diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/XmlCliTest.java b/pmd-xml/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/XmlCliTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a3c0412a83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/XmlCliTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+/*
+ * BSD-style license; for more info see http://pmd.sourceforge.net/license.html
+ */
+
+package net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.xml;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import net.sourceforge.pmd.cli.BaseCLITest;
+
+public class XmlCliTest extends BaseCLITest {
+    private static final String BASE_DIR = "src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject";
+    private static final String RULE_MESSAGE = "A tags are not allowed";
+
+    private String[] createArgs(String directory, String ... args) {
+        List<String> arguments = new ArrayList<>();
+        arguments.add("-f");
+        arguments.add("text");
+        arguments.add("-no-cache");
+        arguments.add("-R");
+        arguments.add(BASE_DIR + "/ruleset.xml");
+        arguments.add("-d");
+        arguments.add(BASE_DIR + directory);
+        arguments.addAll(Arrays.asList(args));
+        return arguments.toArray(new String[0]);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void analyzeSingleXmlWithoutForceLanguage() {
+        String resultFilename = runTest(createArgs("/src/file1.ext"), "analyzeSingleXmlWithoutForceLanguage", 0);
+        assertRuleMessage(0, resultFilename);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void analyzeSingleXmlWithForceLanguage() {
+        String resultFilename = runTest(createArgs("/src/file1.ext", "-force-language", "xml"),
+            "analyzeSingleXmlWithForceLanguage", 4);
+        assertRuleMessage(1, resultFilename);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void analyzeDirectoryWithForceLanguage() {
+        String resultFilename = runTest(createArgs("/src/", "-force-language", "xml"),
+            "analyzeDirectoryWithForceLanguage", 4);
+        assertRuleMessage(3, resultFilename);
+    }
+
+    private void assertRuleMessage(int expectedCount, String resultFilename) {
+        try {
+            String result = FileUtils.readFileToString(new File(resultFilename), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+            Assert.assertEquals(expectedCount, StringUtils.countMatches(result, RULE_MESSAGE));
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new AssertionError(e);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/ruleset.xml b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/ruleset.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4f3cdbfd95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/ruleset.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+
+<ruleset name="sample"
+         xmlns="http://pmd.sourceforge.net/ruleset/2.0.0"
+         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         xsi:schemaLocation="http://pmd.sourceforge.net/ruleset/2.0.0 https://pmd.sourceforge.io/ruleset_2_0_0.xsd">
+
+    <description>
+Sample
+    </description>
+
+    <rule name="A"
+          language="xml"
+          message="A tags are not allowed"
+          class="net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.rule.XPathRule">
+        <description>
+A tags are not allowed
+        </description>
+        <priority>3</priority>
+        <properties>
+            <property name="version" value="2.0"/>
+            <property name="xpath">
+                <value>
+<![CDATA[
+//a
+]]>
+                </value>
+            </property>
+        </properties>
+    </rule>
+</ruleset>
diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file1.ext b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file1.ext
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..70c5b81e76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file1.ext
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!-- BSD-style license; for more info see http://pmd.sourceforge.net/license.html -->
+<file>
+  <a></a>
+</file>
diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file2.ext b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file2.ext
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1e53662113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file2.ext
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!-- BSD-style license; for more info see http://pmd.sourceforge.net/license.html -->
+<file>
+  <a></a>
+  <a></a>
+</file>
diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file3.txt b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file3.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f9b28b06e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file3.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+BSD-style license; for more info see http://pmd.sourceforge.net/license.html
+
+Other file that is not a xml file.
diff --git a/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file4.ext b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file4.ext
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bab5e698dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-xml/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/xml/cli-tests/sampleproject/src/file4.ext
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!-- BSD-style license; for more info see http://pmd.sourceforge.net/license.html -->
+<file>
+</file>