I'm sure someone's going to pipe up with one of the XML::* modules that I don't recall offhand but you could use xmllint (which most expat or xmllib installs should come with) and it's --format option to get at least started. 

$ xmllint --format --pretty 1 sample_txt.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<root>
  <para>
    <pnum>1</pnum>
    <ptext>This is a sample of a very specific text <emph>called</emph
+> <term>description</term> which has 2 subtypes: <list><item><term>1.
+</term><p>precise</p></item><item><term>2.</term><p>fuzzy</p></item><
+/list></ptext>
  </para>
</root>

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In reply to Re: Indent XML data by Fletch
in thread Indent XML data by LexPl

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