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EPUBCheck · Resources and references

RSC-016

Updated:

EPUBCheck RSC-016 is a fatal error message: “Fatal Error while parsing file: ….” A file is not well-formed XML, so it cannot be parsed at all. EPUB content documents must be valid XML.

The official message

Fatal Error while parsing file: %1$s

Default severity
Fatal error. EPUBCheck could not continue checking this part of the EPUB. The file is invalid.
EPUBCheck version
5.4.0

%1$s, %2$s… are filled in with the file, value or element EPUBCheck found.

Typical causes

  • An unescaped & in text or in a URL (it must be written &).
  • HTML named entities such as   that XML does not define.
  • Unclosed or mismatched tags, or an attribute without quotes.

How to fix it

  • Read the text after the colon: EPUBCheck reports the file, the line and column, and the parser's own description of the problem.
  • Escape & as &, replace named entities with numeric ones (  for a non-breaking space), and close every tag.

Terms used here

Other RSC messages

  • RSC-015 A fragment identifier is required for svg use tag references.
  • RSC-017 Warning while parsing file: …
  • RSC-013 Fragment identifier is used in a reference to a stylesheet resource.
  • RSC-012 Fragment identifier is not defined.
  • RSC-020 "…" is not a valid URL (…)
  • RSC-011 Found a reference to a resource that is not a spine item.

Message text and severity from EPUBCheck 5.4.0 (W3C, BSD-3-Clause). Explanation by EPUBLab.

FAQ

What does EPUBCheck RSC-016 mean?

EPUBCheck RSC-016 is a fatal error message: “Fatal Error while parsing file: ….” A file is not well-formed XML, so it cannot be parsed at all. EPUB content documents must be valid XML.

Is RSC-016 an error?

RSC-016 is reported as fatal error by default. EPUBCheck could not continue checking this part of the EPUB. The file is invalid.