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c++: variants: don't leak the lookahead in error recovery
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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
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3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
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5** Bug fixes
6
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7*** Named %union support
8
9 Bison 3.0 introduced a regression on named %union such as
10
11 %union foo { int ival; };
12
13 The possibility to use a name was introduced ``for Yacc compatibility''.
14 It is however not required by POSIX Yacc, and its usefulness is not clear.
15
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16*** %define api.value.type union with %defines
17
18 The yacc.c and glr.c parsers were broken when %defines was used
19 together with "%define api.value.type union".
20
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21*** Redeclarations are reported in proper order
22
23 On
24
25 %token FOO "foo"
26 %printer {} "foo"
27 %printer {} FOO
28
29 bison used to report:
30
31 /tmp/foo.yy:2.10-11: error: %printer redeclaration for FOO
32 %printer {} "foo"
33 ^^
34 /tmp/foo.yy:3.10-11: previous declaration
35 %printer {} FOO
36 ^^
37
38 Now, the "previous" declaration is always the first one.
39
0bd5ee5f 40
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41** Documentation
42
43 Bison now installs various files in its docdir (which defaults to
44 '/usr/local/share/doc/bison'), including the three fully blown examples
45 extracted from the documentation:
46
47 - rpcalc
48 Reverse polish calculator, a simple introductory example.
49 - mfcalc
50 Multi-function Calc, a calculator with memory and functions and located
51 error messages.
52 - calc++
53 a calculator in C++ using variant support and token constructors.
54
a3efd13e 55* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.2 (2013-12-05) [stable]
6d94eebb 56
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57** Bug fixes
58
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59*** Generated source files when errors are reported
60
61 When warnings are issued and -Werror is set, bison would still generate
62 the source files (*.c, *.h...). As a consequence, some runs of "make"
63 could fail the first time, but not the second (as the files were generated
64 anyway).
65
66 This is fixed: bison no longer generates this source files, but, of
67 course, still produces the various reports (*.output, *.xml, etc.).
68
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69*** %empty is used in reports
70
71 Empty right-hand sides are denoted by '%empty' in all the reports (text,
72 dot, XML and formats derived from it).
73
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74*** YYERROR and variants
75
76 When C++ variant support is enabled, an error triggered via YYERROR, but
77 not caught via error recovery, resulted in a double deletion.
6d94eebb 78
c2ecada3 79* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.1 (2013-11-12) [stable]
e386b50f 80
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81** Bug fixes
82
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83*** Errors in caret diagnostics
84
85 On some platforms, some errors could result in endless diagnostics.
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86
87*** Fixes of the -Werror option
88
89 Options such as "-Werror -Wno-error=foo" were still turning "foo"
90 diagnostics into errors instead of warnings. This is fixed.
91
92 Actually, for consistency with GCC, "-Wno-error=foo -Werror" now also
93 leaves "foo" diagnostics as warnings. Similarly, with "-Werror=foo
94 -Wno-error", "foo" diagnostics are now errors.
e386b50f 95
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96*** GLR Predicates
97
98 As demonstrated in the documentation, one can now leave spaces between
99 "%?" and its "{".
100
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101*** Installation
102
103 The yacc.1 man page is no longer installed if --disable-yacc was
104 specified.
105
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106*** Fixes in the test suite
107
108 Bugs and portability issues.
109
534497f5 110* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0 (2013-07-25) [stable]
facb910c 111
8458a411 112** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 113
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114 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
115 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
116 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
117
8458a411 118** Backward incompatible changes
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119
120*** Obsolete features
121
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122 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
123
124 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
125 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
126
127 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
128 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 129
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130 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
131 in the release 2.5).
132
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133*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
134
135 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
136 Bison extensions.
137
138 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
139 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
140 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
141
142 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
143 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
144 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
145 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
146 warnings for Bison extensions.
147
148 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
149 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
150 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
151 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
152
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153** Bug fixes
154
c21e515e 155*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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156
157 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
158 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
159 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
160 preprocessor expansion:
161
162 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
163
6c7022f7 164 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
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165 identifiers for user-provided variables.
166
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167*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
168
169 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
170 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
171
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172*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
173
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174** Diagnostics reported by Bison
