Andy Fish wrote:
> the issue is that I don't know what namespace prefix might have been used in 
> the source document. in the output document I want to use the same namespace 
> I'm using in the stylesheet

If you copy a node from the stylesheet to the output, it will have the 
same namespace, and namespace bindings, as in the stylesheet.

If you copy a node from a source document to the output, it will have 
the same namespace, and namespace bindings, as in the source document.

Appropriate declarations will be generated to make it so, if the 
relevant binding from prefix to namespace URI isn't already in scope at 
that point in the output. They aren't "spurious"; they're required to 
achieve the above semantic results.


If you're having trouble, it's because you either aren't trusting 
xsl:copy to do the right thing, or because you're trying to override 
those semantics, or because you're not using namespaces properly... or 
because you're worried about validating against a DTD which doesn't 
allow the relevant namespace declarations at that point in the document. 
If it's the last, the best advice I can give you is to abandon DTDs; the 
namespace spec deliberately chose not to worry about "playing nice" with 
DTDs, and its authors advised everyone to switch to XML Schema -- which, 
unlike DTDs, is fully namespace-aware.



It might help if you gave us a more explicit example of what you're 
trying to do. You've given us a request out of context, and a fragment 
of code that attempts to meet that request... but both presuppose a 
particular solution, and it may not be the right solution. Consider 
posting a minimal example that demonstrates what you think is a problem, 
and explaining exactly why you consider it a problem. You'll get better 
answers if you ask the real question rather than asking about a detail.



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