< i t e m 1 / > LF < i t e m 2 / > LF < i t e m 3 / > LF ##

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< i t e m 1 / > LF LF < i t e m 3 / > LF

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use strict;
use warnings;
use open ':std', ':locale';

use XML::LibXML qw( XML_TEXT_NODE );

sub remove_newline_that_follows {
   my ($node) = @_;
   my $next_node = $node->nextSibling()
      or return;
   $next_node->nodeType() == XML_TEXT_NODE
      or return;
   my $text = $next_node->data();
   $text eq ""
      and return remove_newline_that_follows($next_node);
   $text =~ s/^\n//
      and $next_node->setData($text);
}

sub remove_node {
   my ($node) = @_;
   $node->parentNode()->removeChild($node);
}


my $doc = XML::LibXML->load_xml( string => <<'__EOI__' );





__EOI__

my $root = $doc->documentElement();

my ($node) = $root->findnodes('//item2') or die;
remove_newline_that_follows($node);
remove_node($node);

print $root->toString();

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my ($next_node) = $node->findnodes(
      'following-sibling::*[ position()=1 and text() ]')
   or return;

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my ($next_node) = $node->findnodes(
      'following-sibling::node()[ position()=1 and self::text() ]')
   or return;

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my $next_node = $node->nextSibling()
   or return;
$next_node->nodeType() == XML_TEXT_NODE
   or return;