175
176 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
177 Santet.
73370a9d 178
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179*** Carets
180
181 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
182 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
183 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
184
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185 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
186 the caret information only. For instance on:
187
188 %%
189 exp: 'a' | 'a';
190
191 Bison 2.7 reports:
192
193 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
194 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
195
196 Now bison reports:
197
198 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
199 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
200 exp: 'a' | 'a';
201 ^^^
202
203 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
204
205 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
206 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
207
1048a1c9 208*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 209
1048a1c9 210 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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211 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
212 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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213
214 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 215 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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216 errors (and only those):
217
218 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
219
220 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
221 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
222
223 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
224
225 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
226
227 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
228 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
229
230 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
231 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
232 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 233
46bdb8ec 234*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 235
46bdb8ec 236 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 237
46bdb8ec 238 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 239
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240 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
241 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 242 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 243
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244 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
245 with failure):
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246
247 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 248 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 249
46bdb8ec 250 it now reports:
1048a1c9 251
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252 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
253
254*** Deprecated constructs
255
256 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
257 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
258 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
259
73370a9d 260*** Useless semantic types
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261
262 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
263 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
264 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
265 types that trigger the warning:
266
267 %token <type1> term
268 %type <type2> nterm
269 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
270 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
271 %%
272 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
273
274 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
275 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
276
31557b9e 277*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 278
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279 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
280 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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281
282 %printer {} symbol1
283 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 284 %type <type> symbol3
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285 %%
286 exp: "a";
287
73370a9d 288*** Useless destructors or printers
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289
290 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
291 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
292 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
293 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
294
295 %token <type1> token1
296 <type2> token2
297 <type3> token3
298 <type4> token4
299 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
300 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
301
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302*** Conflicts
303
304 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
305 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
306
307 %glr-parser
308 %%
309 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
310
311 compare the previous version of bison:
312
313 $ bison foo.y
314 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
315 $ bison -Werror foo.y
316 bison: warnings being treated as errors
317 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
318
319 with the new behavior:
320
321 $ bison foo.y
322 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
323 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
324 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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325 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
326 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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327
328 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
329
330 %expect 0
331 %glr-parser
332 %%
333 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
334
335 Former behavior:
336
337 $ bison bar.y
338 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
339 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
340 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
341
342 New one:
343
344 $ bison bar.y
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345 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
346 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 347
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348** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
349
350 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
351 with '-Wyacc'.
352
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353** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
354
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355 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
356 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
357 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 358
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359 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
360 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
361 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
362 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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363
364 one may now declare
365
e436fa67 366 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 367
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368** Types of values for %define variables
369
370 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
371 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
372 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
373 foo {bar}'.
374
375 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
376
377 %define lr.type lalr
378
379 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
380
381 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
382
383 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
384
2a6b66c5 385** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 386
2a6b66c5 387 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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388 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
389 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
390
e436fa67 391 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 392 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
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393 %%
394 start: FILE for ERROR;
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395
396 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
397 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
398 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
399 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
400
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401** Variable api.value.type
402
403 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
404 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
405 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
406
407 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
408
409 %union
410 {
411 int ival;
412 char *sval;
413 }
414 %token <ival> INT "integer"
415 %token <sval> STRING "string"
416 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
417 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
418
419 /* In yylex(). */
420 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
421 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
422
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423 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
424
425 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 426 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 427 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 428
435575cb 429 %define api.value.type union
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430 %token <int> INT "integer"
431 %token <char *> STRING "string"
432 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
433 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
434
435 /* In yylex(). */
436 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
437 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
438
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439 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
440 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 441
435575cb 442 %define api.value.type variant
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443 %token <int> INT "integer"
444 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
445
630a0218 446 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 447 used to be used.
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448
449 %code requires
450 {
451 struct my_value
452 {
453 enum
454 {
455 is_int, is_string
456 } kind;
457 union
458 {
459 int ival;
460 char *sval;
461 } u;
462 };
463 }
435575cb 464 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
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465 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
466 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
467 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
468 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
469
470 /* In yylex(). */
471 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
472 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
473
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474** Variable parse.error
475
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476 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
477 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
478 verbose".
31b850d2 479
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480** Renamed %define variables
481
482 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
483 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
484
485 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
486 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
487 namespace -> api.namespace
488 stype -> api.value.type
489
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490** Semantic predicates
491
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492 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
493
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494 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
495 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 496 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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497 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
498 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
499 expressions.
ca2a6d15 500
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501** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
502
503 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
504 reduce/reduce conflicts.
505
5202b6ac 506** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 507
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508 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
509
510 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
511 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
512 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
513 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
514
515 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
516 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
517 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
518
519 %right A B 'c' 'd'
520
521 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
522 input order is now preserved.
523
524 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
525 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
526 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 527
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528** Useless precedence and associativity
529
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530 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
531
1282c124 532 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
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533 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
534 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
535 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
536 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
537 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
538 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
539
540*** Precedence warning category
541
542 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
543 useless precedence and associativity directives.
544
545*** Useless associativity
546
547 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
548 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
549 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
550 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
551 For example:
552
553 %left '+'
554 %left '*'
555 %%
556 exp:
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557 "number"
558 | exp '+' "number"
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559 | exp '*' exp
560 ;
561
562 will produce a
563
564 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
565 %left '+'
566 ^^^
567
568*** Useless precedence
569
570 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
571 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
572 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
573 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
574
575 %precedence '='
576 %%
1282c124 577 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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578
579 will produce a
580
581 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
582 %precedence '='
583 ^^^
584
585*** Useless precedence and associativity
586
587 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
588 as follows:
589
590 %nonassoc '='
591 %%
1282c124 592 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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593
594 The warning is:
595
596 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
597 %nonassoc '='
598 ^^^
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599
600** Empty rules
601
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602 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
603
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604 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
605 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
606 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
607 %empty. On the following grammar:
608
609 %%
610 s: a b c;
611 a: ;
612 b: %empty;
613 c: 'a' %empty;
614
615 bison reports:
616
617 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
618 a: {}
619 ^^
620 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
621 c: 'a' %empty {};
622 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 623
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624** Java skeleton improvements
625
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626 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
627 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
628 and "%define init_throws".
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629 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
630
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631 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
632 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
633
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634** C++ skeletons improvements
635
636*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
637
638 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
639 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
640 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
641
642*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
643
644 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
645
646*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
647
648 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
649 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
650 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
651 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
652 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
653 factory invoked by the user actions).
