If I run this XML validation via xmllint:

xmllint --noout --schema schema.xsd test.xml

I get this success message:

.../test.xml validates

However if I run the same validation via libxml2's C API:

int result = xmlSchemaValidateDoc(...)

I get a return value of 1845 and this failure message:

Element '{http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0}foo': No matching global declaration available for the validation root.

Which I can make absolutely no sense of. :(

schema.xsd:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE xs:schema PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XMLSCHEMA 200102//EN" "XMLSchema.dtd" >
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0" targetNamespace="http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">

    <xs:element name="foo">
    </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

test.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<foo xmlns="http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0">
</foo>

main.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <string.h>

#include <libxml/parser.h>
#include <libxml/valid.h>
#include <libxml/xmlschemas.h>

u_int32_t get_file_size(const char *file_name) {
    struct stat buf;
    if ( stat(file_name, &buf) != 0 ) return(0);
    return (unsigned int)buf.st_size;
}

void handleValidationError(void *ctx, const char *format, ...) {
    char *errMsg;
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, format);
    vasprintf(&errMsg, format, args);
    va_end(args);
    fprintf(stderr, "Validation Error: %s", errMsg);
    free(errMsg);
}

int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    const char *xsdPath = argv[1];
    const char *xmlPath = argv[2];

    printf("\n");

    printf("XSD File: %s\n", xsdPath);
    printf("XML File: %s\n", xmlPath);

    int xmlLength = get_file_size(xmlPath);
    char *xmlSource = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * xmlLength);

    FILE *p = fopen(xmlPath, "r");
    char c;
    unsigned int i = 0;
    while ((c = fgetc(p)) != EOF) {
        xmlSource[i++] = c;
    }
    printf("\n");

    printf("XML Source:\n\n%s\n", xmlSource);
    fclose(p);

    printf("\n");

    int result = 42;
    xmlSchemaParserCtxtPtr parserCtxt = NULL;
    xmlSchemaPtr schema = NULL;
    xmlSchemaValidCtxtPtr validCtxt = NULL;

    xmlDocPtr xmlDocumentPointer = xmlParseMemory(xmlSource, xmlLength);
    parserCtxt = xmlSchemaNewParserCtxt(xsdPath);

    if (parserCtxt == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not create XSD schema parsing context.\n");
        goto leave;
    }

    schema = xmlSchemaParse(parserCtxt);

    if (schema == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not parse XSD schema.\n");
        goto leave;
    }

    validCtxt = xmlSchemaNewValidCtxt(schema);

    if (!validCtxt) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not create XSD schema validation context.\n");
        goto leave;
    }

    xmlSetStructuredErrorFunc(NULL, NULL);
    xmlSetGenericErrorFunc(NULL, handleValidationError);
    xmlThrDefSetStructuredErrorFunc(NULL, NULL);
    xmlThrDefSetGenericErrorFunc(NULL, handleValidationError);

    result = xmlSchemaValidateDoc(validCtxt, xmlDocumentPointer);

leave:

    if (parserCtxt) {
        xmlSchemaFreeParserCtxt(parserCtxt);
    }

    if (schema) {
        xmlSchemaFree(schema);
    }

    if (validCtxt) {
        xmlSchemaFreeValidCtxt(validCtxt);
    }
    printf("\n");
    printf("Validation successful: %s (result: %d)\n", (result == 0) ? "YES" : "NO", result);

    return 0;
}

console output:

XSD File: /Users/dephiniteloop/Desktop/xml_validate/schema.xsd
XML File: /Users/dephiniteloop/Desktop/xml_validate/test.gkml

XML Source:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<foo xmlns="http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0">
</foo>

Validation Error: Element '{http://example.com/XMLSchema/1.0}foo': No matching global declaration available for the validation root.

Validation successful: NO (result: 1845)

In case it matters: I'm on OSX 10.6.7 with its default libxml2.dylib
(/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/lib/libxml2.2.7.3.dylib)