Question

I met an Xpath like this:

from xml.etree import ElementTree

with open('podcasts.opml', 'rt') as f:
    tree = ElementTree.parse(f)

for node in tree.findall('.//outline'):
    pass

I know that //means any matches, but what does the . before // means? Does that mean relative path? But what is the current path in the codes? Is it the root path? Then could it be written as ///outline?

Answer 1

but what does the . before // means?

It means “the current node”.

But what is the current path in the codes? Is it the root path? Then could it be written as ///outline?

Current path is the node you’re searching from. It’s not necessary the root (but for tree in the above example it is).