654
655*** %define api.value.type variant
656
657 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
658 from Théophile Ranquet.
659
660 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
661 instance:
662
663 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
664 %token <int> NUMBER;
665 %token SEMICOLON ";"
666 %type <::std::string> item;
667 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
668 %%
669 result:
670 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
671 ;
672
673 list:
6240346a 674 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
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675 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
676 ;
677
678 item:
679 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
680 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
681 ;
682
683*** %define api.token.constructor
684
685 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
686 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
687 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
688
689 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
690 {
691 parser::location_type loc = ...;
692 ...
693 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
694 ...
695 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
696 ...
697 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
698 ...
699 }
700
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701*** C++ locations
702
703 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
704 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
705
1f5542fe 706* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
cc8962bd 707
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708** Bug fixes
709
710*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
711
712 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 713
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714*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
715
c13bb348 716* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 717
edf9a06f 718** Bug fixes
7bada535 719
edf9a06f 720 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 721
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722 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
723
d4fe9e88 724** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 725
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726 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
727
d4fe9e88 728*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 729
d4fe9e88 730 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 731
d4fe9e88
AD
732 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
733 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 734
d4fe9e88 735 It is now:
1f1bd572 736
d4fe9e88
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737 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
738 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 739
d4fe9e88 740*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 741
d4fe9e88 742 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 743
d4fe9e88
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744 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
745 %type <sval> exp
746 ^^^^^^
747 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
748 %type <ival> exp
749 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 750
d4fe9e88 751 or
cbaea010 752
7bada535 753 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 754 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 755 ^^^^
fb6040f0
TR
756 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
757 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
758 ^^^
759 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
760 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
761 ^^^
762 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
763 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
764 ^^^
7bada535 765
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766 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
767 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
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768 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
769 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 770
1f1bd572 771** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 772
1f1bd572 773 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
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774 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
775 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
776 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
777 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
778 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
779
780 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
781 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 782
7287be84 783** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
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784
785 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
786 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
787 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
788 then responsible to define her type.
789
790 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
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791 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
792 them.
db8ab2be
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793
794 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
795 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
796 compatibility).
797
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798 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
799 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
800 api.position.type.
801
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802** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
803
804 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
805 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
806 before re-throwing the exception.
807
808 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
809 appreciated.
810
9c16d399 811** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 812
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813 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
814
fc4fdd62
TR
815 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
816 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
817 numbered and left-justified.
818
819 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
820 diamond shaped nodes.
821
9c16d399
TR
822 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
823 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
824
d4fe9e88 825** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 826
d4fe9e88
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827 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
828 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 829
53e2cd1e
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830** Documentation
831
832 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
833 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 834
d4fe9e88
AD
835 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
836 were not properly documented.
837
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838 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
839
9d3f7eaf 840* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 841
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842 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
843 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
844 reporting them to us.
845
846** Bug fixes
847
848 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
849 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
850 3.2.
851
852 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 853
1282c124 854 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 855
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856 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
857 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
858
0ac15849 859* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 860
468455e1 861 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 862
6eb8f74f 863* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 864
6b4cb804
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865** Bug fixes
866
a1a77e1f 867 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
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868
869 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
870 users to the appropriate place to report them.
871
872 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
873
874 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
875 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 876
a2b3f101
TR
877 All the generated headers are self-contained.
878
c9d5bcc9
AD
879** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
880
881 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
882 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
883 For instance the header generated from
884
885 %define api.prefix "calc"
886 %defines "lib/parse.h"
887
888 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
889
c12c4c50 890** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
321d3e35
AD
891
892 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
893 warnings such as:
894
895 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
896 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
897 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
898 *++yyvsp = yylval;
899 ^
900
901 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
902
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903 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
904 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
905 addressed.
906
e1eeecd3 907* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 908
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AD
909** Bug fixes
910
911 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
912 suite have been fixed.
913
c9d546b2
AD
914** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
915
916 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
917 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 918
dcd5344d
AD
919** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
920
921 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
922
77b214ef 923* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 924
8617d87e
AD
925 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
926
e20e6a50
AD
927** Future Changes
928
929 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
930 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
931 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
932
933 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
934
935 write:
936
937 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
938
8617d87e
AD
939** Bug fixes
940
0e164d43
AD
941*** Type names are now properly escaped.
942
943*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 944
26313726
AD
945*** Stray @ or $ in actions
946
947 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
948 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
949 now does.
950
cd735a8c 951** Type names in actions
4982f078
AD
952
953 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 954 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
AD
955
956 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
957
958 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 959 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 960
1505e8bb 961* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 962
d0a30438 963** Future changes
9553083c 964
55d1006f
AD
965 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
966 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 967
aaf61036 968*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
AD
969
970 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 971 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
AD
972 compilers.
973
258cddbc 974*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 975
258cddbc
AD
976 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
977 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 978
258cddbc
AD
979 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
980 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
981
982 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
983 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
984
985*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
986
987 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
988 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
989 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
990 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
991 it.
0f11eec2 992
c2425191 993** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 994
258cddbc 995*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
996
997 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 998 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 999
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AD
1000 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
1001 # define YY_FOO_H
1002 ...
