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3af4feb2 3
1ef57c94 4* Changes in version 2.5.1_rc1 (2012-05-14):
90dcd415 5
debe2c03 6** Future changes:
041308d0 7
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8 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in
9 K&R C.
ef51bfa7 10
466b4cf2 11** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
94556574 12
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13** glr.c improvements:
14
15*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
16
17 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when
18 locations were not requested, and therefore not even usable.
19
20*** __attribute__ is preserved:
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21
22 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined
23 (i.e., when -std is passed to GCC).
24
466b4cf2 25** lalr1.java: several fixes:
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26
27 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if
28 the first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
29
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30** C++11 compatibility:
31
32 C and C++ parsers use nullptr instead of 0 when __cplusplus is
33 201103L or higher.
34
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35** C++ locations:
36
37 The position and location constructors (and their initialize
38 methods) accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues
39 in the documentation were fixed.
40
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41** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
42
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43** Changes in the manual:
44
45*** %printer is documented
46
47 The %printer directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is
48 finally documented. The %mfcalc example is extended to demonstrate
49 its use of printer.
50
51 The C++ parsers now also support yyoutput (as an alias to
52 debug_stream ()) for consistency with the C skeletons.
53
54*** Several improvements have been made:
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55
56 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact
57 scheme. Named references are motivated. The description of the
58 automaton description file (*.output) is updated to the current
59 format. Incorrect index entries were fixed. Some other errors were
60 fixed.
61
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62** Building bison:
63
64*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
65
66 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex,
67 and some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function
68 prototypes.
466b4cf2 69
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70*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
71
72*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
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73
74 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of
75 tools such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself,
76 etc.
77
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78*** The install-pdf target work properly:
79
80 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no
81 longer halts in the middle of its course.
82
b2bc8a1b 83* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 84
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85** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
86
87 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
88 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
89 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
90 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
91 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
92
3b1977ea 93** Named references:
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94
95 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
96 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
97 actions code.
98
99 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
100 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
101 as named references:
102
ac3297d5 103 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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104 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
105
106 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
107
ac3297d5 108 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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109 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
110
f840c05a 111 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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112 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
113 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
114
f840c05a 115 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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116 will help to stabilize them.
117
3b1977ea 118** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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119
120 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
121 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 122 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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123 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
124 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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125 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
126 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
127 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
128 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
129
130 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
131 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
132 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
133 file with these directives:
134
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135 %define lr.type lalr
136 %define lr.type ielr
137 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 138
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139 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
140 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
141 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
142 manual.
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143
144 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
145 stabilize them.
146
6f04ee6c 147** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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148
149 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
150 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
151 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 152 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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153 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
154 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
155 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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156 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
157 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
158 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
159 tokens.
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160
161 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
162 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
163 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
164 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
165 inconsistent states.
166
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167 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
168 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
169 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
170 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
171 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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172 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
173 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
174 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
175 power.
176
177 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
178 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
179
180 %define parse.lac full
181
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182 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
183 details including a few caveats.
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184
185 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
186 stabilize it.
187
6ee881f6 188** %define improvements:
f37495f6 189
3b1977ea 190*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 191
34d41938 192 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 193
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194 -D NAME[=VALUE]
195 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
196
197 -F NAME[=VALUE]
198 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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199
200 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
201
34d41938 202 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 203
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204 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
205 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
206 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
ac3297d5 207 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 208
3b1977ea 209*** Variables renamed:
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210
211 The following %define variables
212
213 api.push_pull
214 lr.keep_unreachable_states
215
216 have been renamed to
217
218 api.push-pull
219 lr.keep-unreachable-states
220
221 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
222 for backward compatibility.
