In article <DZjsi.41827$%v3.7939@f...>,
Andy Fish <ajfish@b...> wrote:

>the question is, is there a way to match only the root node element of the 
>input document rather than the root element of a stylesheet parameter

match="/" doesn't match the root element, it matches the root node which
is above the root element (so that it can contain, for example, processing
instructions before the root element).  But I don't think that matters to
your question, which is how to distinguish the root node of the
input document from the root node of other documents.

The only way I can think of to do this is to bind a variable to the
root node of the input document:

  <xsl:variable name="input-root" select="/"/>

(which works because top-level variable declarations have the root node
of the input document as their current node) and compare the node against
that, for example

  <xsl:template match="/[count(.|$input-root) = 1]">

("count($a|$b)=1" is a way of testing two nodes for identity - if they're
the same then the set containing both of them will only have one element).

I haven't tested this.

-- Richard
-- 
"Consideration shall be given to the need for as many as 32 characters
in some alphabets" - X3.4, 1963.