1003 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 1004
258cddbc 1005*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
1006
1007 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
1008 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
1009
e29f0771 1010 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
1011
1012 rather than
1013
e29f0771
AD
1014 #define yyparse bar_parse
1015 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
1016
1017 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
1018 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 1019
258cddbc
AD
1020*** Exported symbols in C++
1021
1022 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
1023 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
1024 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
1025
694af10c
AD
1026*** YYLSP_NEEDED
1027
1028 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
1029 longer defined.
1030
4b3847c3
AD
1031** New %define variable: api.prefix
1032
1033 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
1034 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
1035 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
1036 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
1037 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
1038 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
1039 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
1040
1041 The following examples compares both:
1042
1043 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
1044 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
1045 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
1046 %% %%
1047 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
1048
1049 bison generates:
1050
1051 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
1052 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
1053
1054 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
1055 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
1056 > # if defined YYDEBUG
1057 > # if YYDEBUG
1058 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
1059 > # else
1060 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1061 > # endif
1062 > # else
1063 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1064 > # endif
1065 # endif | # endif
1066
1067 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
1068 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
1069 # endif # endif
1070
1071 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
1072 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
1073 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
1074 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
1075 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
1076 }; };
1077 # endif # endif
1078
1079 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
1080 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
1081 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
1082 { {
1083 int ival; int ival;
1084 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
1085 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
1086 #endif #endif
1087
1088 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
1089
1090 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
1091
1092 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
1093
dfaac272 1094* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 1095
debe2c03 1096** Future changes:
765e1bd4 1097
e4ab1254 1098 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 1099
466b4cf2 1100** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 1101
d834eca0 1102** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 1103
d834eca0 1104*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 1105
e4ab1254
AD
1106 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1107 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 1108
d834eca0 1109*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 1110
e4ab1254
AD
1111 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1112 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1113
466b4cf2 1114** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1115
e4ab1254
AD
1116 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1117 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1118
22172d47 1119** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1120
22172d47 1121*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1122
e4ab1254
AD
1123 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1124 or higher.
936c88d1 1125
22172d47
AD
1126*** Header guards
1127
1128 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1129 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1130
e29f0771
AD
1131 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1132 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1133 ...
1134 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1135
1136 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1137 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1138 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1139
1140 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1141
e29f0771
AD
1142 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1143 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1144 ...
1145 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1146
1147*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1148
e4ab1254
AD
1149 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1150 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1151 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1152
466b4cf2
AD
1153** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1154
7e508a2b
AD
1155** Changes in the manual:
1156
1157*** %printer is documented
1158
e4ab1254
AD
1159 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1160 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1161
e4ab1254
AD
1162 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1163 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1164
1165*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1166
e4ab1254
AD
1167 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1168 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1169 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1170 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1171
86b08b49
AD
1172** Building bison:
1173
1174*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1175
e4ab1254
AD
1176 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1177 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1178
8ef26c2a
AD
1179*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1180
1181*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1182
e4ab1254
AD
1183 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1184 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1185
91aadcc7 1186*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1187
e4ab1254
AD
1188 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1189 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1190
28801043 1191* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1192
82f3355e
JD
1193** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1194
1195 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1196 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1197 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1198 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1199 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1200
f1b238df 1201** Named references:
66381412
AR
1202
1203 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1204 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1205 actions code.
1206
1207 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1208 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1209 as named references:
1210
4b568fc0 1211 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1212 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1213
1214 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1215
4b568fc0 1216 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1217 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1218
5b1ff423 1219 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1220 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1221 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1222
5b1ff423 1223 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1224 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1225 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1226
f1b238df 1227** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1228
1229 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1230 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1231 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1232 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1233 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
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1234 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1235 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1236 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1237 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1238
1239 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1240 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1241 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1242 file with these directives:
1243
cf499cff
JD
1244 %define lr.type lalr
1245 %define lr.type ielr
1246 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1247
7fceb615 1248 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
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1249 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1250 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1251 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1252
1253 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1254 stabilize them.
1255
8458a411
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1256** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1257
1258 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1259
1260 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1261 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1262 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1263 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1264 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1265 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1266 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1267 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1268 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
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1269 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1270 tokens.
fcf834f9
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1271
1272 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1273 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1274 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1275 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1276 inconsistent states.
1277
7fceb615
JD
1278 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1279 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1280 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1281 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1282 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
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1283 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1284 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1285 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1286 power.
1287
1288 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1289 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1290
1291 %define parse.lac full
1292
e4ab1254 1293 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1294 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1295
1296 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1297 stabilize it.
1298
d397d9f0 1299** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1300
f1b238df 1301*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1302
de5ab940 1303 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1304
de5ab940
JD
1305 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1306 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1307
1308 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1309 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1310
1311 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1312
de5ab940 1313 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1314
de5ab940
JD
1315 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1316 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1317 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1318 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1319
f1b238df 1320*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1321
1322 The following %define variables
1323
1324 api.push_pull
1325 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1326
1327 have been renamed to
1328
1329 api.push-pull
1330 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1331
1332 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1333 for backward compatibility.
