Vadim, Thank you for your quick reply. I reviewed the references and modified the query to include the -s for both name spaces. The result is essentially the same. With the -s the additional error "mismatched namespace prefixes and uris" is also generated.
I can understand the original error in that the query is generating a xq:Query element and inserting into it the search attribute. I expect that the namespace declaration is not being added to the xq:Query element resulting in the error. Is there a way to log or trace the construction of the xq:Query element during the query? Also, XPath queries return different results based upon the query string: the document, document element, xq:Query, or null. My uneducated expectation would be that all querys would return a xq:Query wrapping the results, if any. Thanks again Lavon Loftin C:\xindice-1.1b4\bin>xindice xpath -c xmldb:xindice://localhost:8080/db/ecoavs0.2 -s "xq=http://xml.apache.org/xindice/Query";"exec=http://mynamespace" -q "/exec:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:ownerRef=' _678919600101martian' and @type='PARDON']/@exec:id" trying to register database ERROR : mismatched namespace prefixes and uris [Fatal Error] :2:203: The prefix "exec" for attribute "exec:id" associated with an element type "xq:result" is not bound. org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The prefix "exec" for attribute "exec:id" associated with an element type "xq:result" is not bound. at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.parse(Unknown Source) at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(Unknown Source) at org.apache.xindice.client.xmldb.xmlrpc.CollectionImpl.query(CollectionImpl.java:518) at org.apache.xindice.client.xmldb.XindiceCollection.query(XindiceCollection.java:259) at org.apache.xindice.client.xmldb.services.QueryService.query(QueryService.java:90) at org.apache.xindice.tools.command.XPathQuery.execute(XPathQuery.java:75) at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.execute(XMLTools.java:293) at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.process(XMLTools.java:171) at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.main(XMLTools.java:82) ERROR : Query error: The prefix "exec" for attribute "exec:id" associated with an element type "xq:result" is not bound.