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## 6 Locating a schema

nXML mode has a configurable set of rules to locate a schema for the file being edited. The rules are contained in one or more schema locating files, which are XML documents.

The variable ‘`rng-schema-locating-files`’ specifies the list of the file-names of schema locating files that nXML mode should use. The order of the list is significant: when file x occurs in the list before file y then rules from file x have precedence over rules from file y. A filename specified in ‘`rng-schema-locating-files`’ may be relative. If so, it will be resolved relative to the document for which a schema is being located. It is not an error if relative file-names in ‘`rng-schema-locating-files`’ do not exist. You can use `M-x customize-variable RET rng-schema-locating-files RET` to customize the list of schema locating files.

By default, ‘`rng-schema-locating-files`’ list has two members: ‘`schemas.xml`’, and ‘`dist-dir/schema/schemas.xml`’ where ‘`dist-dir`’ is the directory containing the nXML distribution. The first member will cause nXML mode to use a file ‘`schemas.xml`’ in the same directory as the document being edited if such a file exist. The second member contains rules for the schemas that are included with the nXML distribution.