1334
7262f54f 1335*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1336
1337 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1338 within quotations marks. For example,
1339
1340 %define api.push-pull "push"
1341
1342 can be rewritten as
1343
1344 %define api.push-pull push
1345
d397d9f0 1346*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1347
d397d9f0
JD
1348*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1349
1350** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1351
1352** Character literals not of length one:
1353
1354 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1355 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1356 the following grammar to be the same token:
1357
1358 exp: exp '++'
1359 | exp '+' exp
1360 ;
1361
1362 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1363 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1364
1365** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1366
1367 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1368 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1369 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1370 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1371
1372** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1373
1374 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1375 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
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1376 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1377 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1378
e29f0771
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1379 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1380 do \
1381 if (N) \
1382 { \
1383 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1384 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1385 } \
1386 else \
1387 { \
1388 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1389 } \
1390 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1391
1392 use:
1393
e29f0771
AD
1394 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1395 do \
1396 if (N) \
1397 { \
1398 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1399 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1400 } \
1401 else \
1402 { \
1403 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1404 } \
1405 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1406
1407** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1408
1409 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1410 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1411 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1412 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1413
f1b238df 1414** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1415
1416 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1417 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1418 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1419 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1420 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1421 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1422 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1423 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1424
f1b238df 1425** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1426
1427 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1428 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1429 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1430 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1431
1432 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1433
1434 instead of
1435
1436 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1437
1438 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1439 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1440 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1441 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1442 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1443 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1444 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1445
d2060f06
JD
1446** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1447
e4ab1254 1448 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1449 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1450 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1451 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1452 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1453
1454*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1455 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1456 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1457 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1458 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1459 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1460 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1461 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1462 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1463 shifted or discarded.
1464
1465*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1466 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1467 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1468 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1469
1470*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1471 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1472 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1473 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1474 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1475 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1476 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1477 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1478 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1479 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1480 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1481 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1482 by default.
53f036ce 1483
1a33f4f6
JD
1484** Java skeleton fixes:
1485
1486*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1487
1488*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1489 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1490
02803d55
JD
1491*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1492
86408959
JD
1493** -W/--warnings fixes:
1494
e4ab1254 1495*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1496
1497 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1498 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1499
1500 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1501
786743d5
JD
1502*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1503
1504 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1505 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1506 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1507 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1508 example:
1509
1510 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1511 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1512 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1513 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1514
1515 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1516 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1517 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1518 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1519
e4ab1254 1520*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1521
1522 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1523 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1524
1525 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1526
e4ab1254 1527*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1528
e4ab1254 1529 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1530 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1531 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1532 suppress all warnings:
1533
1534 bison -Wnone gram.y
1535
1f36f544
JD
1536** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1537
1538 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1539 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1540 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1541
1542 %left END 0
1543
1544 This bug has been fixed.
1545
64877e5e 1546* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1547
2bfcac9a
JD
1548** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1549 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1550
8b9e021f
JD
1551** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1552 been fixed.
1553
4ad3921d
JD
1554** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1555
06cb07d5
JD
1556** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1557 been fixed.
1558
9b5049bd
JD
1559** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1560 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1561 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1562 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1563
93d7dde9
JD
1564** Minor documentation fixes.
1565
e19a049c 1566* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1567
f39ab286
JD
1568** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1569 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1570 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1571 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1572 affected platforms.
1573
e4ab1254 1574** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1575
1576 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1577 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1578 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1579 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1580 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1581 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1582 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1583 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1584 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1585
d8911864
EB
1586** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1587
a603c6e0
JD
1588** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1589 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1590 avoided.
c938d650 1591
98a345a2
JD
1592** %code is now a permanent feature.
1593
1594 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1595
1596 %{CODE%}
1597
1598 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1599 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1600
1601 %code {CODE}
1602 %code requires {CODE}
1603 %code provides {CODE}
1604 %code top {CODE}
1605
1606 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1607 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1608 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1609 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1610 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1611
1612 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1613 is still considered experimental.
1614
1625df5b
JD
1615** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1616
1617 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1618 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1619 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1620 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1621 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1622 specified by POSIX.
1623
1624 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1625 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1626 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1627 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1628 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1629 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1630 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1631
1632 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1633
1634 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1635 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1636 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1637 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1638 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1639 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1640 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1641 be removed altogether.
1642
1643 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1644 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1645 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1646 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1647 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1648 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1649 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1650 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1651 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1652 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1653
2755de8f
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1654** Internationalization.
1655
1656 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1657 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1658 host system.
1659
74553c98 1660* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1661
0ea583d2
AD
1662** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1663 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1664
0ea583d2
AD
1665** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1666
1667 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1668 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1669
1670 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1671
1672 instead of
1673
1674 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1675
e4ab1254 1676 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1677 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1678 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1679 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1680 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1681 feature.
1682
1683** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1684
402b123d 1685* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1686
402b123d 1687** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1688
1689 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1690 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1691 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1692 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1693 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1694
402b123d 1695** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1696
402b123d 1697** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1698 fixed.
1699
402b123d 1700* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1701
402b123d 1702** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1703 are now deprecated:
1704
1705 %define NAME "VALUE"
1706
e4ab1254 1707** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1708
1709 %define api.pure
1710
1711 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1712 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1713
402b123d 1714** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1715
1716 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1717 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1718 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1719 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1720 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1721
1722 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1723 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1724
e4ab1254 1725 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1726
59da312b
JD
1727 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1728 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1729
402b123d 1730** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1731 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1732 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1733
402b123d 1734** Java
59da312b
JD
1735
1736 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1737 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1738 %skeleton to select it.
