#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; use warnings; use XML::Twig;

my $xml=join('',<DATA>);
my $t=XML::Twig->new(
    twig_handlers => {
        '/gibsonca/item//*' => \&warn_on_empty_elt, #all descendants of item
        'item' => sub { $_[0]->purge; }, #purge if it is item tag
    },
);
$t->parse($xml);

sub warn_on_empty_elt {
    my( $twig, $elt)= @_;
    if ($elt->children_trimmed_text eq ''){
        printf "empty tag gi=%s,line col=%s,%s\n",
            $elt->gi, $twig->current_line,$twig->current_column;
    }
}

__DATA__
<gibsonca>
<item>
<abc>fds <test>   </test></abc> <!-- test not ok -->
<ddd></ddd> <!-- not ok -->
<eee> </eee> <!-- not ok -->
</item>
<item>
</item>
</gibsonca>