it works!

cmd/root.go

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ See https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/ for detailed documentation and examples.`,
 	}
 
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&outputFormat, "output-format", "o", "yaml", "[yaml|y|json|j|props|p|xml|x] output format type.")
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&inputFormat, "input-format", "p", "yaml", "[yaml|y|xml|x] parse format for input. Note that json is a subset of yaml.")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&inputFormat, "input-format", "p", "yaml", "[yaml|y|xml|x] input format type. Note that json is a subset of yaml.")
 
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&xmlAttributePrefix, "xml-attribute-prefix", "+", "prefix for xml attributes")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&xmlContentName, "xml-content-name", "+content", "name for xml content (if no attribute name is present).")

pkg/yqlib/decoder_xml.go

@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"strings"
+
+	// "strings"
 	"unicode"
 
 	"golang.org/x/net/html/charset"

pkg/yqlib/encoder_xml.go

@@ -49,10 +49,12 @@ func (e *xmlEncoder) Encode(writer io.Writer, node *yaml.Node) error {
 			return err
 		}
 	case yaml.DocumentNode:
+		log.Debugf("ENCODING DOCUMENT NODE")
 		err := e.encodeComment(encoder, headAndLineComment(node))
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		log.Debugf("OK NOW THE ACTUAL")
 		err = e.encodeTopLevelMap(encoder, unwrapDoc(node))
 		if err != nil {
 			return err