1739
e4ab1254 1740 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1741
1742 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1743 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1744 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1745
402b123d 1746** %language
59da312b
JD
1747
1748 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1749 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1750 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1751 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1752
402b123d 1753** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1754
1755 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1756 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1757 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1758 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1759
402b123d 1760** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1761 %defines. For example:
1762
1763 %defines "parser.h"
1764
402b123d 1765** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1766 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1767 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1768 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1769
402b123d 1770** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1771
1772 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1773 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1774 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1775
1776 1. Removes unreachable states.
1777
1778 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1779 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1780 directives in existing grammar files.
1781
1782 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1783 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1784
31984206
JD
1785 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1786
1787 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1788
e4ab1254 1789 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
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1790 for further discussion.
1791
e4ab1254 1792** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1793
e4ab1254
AD
1794 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1795 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1796 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1797 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1798 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1799 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1800 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1801 code.
1802
e4ab1254 1803** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1804 name.
1bb2bd75 1805
e4ab1254 1806** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1807 deprecated:
1808
1809 %file-prefix "parser"
1810 %name-prefix "c_"
1811 %output "parser.c"
1812
e4ab1254 1813** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1814
1815 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1816 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1817 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1818 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1819 it:
1820
e4ab1254
AD
1821 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1822 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1823 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1824 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1825
e4ab1254
AD
1826 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1827 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1828 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1829 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1830
1831 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1832 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1833
402b123d 1834** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1835
1836 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1837 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1838 about unused $2 in:
1839
1840 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1841
1842 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1843 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1844
1845 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1846
1847 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1848 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1849 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1850
e4ab1254
AD
1851 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1852 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1853
e4ab1254 1854** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1855
1856 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1857 %printer's:
1858
e4ab1254 1859 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1860 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1861 declared semantic type tags.
1862
e4ab1254 1863 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1864 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1865 type tags.
1866
e4ab1254
AD
1867 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1868 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1869 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1870 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1871
85894313
JD
1872 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1873 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1874 features.
1875
e4ab1254 1876 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1877 details.
1878
402b123d 1879** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1880 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1881 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1882
402b123d 1883** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1884 completely removed from Bison.
1885
402b123d 1886* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1887
402b123d 1888** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1889 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1890 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1891 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1892 and is required by POSIX.
1893
402b123d 1894** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1895 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1896
402b123d 1897** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1898
1899 For example:
1900
b2a0b7ca
JD
1901 %union { char *string; }
1902 %token <string> STRING1
1903 %token <string> STRING2
1904 %type <string> string1
1905 %type <string> string2
1906 %union { char character; }
1907 %token <character> CHR
1908 %type <character> chr
1909 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1910 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1911 %destructor { } <character>
1912
1913 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1914 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1915 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1916 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1917 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1918
85894313
JD
1919 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1920 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1921 future versions.]
1922
e4ab1254
AD
1923** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1924 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1925 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1926 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1927 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1928
402b123d 1929** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1930 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1931
1932 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1933 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1934 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1935 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1936 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1937
34f98f46 1938 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1939 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1940 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1941 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1942 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1943 after the token definitions.
1944
1945 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1946 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1947
402b123d 1948** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1949 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1950 %after-header.
1951
1952 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1953 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1954 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1955 convenient for you:
1956
1957 %before-header {
1958 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1959 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1960 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1961 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1962 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1963 }
1964 %start-header {
1965 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1966 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1967 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1968 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1969 }
1970 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1971 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1972 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1973 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1974 }
34f98f46
JD
1975 %end-header {
1976 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1977 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1978 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1979 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1980 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1981 }
34f98f46
JD
1982 %after-header {
1983 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1984 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1985 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1986 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1987 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1988 }
1989
1990 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1991 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1992
85894313
JD
1993 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1994 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1995
e4ab1254 1996** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1997 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1998 in a future release.
742e4900 1999
402b123d 2000* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 2001
e4ab1254 2002** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
2003 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
2004
402b123d 2005** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
2006 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
2007
402b123d 2008* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 2009
402b123d 2010** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
2011 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
2012 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 2013
402b123d 2014** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 2015
402b123d 2016** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 2017
402b123d 2018** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
2019 their contents together.
2020
402b123d 2021** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
2022 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
2023 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 2024
8f3596a6 2025 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
2026 | exp "+" exp
2027 ;
affac613 2028
8f3596a6
AD
2029 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
2030 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 2031 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 2032
4e26c69e 2033 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
2034 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
2035 | exp "+" exp
2036 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
2037 ;
affac613 2038
4e26c69e
PE
2039 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
2040 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
2041 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 2042
8f3596a6 2043 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
2044 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
2045 ;
721be13c 2046
84866159
AD
2047 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
2048 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
2049
2050 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
2051
721be13c
PE
2052 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
2053 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 2054
402b123d 2055** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
2056 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
2057 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
2058 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 2059
402b123d 2060** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
2061 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
2062 instead of warnings.
