python · serhiy-storchaka · Aug 12, 2026 · Aug 12, 2026
diff --git a/Doc/library/pyexpat.rst b/Doc/library/pyexpat.rst
@@ -172,6 +172,20 @@ XMLParser Objects
    or ``None`` if  :meth:`SetBase` hasn't been called.
 
 
+.. method:: xmlparser.GetSpecifiedAttributeCount()
+
+   Return the index just past the attributes given in the start tag.
+   Attributes defaulted from the DTD follow the specified ones,
+   so attributes at lower indices in the list
+   passed to :attr:`StartElementHandler` were given in the start tag.
+   Each attribute takes two items in that list,
+   its name and its value.
+   Only meaningful inside a :attr:`StartElementHandler` call,
+   and only if :attr:`ordered_attributes` is true.
+
+   .. versionadded:: next
+
+
 .. method:: xmlparser.GetInputContext()
 
    Returns the input data that generated the current event as a string. The data is

diff --git a/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst b/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst
@@ -255,11 +255,14 @@
 
 * :class:`DOMTimeStamp`
 
-* :class:`EntityReference`
-
-Most of these reflect information in the XML document that is not of general
+This reflects information in the XML document that is not of general
 utility to most DOM users.
 
+.. versionchanged:: next
+   :class:`EntityReference` is now implemented.
+   Note that the parser expands entity references,
+   so they only occur in a document if created explicitly.
+
 .. rubric:: Footnotes
 
 .. [1] The encoding name included in the XML output should conform to

diff --git a/Doc/library/xml.dom.rst b/Doc/library/xml.dom.rst
@@ -531,6 +531,14 @@
    tree.
 
 
+.. method:: Document.createEntityReference(name)
+
+   Create and return a new entity reference node.
+   The node is not inserted into the document when it is created.
+
+   .. versionadded:: next
+
+
 .. method:: Document.createComment(data)
 
    Create and return a comment node containing the data passed as a parameter.  As
@@ -800,6 +808,25 @@
    character.
 
 
+.. _dom-entityreference-objects:
+
+EntityReference Objects
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.. class:: EntityReference
+
+   Represents an entity reference in the XML document.
+   It is a subclass of :class:`Node`.
+   The name of the referenced entity is its :attr:`nodeName`.
+   Its children are the replacement text of the entity,
+   and are read-only.
+
+   Parsers may expand entity references,
+   so such a node only occurs in a document if it was created explicitly.
+
+   .. versionadded:: next
+
+
 .. _dom-exceptions:
 
 Exceptions

@@ -613,6 +613,22 @@ xml
   instead of failing later, when encountering non-ASCII data.
   (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :gh:`62259`.)
 
+* :mod:`xml.dom.minidom` now conforms closer to the DOM Level 1 specification.
+  It checks names passed to the factory methods,
+  rejects inserting a node created by other document
+  or making a node a descendant of itself,
+  reports attributes defaulted in the DTD
+  and whether an attribute was given in the start tag,
+  and implements :class:`!EntityReference` nodes
+  and :meth:`!Document.createEntityReference`.
+  (Contributed by Jason Orendorff and Serhiy Storchaka in :gh:`44871`.)
+
+* Add :meth:`!GetSpecifiedAttributeCount` method
+  to the :mod:`XML parser <xml.parsers.expat>` objects.
+  It tells how many of the reported attributes were given in the start tag
+  rather than defaulted from the DTD.
+  (Contributed by Jason Orendorff and Serhiy Storchaka in :gh:`44871`.)
+
 zipfile
 -------
 
@@ -828,6 +844,17 @@ that may require changes to your code.
   :exc:`TypeError`.
   (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :gh:`152587`.)
 
+* :mod:`xml.dom.minidom` now raises :exc:`~xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr`
+  for a name which is not a valid XML name,
+  :exc:`~xml.dom.WrongDocumentErr`
+  for inserting a node created by other document,
+  and :exc:`~xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr` for inserting a node into itself
+  or its descendant.
+  Such operations formerly succeeded
+  and produced an invalid document or an endless loop.
+  Attributes defaulted in the DTD are no longer omitted when parsing.
+  (Contributed by Jason Orendorff and Serhiy Storchaka in :gh:`44871`.)
+
 * On Windows, seeking a pipe now fails instead of silently appearing to
   succeed: :func:`os.lseek` and :meth:`~io.IOBase.seek` raise :exc:`OSError`,
   and :meth:`~io.IOBase.seekable` returns ``False``.  As a consequence,

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_minidom.py b/Lib/test/test_minidom.py
@@ -1784,5 +1784,116 @@ def test_cdata_parsing(self):
         dom2 = parseString(dom1.toprettyxml())
         self.checkWholeText(dom2.getElementsByTagName('node')[0].firstChild, '</data>')
 
