Hi Paul, Maybe some sed script could help: Hint (Sorry, I'm not a sed guru!): cat file.xml | sed \ -e '/^<!DOCTYPE boost_serialization>$/d' \ -e '/^<boost_serialization .*>$/d' \ -e '/^<\/boost_serialization>$/d' \ -e 's/ class_id="[[:digit:]]*"//g' \ -e 's/ version="[[:digit:]]*"//g' \ -e 's/ tracking_level="[[:digit:]]*"//g' With this small test XML file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> <!DOCTYPE boost_serialization> <boost_serialization signature="serialization::archive" version="5"> <MYTAG class_id="0" tracking_level="0" version="0"></MYTAG> <YOURTAG class_id="0" tracking_level="0" version="0"></YOURTAG> <ATAG class_id="0" tracking_level="0" version="0"></ATAG> </boost_serialization> I get: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> <MYTAG></MYTAG> <YOURTAG></YOURTAG> <ATAG></ATAG> Not exhaustively tested I'm afraid, but hope it can help. regards frc -- François Mauger Département de Physique - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie