Bug: `gpxpy.parse(...)` fails on all GPX files

[danielyli]

Hi, I just installed this library to try out but immediately encountered a parsing bug. Steps to reproduce below.

Summary

Invocations of gpxpy.parse(...) fail for all GPX files with GPXXMLSyntaxException: Error parsing XML: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0.

Steps to Reproduce

# Python 3.12.7 (main, Oct  1 2024, 02:05:46) [Clang 16.0.0 (clang-1600.0.26.3)]
# Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
# IPython 8.28.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.

In [1]: import gpxpy; gpx = gpxpy.parse('/tmp/gpxpy/test_files/route.gpx')

# [07:42:09] DEBUG    [gpxpy.parser::parse]  Error in:                    parser.py:137
#                     /tmp/gpxpy/test_files/route.gpx
#                     -----------
#                     Traceback (most recent call last):
#                       File "/tmp/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gpxpy/parser.py",
#                     line 134, in parse
#                         root = mod_etree.XML(self.xml)
#                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#                       File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.12/3.12.7/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/lib/python3.12/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line
#                     1335, in XML
#                         parser.feed(text)
#                     xml.etree.ElementTree.ParseError: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ParseError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
# File /tmp/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gpxpy/parser.py:134, in GPXParser.parse(self, version)
#     133     else:
# --> 134         root = mod_etree.XML(self.xml)
#     135 except Exception as e:
#     136     # The exception here can be a lxml or ElementTree exception.
# 
# File /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.12/3.12.7/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/lib/python3.12/xml/etree/ElementTree.py:1335, in XML(text, parser)
#    1334     parser = XMLParser(target=TreeBuilder())
# -> 1335 parser.feed(text)
#    1336 return parser.close()
# 
# ParseError: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0
# 
# The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
# 
# GPXXMLSyntaxException                     Traceback (most recent call last)
# Cell In[1], line 1
# ----> 1 import gpxpy; gpx = gpxpy.parse('/tmp/gpxpy/test_files/route.gpx')
# 
# File /tmp/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gpxpy/__init__.py:39, in parse(xml_or_file, version)
#      35 from . import parser as mod_parser
#      37 parser = mod_parser.GPXParser(xml_or_file)
# ---> 39 return parser.parse(version)
# 
# File /tmp/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gpxpy/parser.py:146, in GPXParser.parse(self, version)
#     137     log.debug('Error in:\n%s\n-----------\n', self.xml, exc_info=True)
#     139     # The library should work in the same way regardless of the
#     140     # underlying XML parser that's why the exception thrown
#     141     # here is GPXXMLSyntaxException (instead of simply throwing the
#    (...)
#     144     # But, if the user needs the original exception (lxml or ElementTree)
#     145     # it is available with GPXXMLSyntaxException.original_exception:
# --> 146     raise mod_gpx.GPXXMLSyntaxException(f'Error parsing XML: {e}', e)
#     148 if root is None:
#     149     raise mod_gpx.GPXException('Document must have a `gpx` root node.')
# 
# GPXXMLSyntaxException: Error parsing XML: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0

System Information

• gpxpy 1.6.2
• Python 3.12.7
• MacOS 15.0.1 (arm64)

[FriedrichFroebel]

This looks like you are simply using the function the wrong way. The docstring for gpxpy.parse states:

Parse xml (string) or file object

Thus you should either pass the file content or an open file to the function, but not the filename.

[MatRanc]

Must open the gpx as a file object.

In your case:
import gpxpy
gpx_file = open('/tmp/gpxpy/test_files/route.gpx')
gpxpy.parse(gpx_file)