+    def testInvalidCharacterErr(self):
+        doc = parseString("<doc/>")
+        impl = getDOMImplementation()
+        for name in ("", "bad name", "1st", "-x", ".x", "a<b", "a&b", "a\tb"):
+            with self.subTest(name=name):
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createElement, name)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createElementNS, None, name)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createAttribute, name)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createAttributeNS, None, name)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createProcessingInstruction, name, "")
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.createEntityReference, name)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  impl.createDocumentType, name, None, None)
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.documentElement.setAttribute, name, "v")
+                self.assertRaises(xml.dom.InvalidCharacterErr,
+                                  doc.documentElement.setAttributeNS,
+                                  None, name, "v")
+        for name in ("a", "_x", ":x", "a.b-c", "ns:tag", "a1",
+                     "\N{GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA}", "\N{LINEAR B SYLLABLE B008 A}x"):
+            with self.subTest(name=name):
+                self.assertEqual(doc.createElement(name).tagName, name)
+                self.assertEqual(doc.createAttribute(name).name, name)
+        doc.unlink()
+
+    def testWrongDocumentErr(self):
+        doc = parseString("<doc><child/></doc>")
+        other = parseString("<other/>")
+        elem = doc.documentElement
+        alien = other.createElement("alien")
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.WrongDocumentErr, elem.appendChild, alien)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.WrongDocumentErr, elem.insertBefore,
+                          alien, elem.firstChild)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.WrongDocumentErr, elem.replaceChild,
+                          alien, elem.firstChild)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.WrongDocumentErr, doc.appendChild, alien)
+        # the rejected node is left alone
+        self.assertIs(alien.ownerDocument, other)
+        self.assertIsNone(alien.parentNode)
+        # importNode() is the supported way to do this
+        elem.appendChild(doc.importNode(alien, True))
+        self.assertEqual(elem.lastChild.tagName, "alien")
+        doc.unlink()
+        other.unlink()
+
+    def testAncestorLoops(self):
+        doc = parseString("<doc><child><grandchild/></child></doc>")
+        elem = doc.documentElement
+        child = elem.firstChild
+        grandchild = child.firstChild
+        for node in elem, child, grandchild:
+            self.assertRaises(xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr,
+                              node.appendChild, node)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr, child.appendChild, elem)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr,
+                          grandchild.appendChild, elem)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr,
+                          grandchild.insertBefore, child, None)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.HierarchyRequestErr,
+                          grandchild.replaceChild, elem, None)
+        # the tree is unchanged
+        self.assertIs(child.parentNode, elem)
+        self.assertIs(grandchild.parentNode, child)
+        doc.unlink()
+
+    def testAttrSpecified(self):
+        doc = parseString("<!DOCTYPE doc ["
+                          "  <!ELEMENT doc EMPTY>"
+                          "  <!ATTLIST doc a CDATA 'default' b CDATA #IMPLIED>"
+                          "]><doc b='given'/>")
+        elem = doc.documentElement
+        # attributes defaulted from the DTD are reported too
+        self.assertEqual(sorted(elem.attributes.keys()), ["a", "b"])
+        self.assertEqual(elem.getAttribute("a"), "default")
+        self.assertFalse(elem.getAttributeNode("a").specified)
+        self.assertEqual(elem.getAttribute("b"), "given")
+        self.assertTrue(elem.getAttributeNode("b").specified)
+        doc.unlink()
+
+    def testEntityReference(self):
+        doc = parseString("<doc/>")
+        ref = doc.createEntityReference("ent")
+        self.assertEqual(ref.nodeType, Node.ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE)
+        self.assertEqual(ref.nodeName, "ent")
+        self.assertIsNone(ref.nodeValue)
+        self.assertIs(ref.ownerDocument, doc)
+        doc.documentElement.appendChild(ref)
+        self.assertEqual(doc.documentElement.toxml(), "<doc>&ent;</doc>")
+        # entity reference nodes are read-only
+        text = doc.createTextNode("x")
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.NoModificationAllowedErr,
+                          ref.appendChild, text)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.NoModificationAllowedErr,
+                          ref.insertBefore, text, None)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.NoModificationAllowedErr,
+                          ref.removeChild, text)
+        self.assertRaises(xml.dom.NoModificationAllowedErr,
+                          ref.replaceChild, text, None)
+        self.assertEqual(ref.cloneNode(True).nodeName, "ent")
+        other = parseString("<other/>")
+        self.assertEqual(other.importNode(ref, True).nodeName, "ent")
+        doc.unlink()
+        other.unlink()
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/Lib/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py b/Lib/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py
@@ -159,7 +159,6 @@ def getParser(self):
             self._intern_setdefault = self._parser.intern.setdefault
             self._parser.buffer_text = True
             self._parser.ordered_attributes = True
-            self._parser.specified_attributes = True
             self.install(self._parser)
         return self._parser
 
@@ -352,11 +351,13 @@ def start_element_handler(self, name, attributes):
         self.curNode = node
 
         if attributes:
+            specified = self.getParser().GetSpecifiedAttributeCount()
             for i in range(0, len(attributes), 2):
                 a = minidom.Attr(attributes[i], EMPTY_NAMESPACE,
                                  None, EMPTY_PREFIX)
                 value = attributes[i+1]
                 a.value = value
+                a.specified = i < specified
                 a.ownerDocument = self.document
                 _set_attribute_node(node, a)
 
@@ -760,6 +761,7 @@ def start_element_handler(self, name, attributes):
             node._ensure_attributes()
             _attrs = node._attrs
             _attrsNS = node._attrsNS
+            specified = self.getParser().GetSpecifiedAttributeCount()
             for i in range(0, len(attributes), 2):
                 aname = attributes[i]
                 value = attributes[i+1]
@@ -775,6 +777,7 @@ def start_element_handler(self, name, attributes):
                     _attrsNS[(EMPTY_NAMESPACE, aname)] = a
                 a.ownerDocument = self.document
                 a.value = value
+                a.specified = i < specified
                 a.ownerElement = node
 
     if __debug__: