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I was looking at DBUS system.conf. The XML includes a DOCTYPE statement that references the following DTD: http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd

However, when I tried validating the XML against that DTD, it has several failures. For example: "No declaration for attribute send_type of element allow"

Why does the DBUS project violate its own DTD? If they need changes, why don't they update the DTD, or create a new one? Otherwise, if they're just saying to heck with validation, why do they continue to include the DOCTYPE in the XML, which is misleading, to say the least.

They even tell users to to use the DTD in their documentation. (i.e. "The configuration file is an XML document. It must have the following doctype declaration"). In other words, they're telling users that they must use the DTD, then they have examples which clearly violate that DTD. This seems crazy to me. Someone please enlighten me.

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  • Perhaps the standard is what is being worked toward.. See: dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html currently at Version 0.26
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 16, 2015 at 22:48
  • You may have noticed in the documentation you linked to "...this document is documentation, not specification."
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 16, 2015 at 22:52
  • @ElderGeek Understood, but then they could simply document the contents of the config file on the website and not specify a DTD. AFAIK - if you specify a DTD in the DOCTYPE declaration, then you are telling the world that the XML will validate against that DTD. Basically, it's false advertising. They need to either remove the DOCTYPE declaration, bring the config file into compliance with the DTD, or update the DTD.
    – David
    Mar 17, 2015 at 0:21

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