223
723206df 224*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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225
226 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
227 within quotations marks. For example,
228
229 %define api.push-pull "push"
230
231 can be rewritten as
232
233 %define api.push-pull push
234
6ee881f6 235*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 236
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237*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
238
239** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
240
241** Character literals not of length one:
242
243 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
244 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
245 the following grammar to be the same token:
246
247 exp: exp '++'
248 | exp '+' exp
249 ;
250
251 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
252 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
253
254** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
255
256 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
257 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
258 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
259 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
260
261** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
262
263 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
264 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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265 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
266 and `last' members, instead of
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267
268 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
269 do \
270 if (N) \
271 { \
272 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
273 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
274 } \
275 else \
276 { \
277 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
278 } \
279 while (false)
280
281 use:
282
283 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
284 do \
285 if (N) \
286 { \
287 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
288 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
289 } \
290 else \
291 { \
292 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
293 } \
294 while (false)
295
296** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
297
298 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
299 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
300 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
301 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 302
3b1977ea 303** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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304
305 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
306 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
307 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
308 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
309 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
310 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
311 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
312 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
313
3b1977ea 314** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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315
316 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
317 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
318 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
319 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
320
321 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
322
323 instead of
324
325 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
326
327 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
328 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
329 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
330 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
331 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
332 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
333 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
334
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335** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
336
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337 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
338 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
339 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
340 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
341 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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342
343*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
344 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
345 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
346 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
347 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
ac3297d5 348 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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349 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
350 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
351 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
352 shifted or discarded.
353
354*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
355 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
356 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
357 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
358
359*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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360 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
361 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
362 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
363 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
364 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
365 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
366 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
367 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
368 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
369 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
370 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
371 by default.
1fa30307 372
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373** Java skeleton fixes:
374
375*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
376
377*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
378 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 379
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380*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
381
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382** -W/--warnings fixes:
383
ac3297d5 384*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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385
386 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
387 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
388
389 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
390
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391*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
392
393 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
394 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
ac3297d5 395 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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396 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
397 example:
398
399 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
400 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
401 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
402 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
403
404 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
405 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
406 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
407 then have no effect on the conflict report.
408
ac3297d5 409*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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410
411 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
412 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
413
414 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
415
b2bc8a1b 416*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 417
ac3297d5 418 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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419 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
420 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
421 suppress all warnings:
422
423 bison -Wnone gram.y
424
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425** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
426
427 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
428 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
429 produced an assertion failure. For example:
430
431 %left END 0
432
433 This bug has been fixed.
434
7527c744 435* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 436
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437** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
438 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
439
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440** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
441 been fixed.
442
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443** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
444
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445** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
446 been fixed.
447
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448** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
449 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
450 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
451 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
452
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453** Minor documentation fixes.
454
ea66d039 455* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 456
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457** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
458 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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459 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
460 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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461 affected platforms.
462
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463** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
464
465 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
466 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
467 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
468 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
469 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
470 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
471 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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472 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
473 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 474
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475** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
476
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477** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
478 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
479 avoided.
af2ffe5c 480
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481** %code is now a permanent feature.
482
483 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
484
485 %{CODE%}
486
487 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
488 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
489
490 %code {CODE}
491 %code requires {CODE}
492 %code provides {CODE}
493 %code top {CODE}
494
495 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
496 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
497 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
498 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
499 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
500
501 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
502 is still considered experimental.
503
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504** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
505
506 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
507 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
508 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
509 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
510 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
511 specified by POSIX.
512
513 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
514 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
515 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
516 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
517 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
518 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
519 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
520
521 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
522
523 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
524 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
525 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
526 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
527 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
528 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
529 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
530 be removed altogether.
531
532 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
533 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
534 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
535 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
536 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
537 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
538 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
539 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
540 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
541 2.4.2 is not necessary.
542
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543** Internationalization.
544
545 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
546 message translations were not installed although supported by the
547 host system.
548
41930e7a 549* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 550
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551** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
552 declarations have been fixed.
553
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554** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
555
556 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
557 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
558
559 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
560
561 instead of
562
563 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
564
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565 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
566 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
567 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
568 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
569 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
570 feature.
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571
572** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 573
d6fb461d 574* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 575
d6fb461d 576** %language is an experimental feature.
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577
578 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
579 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
580 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
581 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
582 in future releases.
7bd1665a 583
d6fb461d 584** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 585
d6fb461d 586** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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587 fixed.
588
d6fb461d 589* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 590
d6fb461d 591** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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592 are now deprecated:
593
594 %define NAME "VALUE"
595
d6fb461d 596** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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597
598 %define api.pure
599
600 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
601 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
602
d6fb461d 603** Push Parsing
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604
605 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 606 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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607 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
608 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
609 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
610
611 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
612 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
613
614 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
615
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616 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
617 feedback will help to stabilize it.
618
d6fb461d 619** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
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620 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
621 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 622
d6fb461d 623** Java
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624
625 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
626 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
627 %skeleton to select it.
628
629 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
630
631 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
632 feedback will help to stabilize it.
633
d6fb461d 634** %language
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635
636 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
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637 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
638 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
639 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 640
d6fb461d 641** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
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642
643 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
644 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
645 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 646
d6fb461d 647** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
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648 %defines. For example:
649
650 %defines "parser.h"
651
d6fb461d 652** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
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653 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
654 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
655 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 656
d6fb461d 657** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
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658
659 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
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660 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
661 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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662
663 1. Removes unreachable states.
664
665 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
666 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
667 directives in existing grammar files.
668
669 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 670 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 671
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672 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
673
674 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
675
676 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
677 for further discussion.
678
d6fb461d 679** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 680
c373bf8b 681 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
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682 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
683 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
684 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
685 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
686 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
687 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
688 code.
689
d6fb461d 690** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 691 name.
1bb2bd75 692
d6fb461d 693** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
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694 deprecated:
695
696 %file-prefix "parser"
697 %name-prefix "c_"
698 %output "parser.c"
699
d6fb461d 700** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
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701
702 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
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703 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
704 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
705 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
706 it:
707
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708 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
709 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
710 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
711 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 712
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713 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
714 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
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715 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
716 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
717
718 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
719 determine whether they should become permanent features.
720
d6fb461d 721** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
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722
723 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
724 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
725 about unused $2 in:
726
727 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
728
729 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
730 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
731
732 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
733
734 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
735 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
736 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
737
59da312b 738 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
739 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
740
d6fb461d 741** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
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742
743 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
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744 %printer's:
745
746 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
747 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
748 declared semantic type tags.
749
3ebecc24 750 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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751 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
752 type tags.
753
754 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 755 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
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756 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
757 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
758
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759 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
760 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
761 features.
762
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763 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
764 details.
765
d6fb461d 766** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
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767 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
768 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
769
d6fb461d 770** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
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771 completely removed from Bison.
772
d6fb461d 773* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 774
d6fb461d 775** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
776 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
777 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
778 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
779 and is required by POSIX.
780
d6fb461d 781** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
782 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
783
d6fb461d 784** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
785
786 For example:
787
b2a0b7ca
JD
788 %union { char *string; }
789 %token <string> STRING1
790 %token <string> STRING2
791 %type <string> string1
792 %type <string> string2
793 %union { char character; }
794 %token <character> CHR
795 %type <character> chr
796 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
797 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
798 %destructor { } <character>
799
800 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
801 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
802 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
803 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
804 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 805
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806 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
807 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
808 future versions.]
809
d6fb461d 810** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
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811 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
812 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
813 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
814 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
815
d6fb461d 816** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 817 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
818
819 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
820 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
821 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
822 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 823 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 824
34f98f46 825 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
826 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
827 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
828 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
829 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
830 after the token definitions.
831
832 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
833 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
834
d6fb461d 835** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
836 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
837 %after-header.
838
839 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
840 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
841 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
842 convenient for you:
843
844 %before-header {
845 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
846 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
847 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
848 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
849 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
850 }
851 %start-header {
852 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
853 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
854 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
855 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
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856 }
857 %union {
34f98f46
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858 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
859 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
860 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 861 }
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862 %end-header {
863 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
864 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
865 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
866 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
867 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 868 }
34f98f46
JD
869 %after-header {
870 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
871 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
872 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
873 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
874 * Bison-generated definitions. */
875 }
876
877 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
878 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 879
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880 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
881 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
882
d6fb461d 883** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
884 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
885 in a future release.
