Generating XML with xmltodict instead of Jinja #1870

dbohdan · 2026-07-08T07:31:49Z

dbohdan
Jul 8, 2026

I found generating valid and neat XML files with Jinja templates a little fiddly. Jinja also felt like the wrong tool. When I experimented with xmltodict, it worked very well. The following code is what I ended up with for firewalld config. I can recommend it.

services = host.data.get("firewalld_services", {})

for service_name, ports in services.items():
    service_data = {
        "service": {
            "short": service_name,
            "port": [{"@port": port, "@protocol": "tcp"} for port in ports],
        }
    }

    # Result:
    # <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    # <service>
    #   <short>{service_name}</short>
    #   <port port="{ports[0]}" protocol="tcp"/>
    #   <port port="{ports[1]}" protocol="tcp"/>
    #   ...
    # </service>
    xml = xmltodict.unparse(
        service_data,
        indent=2,
        pretty=True,
        short_empty_elements=True,
    )

    files.put(
        name=f"Ensure firewalld service exists for {service_name}",
        src=StringIO(xml + "\n"),
        dest=f"/etc/firewalld/services/{service_name}.xml",
        user="root",
        group="root",
        mode="0644",
    )

if services:
    add_services_cmd = " ".join(
        [f"--add-service={service}" for service in services.keys()]
    )

    server.shell(
        name="Add services to firewalld",
        commands=[f"firewall-cmd --permanent {add_services_cmd}"],
    )

# Note: in real use, you'll need to reload firewalld.

This is how you can install pyinfra with xmltodict:

uv tool install --with xmltodict pyinfra
# or
pipx install pyinfra
pipx inject pyinfra xmltodict

Navigation Menu

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Generating XML with xmltodict instead of Jinja #1870

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{editor}}'s edit

{{editor}}'s edit

Uh oh!

Replies: 0 comments

Select a reply

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Generating XML with xmltodict instead of Jinja #1870

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

dbohdan Jul 8, 2026

Replies: 0 comments

dbohdan
Jul 8, 2026