Linux Survival Basics

Read-only, can be slow

List URLs from a Sitemap

You need to inspect the loc entries inside a sitemap without opening an XML viewer.

Command

grep -o '<loc>[^<]*</loc>' public/sitemap.xml | sed 's#<loc>##;s#</loc>##'

Before you run this

System impact: Read-only. Can create load on large logs, directories, filesystems, or process tables.

When not to use it: Do not use it as an XML validator; it is a quick inspection command.

Expected output

One sitemap URL per line.

System impact

Read-only, can be slow. Nothing changes. The command extracts URL text from sitemap loc elements.

Scope this to the smallest useful path or service on busy systems.

Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.

When to use it

Use when checking sitemap contents during static-site deploys.

When not to use it

Do not use it as an XML validator; it is a quick inspection command.

Watch this command run

Command transcript

This sanitized transcript shows the commands and output shape without exposing host details.

demo@lab:~$

$ sed -n '1,12p' public/sitemap.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://example.com/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url><loc>https://example.com/</loc></url>
  <url><loc>https://example.com/about.html</loc></url>
  <url><loc>https://example.com/blog/post.html</loc></url>
</urlset>

$ grep -o '<loc>[^<]*</loc>' public/sitemap.xml | sed 's#<loc>##;s#</loc>##'

https://example.com/
https://example.com/about.html
https://example.com/blog/post.html

View commands shown

These are the commands shown in the sanitized transcript.

Commands shown

sed -n '1,12p' public/sitemap.xml
grep -o '<loc>[^<]*</loc>' public/sitemap.xml | sed 's#<loc>##;s#</loc>##'

next steps

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Study mapping

Use this as independent command practice: read the notes, predict the output, then compare it with the example before using a real shell.