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count number of xml element from linux shell
<elements>
<elem>
....bunch of other elements
</elem>
</elements>

awk 'BEGIN{
    totalelem=0
    totalendelem=0
}
/<elem>/{
    m = split($0,a,"<elem>") # or m = gsub(/<elem>/,"")
    totalelem+=m-1
}
/</elem>/{
    m = split($0,b,"</elem>") # or m = gsub("</elem>","")
    totalendelem+=m-1
}
END{
    print "Total elem tags: " totalelem
    print "Total end elem tags: " totalendelem
    # if you want to make sure each elem tag is enclosed  by corresponding end elem tag
    if ( totalelem == totalendelem ){
        print "Equal start and end tags"
    }
}
' file

xml_grep --count //elem example.xml

<elements>
<elem>....bunch of other elements</elem><elem>....bunch of other elements</elem>
<elem>
....bunch of other elements
....bunch of other elements
</elem>
</elements>

echo $(($(xmlstarlet sel -t -m //elem -n YOURFILE.xml | wc -l)-1))

xmllint --nocdata --format myfile.xml | grep -c '</elem>'