742e4900 886
d6fb461d 887* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 888
d6fb461d 889** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
890 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
891
d6fb461d 892** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
893 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
894
d6fb461d 895* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 896
d6fb461d 897** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
898 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
899 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 900
d6fb461d 901** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 902
d6fb461d 903** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 904
d6fb461d 905** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
906 their contents together.
907
d6fb461d 908** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
909 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
910 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 911
8f3596a6 912 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
913 | exp "+" exp
914 ;
affac613 915
8f3596a6
AD
916 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
917 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 918 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 919
4e26c69e
PE
920 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
921 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
922 | exp "+" exp
923 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 924 ;
affac613 925
4e26c69e
PE
926 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
927 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
928 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 929
8f3596a6 930 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
931 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
932 ;
933
84866159
AD
934 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
935 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
936
937 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
938
721be13c
PE
939 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
940 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 941
d6fb461d 942** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
943 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
944 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
945 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 946
d6fb461d 947** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
948 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
949 instead of warnings.
950
d6fb461d 951** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
952 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
953 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 954
d6fb461d 955** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 956
d6fb461d 957** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
958 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
959 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 960
d6fb461d 961** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
962 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
963 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
964 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
965 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
966
967 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
968 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
969 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
970 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 971
b50d2359 972 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 973 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 974
d6fb461d 975** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 976\f
d6fb461d 977* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 978
d6fb461d 979** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 980
d6fb461d 981** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
982 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
983 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
984 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
985 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
986 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 987
d6fb461d 988** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
989 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
990 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
991 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
992
d6fb461d 993** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
994 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
995 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
996
d6fb461d 997** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
998 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
999 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1000 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1001 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1002\f
d6fb461d 1003* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1004
d6fb461d 1005** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1006
82de6b0d
PE
1007 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1008 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1009 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1010 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1011 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1012
82de6b0d
PE
1013 - Error token location.
1014 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1015 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1016 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1017 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1018
82de6b0d
PE
1019 - Semicolon changes:
1020 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1021 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1022
82de6b0d
PE
1023 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1024 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1025 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1026 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1027
82de6b0d 1028 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1029
d6fb461d 1030** New features
1452af69 1031
82de6b0d 1032 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1033
82de6b0d
PE
1034 - New directive: %initial-action.
1035 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1036 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1037
82de6b0d
PE
1038 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1039 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1040
82de6b0d
PE
1041 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1042 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1043
82de6b0d 1044 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 1045 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1046
82de6b0d 1047 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1048
82de6b0d
PE
1049 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1050 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1051
d6fb461d 1052** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1053
82de6b0d
PE
1054 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1055 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1056 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1057 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1058 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1059 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1060
82de6b0d
PE
1061 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1062 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1063
82de6b0d 1064 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1065\f
d6fb461d 1066* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1067
d6fb461d 1068** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1069 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1070
d6fb461d 1071** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1072
dc546b0f
PE
1073 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1074 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1075
dc546b0f
PE
1076 - %destructor
1077 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1078 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1079
dc546b0f
PE
1080 - %error-verbose
1081 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1082
dc546b0f
PE
1083 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1084 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1085
d6fb461d 1086** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1087
dc546b0f
PE
1088 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1089 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1090 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1091
dc546b0f
PE
1092 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1093 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1094 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1095 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1096 be consistent.
74724a70 1097
dc546b0f
PE
1098 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1099 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1100
dc546b0f
PE
1101 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1102 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1103
dc546b0f
PE
1104 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1105 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1106
dc546b0f
PE
1107 - Yacc command and library now available
1108 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1109 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1110 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1111 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1112
dc546b0f 1113 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1114
dc546b0f
PE
1115 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1116 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1117 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1118
d6fb461d 1119** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1120
dc546b0f
PE
1121 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1122 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1123 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1124 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1125 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1126 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1127
dc546b0f
PE
1128 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1129 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1130
dc546b0f
PE
1131 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1132 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1133
dc546b0f
PE
1134 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1135 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1136 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1137
d6fb461d 1138** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1139
dc546b0f
PE
1140 - GLR and inline
1141 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1142 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1143
dc546b0f
PE
1144 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1145 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1146
d6fb461d 1147** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1148 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1149 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1150
d6fb461d 1151** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1152 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1153
d6fb461d 1154** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1155 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1156 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1157 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1158\f
d6fb461d 1159* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1160
d6fb461d 1161** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1162
d6fb461d 1163** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1164
d6fb461d 1165** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1166 Fix spurious parse errors.
