The node() and @* wildcards

To copy everything including:

• attributes

• comments

• processing instructions

• namespaces

• text

we have to use greedier wild cards:

• @* to copy attribute nodes

• node() to copy all other nodes

  <!-- pass unrecognized nodes along unchanged -->
  <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>  

The output is the same in this case, though for a document that used more HTML it might be different.