space character between quotes in bash script using XMLStarlet

Question

I'm trying to edit my xml file with a script in bash using the tool XMLStarlet. So I want to delete a complete tag of my file, my problem is in the syntaxe of my command as following:

xmlstarlet ed -d "/properties/structure name=\"preference\"" $1

The tag is < structure name="preference" >

My error is: XPath error : Invalid expression /properties/structure" "name="preference" The error is pointing on the first quote (")

I try to insert quote, backslash to make the space character acceptable but I don't find the way to make it works. Can someone please help me on this subject? I didn't find yet a topic talking about this.

Thanks by advance

Answer 1

From:

<properties>
    <bla name="preference" >
    </bla>
    <structure name="preference" >
    </structure>
    <structure name="xxx" >
    </structure>
</properties>

the:

xmlstarlet ed -d '/properties/structure[@name="preference"]'

produces

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<properties>
  <bla name="preference">
    </bla>
  <structure name="xxx">
    </structure>
</properties>