1167
d6fb461d 1168** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1169 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1170 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1171
d6fb461d 1172** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1173 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1174 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1175
1176 untyped: ... typed;
1177
1178 but the converse remains an error:
1179
1180 typed: ... untyped;
1181
d6fb461d 1182** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1183 The following code:
1184
1185 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1186
1187 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1188 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1189\f
d6fb461d 1190* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1191
d6fb461d 1192** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1193 The declaration
1194 %glr-parser
1195 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1196 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1197 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1198 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1199
7933f2b5 1200 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1201 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1202
d6fb461d 1203** Output Directory
8c165d89 1204 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1205 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1206 now creates `bar.c'.
1207
d6fb461d 1208** Undefined token
007a50a4 1209 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1210 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1211
d6fb461d 1212** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1213 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1214 no longer the case.
1215
d6fb461d 1216** Error token
e88dbdbf 1217 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1218 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1219 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1220 will be mapped onto another number.
1221
d6fb461d 1222** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1223 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1224 error recovery is possible.
1225
d6fb461d 1226** End token
217598da
AD
1227 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1228
d6fb461d 1229** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1230 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1231 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1232 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1233 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1234 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1235 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1236 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1237 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1238
d6fb461d 1239** Traces
5504898e
AD
1240 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1241
d6fb461d 1242** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1243 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1244 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1245 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1246 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1247
d6fb461d 1248** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1249 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1250 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1251 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1252
d6fb461d 1253** Useless rules
643a5994 1254 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1255 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1256
d6fb461d 1257** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1258 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1259
d6fb461d 1260** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1261 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1262 reported.
1263
d6fb461d 1264** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1265 On a grammar such as
1266
1267 %token useless useful
1268 %%
1269 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1270
1271 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1272 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1273
d6fb461d 1274** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1275 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1276
d6fb461d 1277** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1278 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1279 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1280 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1281 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1282
d6fb461d 1283** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1284 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1285 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1286 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1287 For instance
7bd6c77e 1288 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1289 or
7bd6c77e 1290 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1291
d6fb461d 1292** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1293 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1294
d6fb461d 1295** New translations
a861a339 1296 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1297 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1298
d6fb461d 1299** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1300 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1301
d6fb461d 1302** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1303 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1304 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1305 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1306
d6fb461d 1307** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1308 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1309 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1310 - itemset
1311 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1312 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1313 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1314 - solved
1315 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1316 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1317 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1318
d6fb461d 1319** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1320 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1321 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1322
1323 %type <foo> bar
1324 %%
1325 bar: '0' {} '0';
1326
1327 This is fixed.
a861a339 1328
d6fb461d 1329** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1330\f
d6fb461d 1331* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1332
d6fb461d 1333** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1334 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1335 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1336 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1337
1338 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1339 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1340 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1341 kludge will be disabled.
1342
1343 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1344 extended.
76551463 1345\f
d6fb461d 1346* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1347
d6fb461d 1348** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1349 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1350 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1351
d6fb461d 1352** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1353 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1354 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1355 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1356 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1357 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1358
d6fb461d 1359** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1360 many portability hassles.
1361
d6fb461d 1362** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1363
d6fb461d 1364** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1365\f
d6fb461d 1366* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1367
d6fb461d 1368** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1369 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1370 under some conditions.
1371
d6fb461d 1372** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1373 As is done with $n.
