Expected closing tag

What it means

XML elements must nest strictly. This error means the parser found a closing tag that does not match the innermost element still open — so the document's tree cannot be built at all.

The reported position is where the unclosed element was opened, not where the parser gave up. That is the useful number: the defect is almost always a missing end tag at that point, not anything wrong at the line the message ends on.

What usually causes it

• A missing end tag, so the next closing tag belongs to the parent instead.
• Overlapping tags, usually from concatenating template fragments (<a><b></a></b>).
• HTML habits in XML: <br>, <img> or <meta> written without a self-closing slash.
• A conditional in a template that emits an opening tag on one branch only.

How to fix it

• Start at the reported open position and close that element before its parent.
• Self-close void elements: <br/> rather than <br>.
• If you generate the document, build it with a serializer instead of string concatenation.
• Ingest the broken file to see the exact open position, then fix the generator rather than the output.

The same error elsewhere

Different parsers, same defect. If you arrived with one of these messages, you are in the right place.

• libxml2 (PHP, lxml, Nokogiri)

  Opening and ending tag mismatch: item line 2 and channel

• Xerces (Java)

  The element type "item" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</item>".

• expat (Python)

  mismatched tag: line 4, column 2

• .NET System.Xml

  The 'item' start tag on line 2 position 4 does not match the end tag of 'channel'.

• Go encoding/xml

  element <item> closed by </channel>