches the necessary dependencies. - Saxon 12.9 & BaseX 12.2 - xpath-model - the XSLT package I want to use in my XSLTs (https://github.com/nkutsche/xpath-model/) - xslt-pkg-manager120 - the Saxon initialiser mentioned above 2. The system property SAXON_INITIALIZER is set to the Saxon initialiser 3. The XQuery script xquer.xq is executed with BaseX: - this executes test.xsl twice on test.xml with xslt:transform() - the sequence of both transformation results is the result of the main query. 4. test.xsl uses a function from the XPath model: the XPath expression in test.xml is parsed into an XML tree.
The second result is then very surprising:
---- result 1 ---- <expr><operation type="step"><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="1"/></predicate></locationStep></arg><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="4"/></predicate></locationStep></arg></operation></expr> ---- result 2 ---- <expr><XPath><Expr Predicate="sequence"><EOF><ExprSingle><Expr Predicate="or"><EOF><Expr Predicate="and"><EOF><ComparisonExpr><Expr Predicate="concat"><EOF><Expr Predicate="range"><EOF><Expr Predicate="additive"><EOF><Expr Predicate="multiplicativ"><EOF><Expr Predicate="union"><EOF><Expr Predicate="intersect-except"><EOF><Expr Predicate="instance-of"><EOF><Expr Predicate="treat-as"><EOF><Expr Predicate="castable"><EOF><Expr Predicate="cast"><EOF><Expr Predicate="arrow"><EOF><Expr Predicate="unary"><EOF><ValueExpr><Expr Predicate="map"><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF><TOKEN>/</TOKEN></EOF><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF>[...]
The complete output can also be found here:
https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue/actions/runs/2240...
The first result is as expected. I can hardly explain the second one. Except that the elements look similar to my intermediate results, but as far as I know, they never occur in this combination. My only guess is that a few templates in the package suddenly are no longer matching or no longer match as they should.
Do you have any idea where this might be coming from? I couldn't reproduce the behaviour when I called Saxon directly twice in a JVM. The problem could still be in Saxon, of course, but I would first have to reproduce it without BaseX.
Thank you for your help!
Best Regards, Nico
--
Nico Kutscherauer XML Developer
data2type GmbH Im Breitspiel 6A 69126 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49-(0)6221-73 912 60
www.data2type.de <https://www.data2type.de>
Workingdays: Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri(HO) Workinghours: 10-18.30
Company’s head office: Heidelberg Commercial Register court: AG Mannheim HRB 715195 CEO: Manuel Montero Pineda
…always good to wait and see what happens ;·) ________________________________ Von: Nico Kutscherauer via BaseX-Talk Gesendet: Donnerstag, 26. Februar 2026 14:04 Bis: basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de Betreff: [basex-talk] Re: Very suprising results by combining BaseX, Saxon, XSLT-Packages and a custom Saxon-Initializer Hi, Sorry, forget it! I was able to reproduce it with Saxon alone. And it is a problem with my initialiser – but with a strange reaction from Saxon to it. I've created a Saxon ticket for this: https://saxonica.plan.io/issues/7032 Best Regards and once again, sorry for the false alert! Nico Am 25.02.2026 um 18:38 schrieb Nico Kutscherauer: Hi BaseX team, I admit, I'm pushing the combinations a bit, but otherwise it wouldn't be any fun... ;-) I want to call an XSLT stylesheet with Saxon in BaseX. However, the stylesheet should use an XSLT package. For XSLT packages, I wrote a Saxon initialiser some time ago that automatically recognises packages in the classpath and configures Saxon so that they are available. When embedding it in BaseX, however, I now encounter very strange behaviour when I execute the stylesheet twice (or more) in the same session. I have reproduced this in this GitHub project: https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue When you run either the shell script basex or basex.bat in the project, the following happens: 1. The Maven project fetches the necessary dependencies. - Saxon 12.9 & BaseX 12.2 - xpath-model - the XSLT package I want to use in my XSLTs (https://github.com/nkutsche/xpath-model/) - xslt-pkg-manager120 - the Saxon initialiser mentioned above 2. The system property SAXON_INITIALIZER is set to the Saxon initialiser 3. The XQuery script xquer.xq is executed with BaseX: - this executes test.xsl twice on test.xml with xslt:transform() - the sequence of both transformation results is the result of the main query. 4. test.xsl uses a function from the XPath model: the XPath expression in test.xml is parsed into an XML tree. The second result is then very surprising: ---- result 1 ---- <expr><operation type="step"><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="1"/></predicate></locationStep></arg><slash/><arg><locationStep axis="child"><nodeTest kind="node"/><predicate><integer value="4"/></predicate></locationStep></arg></operation></expr> ---- result 2 ---- <expr><XPath><Expr Predicate="sequence"><EOF><ExprSingle><Expr Predicate="or"><EOF><Expr Predicate="and"><EOF><ComparisonExpr><Expr Predicate="concat"><EOF><Expr Predicate="range"><EOF><Expr Predicate="additive"><EOF><Expr Predicate="multiplicativ"><EOF><Expr Predicate="union"><EOF><Expr Predicate="intersect-except"><EOF><Expr Predicate="instance-of"><EOF><Expr Predicate="treat-as"><EOF><Expr Predicate="castable"><EOF><Expr Predicate="cast"><EOF><Expr Predicate="arrow"><EOF><Expr Predicate="unary"><EOF><ValueExpr><Expr Predicate="map"><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF><TOKEN>/</TOKEN></EOF><EOF><Expr Predicate="step"><EOF>[...] The complete output can also be found here: https://github.com/nkutsche/basex-saxon-xslt-package-issue/actions/runs/2240... The first result is as expected. I can hardly explain the second one. Except that the elements look similar to my intermediate results, but as far as I know, they never occur in this combination. My only guess is that a few templates in the package suddenly are no longer matching or no longer match as they should. Do you have any idea where this might be coming from? I couldn't reproduce the behaviour when I called Saxon directly twice in a JVM. The problem could still be in Saxon, of course, but I would first have to reproduce it without BaseX. Thank you for your help! Best Regards, Nico -- Nico Kutscherauer XML Developer data2type GmbH Im Breitspiel 6A 69126 Heidelberg Tel.: +49-(0)6221-73 912 60 www.data2type.de<https://www.data2type.de> Workingdays: Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri(HO) Workinghours: 10-18.30 Company’s head office: Heidelberg Commercial Register court: AG Mannheim HRB 715195 CEO: Manuel Montero Pineda
participants (2)
-
Christian Grün -
Nico Kutscherauer