1374\f
d6fb461d 1375* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1376
d6fb461d 1377** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1378
d6fb461d 1379** Portability fixes
76551463 1380
d6fb461d 1381** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1382\f
d6fb461d 1383* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1384
d6fb461d 1385** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1386
d6fb461d 1387** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1388 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1389 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1390 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1391 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1392
d6fb461d 1393** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1394 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1395 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1396
1397 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1398 problems as on AIX.
1399
d6fb461d 1400** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1401
d6fb461d 1402** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1403 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1404
d6fb461d 1405** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1406 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1407 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1408 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1409
d6fb461d 1410** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1411 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1412 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1413
d6fb461d 1414** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1415 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1416
d6fb461d 1417** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1418 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1419
d6fb461d 1420** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1421 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1422
d6fb461d 1423** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1424 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1425 any warning.
1426
d6fb461d 1427** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1428
d6fb461d 1429** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1430
d6fb461d 1431** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1432
d6fb461d 1433** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1434 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1435 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1436 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1437
d6fb461d 1438** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1439 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1440 previous allocations were not freed.
1441
d6fb461d 1442** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1443 Some newlines were missing.
1444 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1445
d6fb461d 1446** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1447 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1448
d6fb461d 1449** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1450 Was not used.
1451 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1452
d6fb461d 1453** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1454
d6fb461d 1455** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1456
d6fb461d 1457** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1458
d6fb461d 1459** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1460 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1461
d6fb461d 1462** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1463
d6fb461d 1464** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1465 New.
1466
d6fb461d 1467** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1468 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1469\f
d6fb461d 1470* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1471
d6fb461d 1472** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1473 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1474 argument.
1475
d6fb461d 1476** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1477 experiment.
1478
d6fb461d 1479** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1480\f
d6fb461d 1481* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1482
d6fb461d 1483** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1484 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1485 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
7e508a2b 1486 `-Dconst='. Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 1487
d6fb461d 1488** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1489
d6fb461d 1490** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1491
d6fb461d 1492** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1493
d6fb461d 1494** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1495
d6fb461d 1496** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1497
d6fb461d 1498** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1499
d6fb461d 1500** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1501
d6fb461d 1502** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1503
d6fb461d 1504** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1505
d6fb461d 1506** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1507 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1508
d6fb461d 1509** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1510 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1511 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1512
d6fb461d 1513** @$
f987e9d2 1514 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1515\f
d6fb461d 1516* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1517
d6fb461d 1518** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1519
d6fb461d 1520** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1521
d6fb461d 1522** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1523
d6fb461d 1524** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1525\f
d6fb461d 1526* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1527
d6fb461d 1528** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1529 some systems has been fixed.
1530\f
d6fb461d 1531* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1532
7e508a2b 1533** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 1534
d6fb461d 1535** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1536
d6fb461d 1537** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1538
d6fb461d 1539** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1540
d6fb461d 1541** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1542
d6fb461d 1543** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1544
d6fb461d 1545** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1546 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1547\f
d6fb461d 1548* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1549
d6fb461d 1550** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1551the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1552
d6fb461d 1553** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 1554example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 1555of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 1556
d6fb461d 1557** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1558and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1559table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1560purposes.
1561
d6fb461d 1562** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1563directives in the parser file.
1564
d6fb461d 1565** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1566Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1567
d6fb461d 1568** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1569the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1570The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1571a switch statement body.
1572\f
d6fb461d 1573* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1574
4d019228
DM
1575The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1576passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1577actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1578by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1579
6780ca7a 1580Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1581\f
d6fb461d 1582* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1583
1584--help option added.
6780ca7a 1585\f
d6fb461d 1586* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1587
1588Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 1589
76551463
AD
1590-----
1591
c932d613 1592Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1593
8defe11b 1594This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1595
f16b0819 1596This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1597it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1598the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1599(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1600
f16b0819 1601This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1602but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1603MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1604GNU General Public License for more details.
1605
1606You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1607along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
1608
1609 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1610 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1611 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1612 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1613 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1614 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1615 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1616 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1617 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1618 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1619 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1620 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1621 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
1622 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG
1623 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
1624 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ
1625
1626Local Variables:
1627mode: outline
1628End: