linux man page for iptables-xml

IPTABLES-XML(8) 														   IPTABLES-XML(8)

NAME
       iptables-xml -- Convert iptables-save format to XML

SYNOPSIS
       iptables-xml [-c] [-v]

DESCRIPTION
       iptables-xml  is  used  to convert the output of iptables-save into an easily manipulatable XML format to STDOUT.  Use I/O-redirection pro-
       vided by your shell to write to a file.

       -c, --combine
	      combine consecutive rules with the same matches but different targets. iptables does not currently support more than one target  per
	      match,  so this simulates that by collecting the targets from consecutive iptables rules into one action tag, but only when the rule
	      matches are identical. Terminating actions like RETURN, DROP, ACCEPT and QUEUE are not combined with subsequent targets.

       -v, --verbose
	      Output xml comments containing the iptables line from which the XML is derived

       iptables-xml does a mechanistic conversion to a very expressive xml format; the only semantic considerations are for -g and -j  targets	in
       order to discriminate between <call> <goto> and <nane-of-target> as it helps xml processing scripts if they can tell the difference between
       a target like SNAT and another chain.

       Some sample output is:

       <iptables-rules>
	 <table name="mangle">
	   <chain name="PREROUTING" policy="ACCEPT" packet-count="63436" byte-count="7137573">
	     <rule>
	      <conditions>
	       <match>
		 <p>tcp</p>
	       </match>
	       <tcp>
		 <sport>8443</sport>
	       </tcp>
	      </conditions>
	      <actions>
	       <call>
		 <check_ip/>
	       </call>
	       <ACCEPT/>
	      </actions>
	     </rule>
	   </chain>
	 </table> </iptables-rules>

       Conversion from XML to iptables-save format may be done using the iptables.xslt script and xsltproc, or a custom program using  libxsltproc
       or similar; in this fashion:

       xsltproc iptables.xslt my-iptables.xml | iptables-restore

BUGS
       None known as of iptables-1.3.7 release

AUTHOR
       Sam Liddicott <azez@ufomechanic.net>

SEE ALSO
       iptables-save(8), iptables-restore(8), iptables(8)

								   Jul 16, 2007 						   IPTABLES-XML(8)