2063
402b123d 2064** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
2065 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
2066 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 2067
e4ab1254 2068** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 2069
402b123d 2070** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
2071 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
2072 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 2073
402b123d 2074** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
2075 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
2076 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
2077 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
2078 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
2079
2080 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 2081 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
2082 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
2083 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 2084
b50d2359 2085 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 2086 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 2087
402b123d 2088** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 2089\f
402b123d 2090* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 2091
402b123d 2092** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 2093
402b123d 2094** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
2095 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
2096 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
2097 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
2098 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
2099 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 2100
402b123d 2101** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
2102 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
2103 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2104 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2105
402b123d 2106** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
2107 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2108 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2109
402b123d 2110** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2111 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2112 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2113 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2114 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2115\f
402b123d 2116* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2117
402b123d 2118** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2119
82de6b0d
PE
2120 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2121 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2122 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2123 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2124 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2125
82de6b0d
PE
2126 - Error token location.
2127 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2128 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2129 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2130 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2131
82de6b0d
PE
2132 - Semicolon changes:
2133 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2134 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2135
82de6b0d
PE
2136 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2137 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2138 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2139 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2140
82de6b0d 2141 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2142
402b123d 2143** New features
1452af69 2144
82de6b0d 2145 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2146
82de6b0d
PE
2147 - New directive: %initial-action.
2148 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2149 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2150
82de6b0d
PE
2151 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2152 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2153
e4ab1254 2154 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2155 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2156
e4ab1254 2157 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2158 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2159
82de6b0d 2160 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2161
82de6b0d
PE
2162 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2163 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2164
402b123d 2165** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2166
82de6b0d
PE
2167 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2168 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2169 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2170 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2171 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2172 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2173
82de6b0d
PE
2174 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2175 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2176
82de6b0d 2177 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2178\f
402b123d 2179* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2180
402b123d 2181** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2182 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2183
402b123d 2184** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2185
dc546b0f
PE
2186 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2187 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2188
dc546b0f
PE
2189 - %destructor
2190 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2191 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2192
dc546b0f
PE
2193 - %error-verbose
2194 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2195
dc546b0f
PE
2196 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2197 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2198
402b123d 2199** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2200
dc546b0f
PE
2201 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2202 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2203 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2204
e4ab1254
AD
2205 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2206 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2207 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2208 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2209 be consistent.
74724a70 2210
dc546b0f
PE
2211 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2212 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2213
dc546b0f
PE
2214 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2215 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2216
dc546b0f
PE
2217 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2218 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2219
dc546b0f 2220 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2221 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2222 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2223 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2224 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2225
dc546b0f 2226 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2227
dc546b0f
PE
2228 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2229 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2230 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2231
402b123d 2232** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2233
e4ab1254
AD
2234 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2235 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2236 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2237 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2238 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2239 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2240
e4ab1254 2241 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2242 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2243
dc546b0f 2244 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2245 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2246
e4ab1254 2247 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2248 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2249 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2250
402b123d 2251** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2252
dc546b0f
PE
2253 - GLR and inline
2254 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2255 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2256
e4ab1254
AD
2257 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2258 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2259
18ad57b3
AD
2260** %parse-param and %lex-param
2261 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2262 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2263 shortcomings:
2264
2265 - a single argument only can be added,
2266 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2267 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2268 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2269
2270 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2271 For instance:
2272
2273 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2274 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2275 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2276
2277 results in the following signatures:
2278
2279 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2280 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2281
2282 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2283
2284 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2285 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2286
402b123d 2287** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2288 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2289 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2290
402b123d 2291** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2292 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2293
402b123d 2294** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2295 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2296 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2297 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2298\f
402b123d 2299* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2300
402b123d 2301** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2302
402b123d 2303** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2304
402b123d 2305** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2306 Fix spurious parse errors.
2307
402b123d 2308** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2309 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2310 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2311
402b123d 2312** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2313 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2314 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2315
e9690142 2316 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2317
2318 but the converse remains an error:
2319
e9690142 2320 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2321
402b123d 2322** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2323 The following code:
2324
e9690142 2325 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2326
2327 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2328 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2329\f
402b123d 2330* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2331
402b123d 2332** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2333 The declaration
2334 %glr-parser
2335 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2336 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2337 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2338 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2339
7933f2b5 2340 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2341 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2342
402b123d 2343** Output Directory
8c165d89 2344 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2345 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2346 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2347
402b123d 2348** Undefined token
007a50a4 2349 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2350 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2351
402b123d 2352** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2353 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2354 no longer the case.
2355
402b123d 2356** Error token
e88dbdbf 2357 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2358 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2359 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2360 will be mapped onto another number.
2361
402b123d 2362** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2363 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2364 error recovery is possible.
2365
402b123d 2366** End token
e4ab1254 2367 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2368
402b123d 2369** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2370 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2371 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2372 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2373 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2374 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2375 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2376 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2377 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2378
402b123d 2379** Traces
5504898e
AD
2380 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2381
402b123d 2382** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2383 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2384 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2385 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2386 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2387
402b123d 2388** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2389 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2390 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2391 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2392
402b123d 2393** Useless rules
643a5994 2394 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2395 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2396
402b123d 2397** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2398 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2399
402b123d 2400** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2401 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2402 reported.
