The namespace given in comps.xml:/comps either must be filled out to contain a "proper" URI, or the namespace attribute should be dropped. Pragmatic reasoning: The blank namespace in comps is interfering with the ability of tools like xmlstarlet which adhere to XML standards strictly. There is no way to specify an empty namespace in one of these tools. Technical reasoning: The first sentence in section 2.2 of "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Second Edition)" states "The empty string, though it is a legal URI reference, cannot be used as a namespace name.". This change needs to be made in F7, EL4, and EL5 as well. It appears that the empty namespace was created in comps-f7.xml.in when comps-fc7.xml.in was merged with it on April 19, Rev. 1.160.