Saxon

For some reason, the XQuery code does

createFileIfNecessary(outputFile);
serializer = processor.newSerializer(new System.IO.FileStream(outputFile.getPath(), System.IO.FileMode.Create));
                      

while the Transform code simply does

serializer = processor.newSerializer(outputFile);

The same difference is present in the Java code.

I have also run into a similar error with -export:foo.sef.json, the same workaround -export:./foo.sef.json works, but I hope mentioning it here helps ironing out some quirks in the command line option handling of SaxonCS.

saxonxslt -t -xsl:sheet3.xsl -nogo -target:JS -relocate:on -export:sheet3.xsl.saxoncs-export.sef.json
SaxonCS-EE 11.3 from Saxonica
.NET 6.0.6 on Windows 10.0.22000.0
Using license serial number ..
System.ArgumentException: The path is empty. (Parameter 'path')
   at System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(String path)
   at Saxon.Ejava.io.File..ctor(String name)
   at Saxon.Ejava.io.File.getParentFile()
   at Saxon.Hej.Query.createFileIfNecessary(File file)
   at Saxon.Hej.s9api.XsltPackage.save(File file, String target)
   at Saxon.Hej.s9api.XsltPackage.save(File file)
   at Saxon.Hej.Transform.doTransform(String[] args)
Fatal error during transformation: ArgumentException: The path is empty. (Parameter 'path')
Exiting with code 2

I haven't actually reproduced the problem yet. It seems to work fine on Mac. I'll have to try it on Windows when I'm back in the office.

I've now revived my Windows machine and reproduced the problem.

The problem is with the call on Query.createFileIfNecessary().

Changing the code to simply call newSerializer(outputFile), as Transform does, solves the problem.

The only other place that invokes Query.createFileIfNecessary() in SaxonCS is XsltPackage.save(), which fits with Martin's observation of a similar problem with -export.

I've reproduced the problem with -export.

Query.createFileIfNecessary() is calling Saxon's C# emulation of java.io.File.getParentFile() which is implemented as return new File(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(fileName));. The call on new File() calls System.IO.Path.getFullPath(), which fails because the result of GetDirectoryName() is null (or empty?). It's not clear why it works on Mac but fails on Windows.

The path in Processor.newSerializer(File), which is working, constructs a StreamResult object holding the File, then wraps this in an ExpandedStreamResult, and calls its obtainOutputStream() method to get an output stream for writing to the file.

Simply deleting the line Query.createFileIfNecessary() from XsltPackage.save() solves the problem - but we don't yet know what side-effects it has.

But that command fails anyway with the current code. Unless I also do -nogo.

Fixed that.

Specifically: the command

net.sf.saxon.Transform -s:test.xml -xsl:test.xsl -export:a/b/c/d/export.sef.xml

fails with a FileNotFoundException if the intermediate directories do not exist.