2403
e4ab1254 2404** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2405 On a grammar such as
2406
e29f0771
AD
2407 %token useless useful
2408 %%
2409 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2410
2411 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2412 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2413
402b123d 2414** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2415 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2416
402b123d 2417** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2418 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2419 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2420 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2421 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2422
402b123d 2423** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2424 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2425 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2426 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2427 For instance
e29f0771 2428 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2429 or
e29f0771 2430 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2431
402b123d 2432** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2433 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2434
402b123d 2435** New translations
a861a339 2436 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2437 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2438
402b123d 2439** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2440 When given
2441 %token 'a' "A"
2442 bison used to output
2443 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2444
402b123d 2445** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2446 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2447 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2448 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2449
402b123d 2450** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2451 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2452 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2453 - itemset
2454 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2455 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2456 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2457 - solved
2458 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2459 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2460 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2461
402b123d 2462** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2463 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2464 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2465
e29f0771
AD
2466 %type <foo> bar
2467 %%
2468 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2469
2470 This is fixed.
a861a339 2471
402b123d 2472** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2473\f
402b123d 2474* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2475
402b123d 2476** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2477 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2478 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2479 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2480
2481 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2482 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2483 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2484 kludge will be disabled.
2485
2486 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2487 extended.
76551463 2488\f
402b123d 2489* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2490
402b123d 2491** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2492 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2493 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2494
e4ab1254 2495** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2496 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2497 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2498 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2499 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2500 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2501
402b123d 2502** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2503 many portability hassles.
2504
402b123d 2505** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2506
402b123d 2507** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2508\f
402b123d 2509* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2510
402b123d 2511** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2512 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2513 under some conditions.
2514
402b123d 2515** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2516 As is done with $n.
2517\f
402b123d 2518* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2519
402b123d 2520** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2521
402b123d 2522** Portability fixes
76551463 2523
402b123d 2524** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2525\f
402b123d 2526* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2527
402b123d 2528** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2529
402b123d 2530** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2531 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2532 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2533 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2534 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2535
402b123d 2536** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2537 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2538 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2539
2540 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2541 problems as on AIX.
2542
402b123d 2543** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2544
402b123d 2545** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2546 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2547
402b123d 2548** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2549 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2550 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2551 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2552
402b123d 2553** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2554 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2555 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2556
402b123d 2557** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2558 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2559
402b123d 2560** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2561 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2562
402b123d 2563** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2564 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2565
402b123d 2566** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2567 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2568 any warning.
2569
402b123d 2570** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2571
402b123d 2572** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2573
402b123d 2574** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2575
402b123d 2576** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2577 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2578 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2579 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2580
402b123d 2581** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2582 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2583 previous allocations were not freed.
2584
402b123d 2585** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2586 Some newlines were missing.
2587 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2588
402b123d 2589** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2590 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2591
402b123d 2592** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2593 Was not used.
2594 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2595
402b123d 2596** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2597
402b123d 2598** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2599
402b123d 2600** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2601
402b123d 2602** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2603 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2604
402b123d 2605** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2606
402b123d 2607** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2608 New.
2609
402b123d 2610** --output
e4ab1254 2611 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2612\f
402b123d 2613* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2614
e4ab1254
AD
2615** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2616 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2617 argument.
2618
e4ab1254 2619** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2620 experiment.
2621
402b123d 2622** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2623\f
402b123d 2624* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2625
402b123d 2626** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2627 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2628 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2629 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2630
e4ab1254 2631** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2632
402b123d 2633** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2634
402b123d 2635** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2636
402b123d 2637** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2638
402b123d 2639** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2640
402b123d 2641** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2642
e4ab1254 2643** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2644
e4ab1254 2645** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2646
e4ab1254 2647** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2648
402b123d 2649** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2650 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2651
402b123d 2652** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2653 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2654 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2655
402b123d 2656** @$
f987e9d2 2657 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2658\f
402b123d 2659* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2660
402b123d 2661** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2662
402b123d 2663** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2664
402b123d 2665** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2666
402b123d 2667** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2668\f
402b123d 2669* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2670
402b123d 2671** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2672 some systems has been fixed.
2673\f
402b123d 2674* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2675
7e508a2b 2676** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2677
402b123d 2678** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2679
402b123d 2680** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2681
402b123d 2682** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2683
402b123d 2684** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2685
402b123d 2686** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2687
402b123d 2688** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2689 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2690\f
402b123d 2691* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2692
402b123d 2693** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2694the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2695
402b123d 2696** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2697example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2698of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2699
402b123d 2700** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2701and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2702table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2703purposes.
2704
402b123d 2705** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2706directives in the parser file.
2707
402b123d 2708** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2709Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2710
402b123d 2711** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2712the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2713The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2714a switch statement body.
2715\f
402b123d 2716* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2717
4d019228
DM
2718The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2719passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2720actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2721by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2722
6780ca7a 2723Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2724\f
402b123d 2725* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2726
2727--help option added.
6780ca7a 2728\f
402b123d 2729* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2730
2731Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2732
76551463
AD
2733-----
2734
3209eb1c 2735Copyright (C) 1995-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2736
74553c98 2737This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2738
f16b0819 2739This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2740it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2741the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2742(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2743
f16b0819 2744This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2745but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2746MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2747GNU General Public License for more details.
2748
2749You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2750along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2751
2752 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2753 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2754 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2755 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2756 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2757 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2758 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2759 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2760 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2761 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2762 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2763 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2764 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2765 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2766 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2767 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2768 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2769 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
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2770 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2771 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2772 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2773 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2774 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2775 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
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2776
2777Local Variables:
2778mode: outline
e4ab1254 2779fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2780End: