]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blame - NEWS
maint: word changes
[bison.git] / NEWS
CommitLineData
ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
933ec544
AD
3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
6b4cb804
AD
5** Bug fixes
6
7 Bugs in the test suite have been fixed.
8
9 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
10 users to the appropriate place to report them.
11
12 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
13
14 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
15 generated, are removed.
933ec544 16
a2b3f101
TR
17 All the generated headers are self-contained.
18
5a05f42e 19** Changes in the format of error messages
cbaea010
TR
20
21 This used to be the format of many error reports:
22
23 foo.y:5.10-24: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
24 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
25
26 It is now:
27
28 foo.y:5.10-25: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
29 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
30
c9d5bcc9
AD
31** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
32
33 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
34 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
35 For instance the header generated from
36
37 %define api.prefix "calc"
38 %defines "lib/parse.h"
39
40 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
41
e1eeecd3 42* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 43
43ca8040
AD
44** Bug fixes
45
46 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
47 suite have been fixed.
48
c9d546b2
AD
49** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
50
51 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
52 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 53
dcd5344d
AD
54** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
55
56 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
57
77b214ef 58* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 59
cbaea010 60 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
8617d87e 61
e20e6a50
AD
62** Future Changes
63
64 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
65 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
66 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
67
68 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
69
70 write:
71
72 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
73
8617d87e
AD
74** Bug fixes
75
0e164d43
AD
76*** Type names are now properly escaped.
77
78*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 79
26313726
AD
80*** Stray @ or $ in actions
81
82 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
83 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
84 now does.
85
cd735a8c 86** Type names in actions
4982f078
AD
87
88 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 89 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
AD
90
91 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
92
93 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 94 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
4982f078 95
1505e8bb 96* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
ad6b775f 97
c2425191 98** Future Changes
0f11eec2 99
55d1006f
AD
100 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
101 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 102
aaf61036 103*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
AD
104
105 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 106 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
AD
107 compilers.
108
258cddbc 109*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
55d1006f 110
258cddbc
AD
111 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
112 YYLTYPE.
55d1006f 113
258cddbc
AD
114 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
115 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
116
117 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
118 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
119
120*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
121
122 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
123 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
124 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
125 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
126 it.
0f11eec2 127
c2425191 128** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 129
258cddbc 130*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
131
132 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 133 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 134
e29f0771
AD
135 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
136 # define YY_FOO_H
137 ...
138 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 139
258cddbc 140*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
141
142 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
143 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
144
e29f0771 145 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
146
147 rather than
148
e29f0771
AD
149 #define yyparse bar_parse
150 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
151
152 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
153 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 154
258cddbc
AD
155*** Exported symbols in C++
156
157 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
158 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
159 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
160
694af10c
AD
161*** YYLSP_NEEDED
162
163 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
164 longer defined.
165
4b3847c3
AD
166** New %define variable: api.prefix
167
168 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
169 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
170 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
171 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
172 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
173 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
174 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
175
176 The following examples compares both:
177
178 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
179 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
180 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
181 %% %%
182 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
183
184 bison generates:
185
186 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
187 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
188
189 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
190 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
191 > # if defined YYDEBUG
192 > # if YYDEBUG
193 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
194 > # else
195 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
196 > # endif
197 > # else
198 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
199 > # endif
200 # endif | # endif
201
202 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
203 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
204 # endif # endif
205
206 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
207 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
208 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
209 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
210 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
211 }; };
212 # endif # endif
213
214 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
215 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
216 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
217 { {
218 int ival; int ival;
219 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
220 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
221 #endif #endif
222
223 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
224
225 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
226
227 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
228
dfaac272 229* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
90dcd415 230
debe2c03 231** Future changes:
041308d0 232
e4ab1254 233 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
ef51bfa7 234
466b4cf2 235** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
94556574 236
d834eca0
AD
237** glr.c improvements:
238
239*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
240
e4ab1254
AD
241 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
242 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
d834eca0
AD
243
244*** __attribute__ is preserved:
debe2c03 245
e4ab1254
AD
246 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
247 when -std is passed to GCC).
debe2c03 248
466b4cf2 249** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 250
e4ab1254
AD
251 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
252 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 253
22172d47
AD
254** Changes for C++:
255
256*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 257
e4ab1254
AD
258 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
259 or higher.
ef51bfa7 260
22172d47
AD
261*** Header guards
262
263 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
264 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
265
e29f0771
AD
266 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
267 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
268 ...
269 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
270
271 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
272 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
273 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
274
275 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
276
e29f0771
AD
277 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
278 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
279 ...
280 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
281
282*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 283
e4ab1254
AD
284 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
285 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
286 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 287
466b4cf2
AD
288** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
289
7e508a2b
AD
290** Changes in the manual:
291
292*** %printer is documented
293
e4ab1254
AD
294 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
295 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 296
e4ab1254
AD
297 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
298 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
299
300*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 301
e4ab1254
AD
302 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
303 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
304 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
305 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 306
86b08b49
AD
307** Building bison:
308
309*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
310
e4ab1254
AD
311 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
312 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 313
8ef26c2a
AD
314*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
315
316*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 317
e4ab1254
AD
318 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
319 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 320
91aadcc7 321*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 322
e4ab1254
AD
323 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
324 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 325
b2bc8a1b 326* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 327
eb8c66bb
JD
328** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
329
330 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
331 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
332 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
333 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
334 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
335
3b1977ea 336** Named references:
348f5608
AR
337
338 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
339 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
340 actions code.
341
342 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
343 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
344 as named references:
345
ac3297d5 346 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
348f5608
AR
347 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
348
349 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
350
ac3297d5 351 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
348f5608
AR
352 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
353
f840c05a 354 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
348f5608
AR
355 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
356 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
357
f840c05a 358 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
348f5608
AR
359 will help to stabilize them.
360
3b1977ea 361** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
34a6c2d1
JD
362
363 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
364 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 365 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
3b1977ea
JD
366 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
367 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
34a6c2d1
JD
368 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
369 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
370 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
371 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
372
373 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
374 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
375 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
376 file with these directives:
377
f37495f6
JD
378 %define lr.type lalr
379 %define lr.type ielr
380 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 381
6f04ee6c 382 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
383 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
384 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
6f04ee6c 385 manual.
34a6c2d1
JD
386
387 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
388 stabilize them.
389
6f04ee6c 390** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
4c38b19e
JD
391
392 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
393 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
394 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 395 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
4c38b19e
JD
396 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
397 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
398 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
6f04ee6c 399 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 400 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
6f04ee6c
JD
401 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
402 tokens.
4c38b19e
JD
403
404 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
405 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
406 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
407 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
408 inconsistent states.
409
6f04ee6c
JD
410 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
411 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
412 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
413 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
414 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
4c38b19e
JD
415 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
416 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
417 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
418 power.
419
420 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
421 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
422
423 %define parse.lac full
424
e4ab1254 425 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
6f04ee6c 426 details including a few caveats.
4c38b19e
JD
427
428 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
429 stabilize it.
430
6ee881f6 431** %define improvements:
f37495f6 432
3b1977ea 433*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 434
34d41938 435 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 436
34d41938
JD
437 -D NAME[=VALUE]
438 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
439
440 -F NAME[=VALUE]
441 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
4ecd3681
JD
442
443 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
444
34d41938 445 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 446
34d41938
JD
447 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
448 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
449 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 450 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 451
3b1977ea 452*** Variables renamed:
812775a0
JD
453
454 The following %define variables
455
456 api.push_pull
457 lr.keep_unreachable_states
458
459 have been renamed to
460
461 api.push-pull
462 lr.keep-unreachable-states
463
464 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
465 for backward compatibility.
466
723206df 467*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
f37495f6
JD
468
469 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
470 within quotations marks. For example,
471
472 %define api.push-pull "push"
473
474 can be rewritten as
475
476 %define api.push-pull push
477
6ee881f6 478*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 479
6ee881f6
JD
480*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
481
482** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
483
484** Character literals not of length one:
485
486 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
487 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
488 the following grammar to be the same token:
489
490 exp: exp '++'
491 | exp '+' exp
492 ;
493
494 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
495 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
496
497** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
498
499 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
500 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
501 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
502 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
503
504** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
505
506 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
507 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
AD
508 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
509 and "last" members, instead of
6ee881f6 510
e29f0771
AD
511 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
512 do \
513 if (N) \
514 { \
515 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
516 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
517 } \
518 else \
519 { \
520 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
521 } \
522 while (false)
6ee881f6
JD
523
524 use:
525
e29f0771
AD
526 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
527 do \
528 if (N) \
529 { \
530 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
531 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
532 } \
533 else \
534 { \
535 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
536 } \
537 while (false)
6ee881f6
JD
538
539** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
540
541 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
542 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
543 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
544 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 545
3b1977ea 546** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
62efdd2a
JD
547
548 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
549 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
550 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
551 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
552 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
553 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
554 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
555 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
556
3b1977ea 557** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
a2d05674
JD
558
559 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
560 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
561 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
562 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
563
564 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
565
566 instead of
567
568 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
569
570 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
571 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
572 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
573 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
574 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
575 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
576 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
577
095a1d11
JD
578** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
579
e4ab1254 580 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
6f04ee6c
JD
581 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
582 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
583 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
584 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
095a1d11
JD
585
586*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
587 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
588 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
589 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
590 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 591 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
095a1d11
JD
592 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
593 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
594 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
595 shifted or discarded.
596
597*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
598 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
599 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
600 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
601
602*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
4c38b19e
JD
603 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
604 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
605 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
606 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
607 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
608 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
609 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
610 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
611 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
612 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
613 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
614 by default.
1fa30307 615
4c2a6e42
JD
616** Java skeleton fixes:
617
618*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
619
620*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
621 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 622
f0e2c228
JD
623*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
624
248dba53
JD
625** -W/--warnings fixes:
626
e4ab1254 627*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
248dba53
JD
628
629 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
630 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
631
632 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
633
6f8bdce2
JD
634*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
635
636 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
637 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 638 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
6f8bdce2
JD
639 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
640 example:
641
642 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
643 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
644 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
645 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
646
647 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
648 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
649 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
650 then have no effect on the conflict report.
651
e4ab1254 652*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
dab96632
JD
653
654 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
655 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
656
657 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
658
e4ab1254 659*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 660
e4ab1254 661 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
8ffd7912
JD
662 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
663 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
664 suppress all warnings:
665
666 bison -Wnone gram.y
667
9d6af153
JD
668** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
669
670 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
671 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
672 produced an assertion failure. For example:
673
674 %left END 0
675
676 This bug has been fixed.
677
7527c744 678* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 679
4631c34f
JD
680** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
681 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
682
7a9c3cb3
JD
683** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
684 been fixed.
685
132247cd
JD
686** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
687
88bb35d6
JD
688** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
689 been fixed.
690
43fdc9fd
JD
691** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
692 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
693 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
694 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
695
cf22447c
JD
696** Minor documentation fixes.
697
ea66d039 698* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 699
47fa5747
JD
700** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
701 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
ea66d039
JD
702 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
703 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
47fa5747
JD
704 affected platforms.
705
e4ab1254 706** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
2c203528
JD
707
708 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
709 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
710 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
711 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
712 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
713 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
714 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
43fdc9fd
JD
715 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
716 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 717
c5196098
EB
718** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
719
34731471
JD
720** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
721 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
722 avoided.
af2ffe5c 723
966aba65
JD
724** %code is now a permanent feature.
725
726 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
727
728 %{CODE%}
729
730 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
731 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
732
733 %code {CODE}
734 %code requires {CODE}
735 %code provides {CODE}
736 %code top {CODE}
737
738 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
739 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
740 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
741 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
742 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
743
744 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
745 is still considered experimental.
746
41d35e54
JD
747** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
748
749 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
750 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
751 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
752 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
753 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
754 specified by POSIX.
755
756 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
757 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
758 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
759 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
760 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 761 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
41d35e54
JD
762 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
763
764 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
765
766 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
767 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
768 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
769 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
770 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
771 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 772 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
41d35e54
JD
773 be removed altogether.
774
775 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
776 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
777 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
778 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
779 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 780 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
41d35e54
JD
781 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
782 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
783 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
784 2.4.2 is not necessary.
785
dac8cc0d
AD
786** Internationalization.
787
788 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
789 message translations were not installed although supported by the
790 host system.
791
41930e7a 792* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 793
a957d06c
JD
794** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
795 declarations have been fixed.
796
738cde3e
AD
797** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
798
799 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
800 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
801
802 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
803
804 instead of
805
806 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
807
e4ab1254 808 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
d07932ef
JD
809 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
810 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
811 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
812 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
813 feature.
a957d06c
JD
814
815** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 816
d6fb461d 817* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 818
d6fb461d 819** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
820
821 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
822 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
823 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
824 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
825 in future releases.
7bd1665a 826
d6fb461d 827** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 828
d6fb461d 829** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
830 fixed.
831
d6fb461d 832* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 833
d6fb461d 834** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
835 are now deprecated:
836
837 %define NAME "VALUE"
838
e4ab1254 839** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
840
841 %define api.pure
842
843 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
844 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
845
d6fb461d 846** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
847
848 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
849 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
850 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
851 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
852 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
853
854 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
855 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
856
e4ab1254 857 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 858
59da312b
JD
859 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
860 feedback will help to stabilize it.
861
d6fb461d 862** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
863 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
864 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 865
d6fb461d 866** Java
59da312b
JD
867
868 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 869 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
870 %skeleton to select it.
871
e4ab1254 872 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
873
874 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
875 feedback will help to stabilize it.
876
d6fb461d 877** %language
59da312b
JD
878
879 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
880 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
881 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
882 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 883
d6fb461d 884** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
885
886 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 887 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 888 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 889
d6fb461d 890** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
891 %defines. For example:
892
893 %defines "parser.h"
894
d6fb461d 895** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
896 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
897 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
898 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 899
d6fb461d 900** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
901
902 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
903 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
904 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
905
906 1. Removes unreachable states.
907
908 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
909 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
910 directives in existing grammar files.
911
912 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 913 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 914
31984206
JD
915 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
916
917 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
918
e4ab1254 919 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
920 for further discussion.
921
e4ab1254 922** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 923
e4ab1254
AD
924 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
925 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
926 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
927 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
928 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
929 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 930 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
931 code.
932
e4ab1254 933** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 934 name.
1bb2bd75 935
e4ab1254 936** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
937 deprecated:
938
939 %file-prefix "parser"
940 %name-prefix "c_"
941 %output "parser.c"
942
e4ab1254 943** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
944
945 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
946 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
947 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
948 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
949 it:
950
e4ab1254
AD
951 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
952 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
953 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
954 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 955
e4ab1254
AD
956 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
957 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
958 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
959 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
960
961 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
962 determine whether they should become permanent features.
963
d6fb461d 964** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
965
966 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
967 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
968 about unused $2 in:
969
970 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
971
972 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
973 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
974
975 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
976
977 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
978 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
979 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
980
e4ab1254
AD
981 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
982 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 983
e4ab1254 984** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
985
986 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
987 %printer's:
988
e4ab1254 989 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
990 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
991 declared semantic type tags.
992
e4ab1254 993 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
994 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
995 type tags.
996
e4ab1254
AD
997 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
998 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
999 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1000 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1001
85894313
JD
1002 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1003 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1004 features.
1005
e4ab1254 1006 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1007 details.
1008
d6fb461d 1009** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1010 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1011 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1012
d6fb461d 1013** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1014 completely removed from Bison.
1015
d6fb461d 1016* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1017
d6fb461d 1018** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1019 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1020 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1021 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1022 and is required by POSIX.
1023
d6fb461d 1024** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1025 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1026
d6fb461d 1027** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1028
1029 For example:
1030
b2a0b7ca
JD
1031 %union { char *string; }
1032 %token <string> STRING1
1033 %token <string> STRING2
1034 %type <string> string1
1035 %type <string> string2
1036 %union { char character; }
1037 %token <character> CHR
1038 %type <character> chr
1039 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1040 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1041 %destructor { } <character>
1042
1043 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1044 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1045 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1046 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1047 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1048
85894313
JD
1049 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1050 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1051 future versions.]
1052
e4ab1254
AD
1053** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1054 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1055 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1056 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1057 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1058
d6fb461d 1059** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1060 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1061
1062 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1063 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1064 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1065 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1066 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1067
34f98f46 1068 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1069 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1070 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1071 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1072 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1073 after the token definitions.
1074
1075 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1076 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1077
d6fb461d 1078** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1079 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1080 %after-header.
1081
1082 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1083 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1084 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1085 convenient for you:
1086
1087 %before-header {
1088 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1089 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1090 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1091 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1092 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1093 }
1094 %start-header {
1095 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1096 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1097 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1098 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1099 }
1100 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1101 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1102 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1103 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1104 }
34f98f46
JD
1105 %end-header {
1106 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1107 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1108 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1109 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1110 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1111 }
34f98f46
JD
1112 %after-header {
1113 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1114 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1115 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1116 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1117 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1118 }
1119
1120 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1121 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1122
85894313
JD
1123 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1124 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1125
e4ab1254 1126** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1127 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1128 in a future release.
742e4900 1129
d6fb461d 1130* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1131
e4ab1254 1132** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1133 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1134
d6fb461d 1135** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1136 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1137
d6fb461d 1138* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1139
d6fb461d 1140** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1141 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1142 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1143
d6fb461d 1144** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1145
d6fb461d 1146** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1147
d6fb461d 1148** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1149 their contents together.
1150
d6fb461d 1151** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1152 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1153 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1154
8f3596a6 1155 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e29f0771
AD
1156 | exp "+" exp
1157 ;
affac613 1158
8f3596a6
AD
1159 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1160 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1161 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1162
4e26c69e 1163 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e29f0771
AD
1164 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1165 | exp "+" exp
1166 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1167 ;
affac613 1168
4e26c69e
PE
1169 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1170 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1171 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1172
8f3596a6 1173 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e29f0771
AD
1174 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1175 ;
721be13c 1176
84866159
AD
1177 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1178 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1179
1180 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1181
721be13c
PE
1182 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1183 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1184
d6fb461d 1185** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1186 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1187 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1188 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1189
d6fb461d 1190** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1191 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1192 instead of warnings.
1193
d6fb461d 1194** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1195 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1196 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1197
e4ab1254 1198** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1199
d6fb461d 1200** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1201 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1202 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1203
d6fb461d 1204** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1205 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1206 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1207 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1208 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1209
1210 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1211 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1212 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1213 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1214
b50d2359 1215 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1216 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1217
d6fb461d 1218** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1219\f
d6fb461d 1220* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1221
d6fb461d 1222** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1223
d6fb461d 1224** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1225 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1226 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1227 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1228 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1229 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1230
d6fb461d 1231** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1232 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1233 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1234 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1235
d6fb461d 1236** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1237 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1238 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1239
d6fb461d 1240** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
1241 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1242 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1243 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1244 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1245\f
d6fb461d 1246* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1247
d6fb461d 1248** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1249
82de6b0d
PE
1250 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1251 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1252 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1253 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1254 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1255
82de6b0d
PE
1256 - Error token location.
1257 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1258 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1259 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1260 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1261
82de6b0d
PE
1262 - Semicolon changes:
1263 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1264 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1265
82de6b0d
PE
1266 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1267 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1268 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1269 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1270
82de6b0d 1271 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1272
d6fb461d 1273** New features
1452af69 1274
82de6b0d 1275 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1276
82de6b0d
PE
1277 - New directive: %initial-action.
1278 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1279 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1280
82de6b0d
PE
1281 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1282 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1283
e4ab1254 1284 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 1285 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1286
e4ab1254 1287 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 1288 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1289
82de6b0d 1290 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1291
82de6b0d
PE
1292 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1293 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1294
d6fb461d 1295** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1296
82de6b0d
PE
1297 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1298 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1299 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1300 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1301 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1302 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1303
82de6b0d
PE
1304 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1305 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1306
82de6b0d 1307 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1308\f
d6fb461d 1309* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1310
d6fb461d 1311** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1312 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1313
d6fb461d 1314** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1315
dc546b0f
PE
1316 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1317 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1318
dc546b0f
PE
1319 - %destructor
1320 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1321 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1322
dc546b0f
PE
1323 - %error-verbose
1324 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1325
dc546b0f
PE
1326 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1327 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1328
d6fb461d 1329** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1330
dc546b0f
PE
1331 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1332 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1333 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1334
e4ab1254
AD
1335 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1336 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1337 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1338 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 1339 be consistent.
74724a70 1340
dc546b0f
PE
1341 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1342 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1343
dc546b0f
PE
1344 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1345 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1346
dc546b0f
PE
1347 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1348 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1349
dc546b0f 1350 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 1351 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
1352 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1353 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1354 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1355
dc546b0f 1356 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1357
dc546b0f
PE
1358 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1359 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1360 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1361
d6fb461d 1362** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1363
e4ab1254
AD
1364 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1365 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1366 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1367 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1368 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 1369 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1370
e4ab1254 1371 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 1372 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1373
dc546b0f 1374 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 1375 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 1376
e4ab1254 1377 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
1378 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1379 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1380
d6fb461d 1381** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1382
dc546b0f
PE
1383 - GLR and inline
1384 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 1385 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 1386
e4ab1254
AD
1387 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1388 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1389
18ad57b3
AD
1390** %parse-param and %lex-param
1391 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1392 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1393 shortcomings:
1394
1395 - a single argument only can be added,
1396 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 1397 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
1398 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1399
1400 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1401 For instance:
1402
1403 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1404 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1405 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1406
1407 results in the following signatures:
1408
1409 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1410 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1411
1412 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1413
1414 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1415 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1416
d6fb461d 1417** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 1418 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 1419 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1420
d6fb461d 1421** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1422 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1423
d6fb461d 1424** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1425 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1426 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1427 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1428\f
d6fb461d 1429* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1430
d6fb461d 1431** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1432
d6fb461d 1433** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1434
d6fb461d 1435** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1436 Fix spurious parse errors.
1437
d6fb461d 1438** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1439 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1440 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1441
d6fb461d 1442** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1443 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1444 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1445
e29f0771 1446 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
1447
1448 but the converse remains an error:
1449
e29f0771 1450 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 1451
d6fb461d 1452** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1453 The following code:
1454
e29f0771 1455 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
1456
1457 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1458 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1459\f
d6fb461d 1460* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1461
d6fb461d 1462** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1463 The declaration
1464 %glr-parser
1465 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1466 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1467 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1468 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1469
7933f2b5 1470 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1471 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1472
d6fb461d 1473** Output Directory
8c165d89 1474 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
1475 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1476 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 1477
d6fb461d 1478** Undefined token
007a50a4 1479 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1480 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1481
d6fb461d 1482** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1483 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1484 no longer the case.
1485
d6fb461d 1486** Error token
e88dbdbf 1487 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1488 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1489 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1490 will be mapped onto another number.
1491
d6fb461d 1492** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 1493 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
1494 error recovery is possible.
1495
d6fb461d 1496** End token
e4ab1254 1497 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 1498
d6fb461d 1499** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1500 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1501 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1502 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1503 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1504 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1505 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1506 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1507 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1508
d6fb461d 1509** Traces
5504898e
AD
1510 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1511
d6fb461d 1512** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1513 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1514 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1515 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1516 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1517
d6fb461d 1518** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1519 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1520 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1521 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1522
d6fb461d 1523** Useless rules
643a5994 1524 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1525 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1526
d6fb461d 1527** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1528 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1529
d6fb461d 1530** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1531 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1532 reported.
1533
e4ab1254 1534** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
1535 On a grammar such as
1536
e29f0771
AD
1537 %token useless useful
1538 %%
1539 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
1540
1541 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 1542 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 1543
d6fb461d 1544** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1545 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1546
d6fb461d 1547** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1548 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1549 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1550 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1551 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1552
d6fb461d 1553** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1554 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1555 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 1556 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1557 For instance
e29f0771 1558 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1559 or
e29f0771 1560 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1561
d6fb461d 1562** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1563 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1564
d6fb461d 1565** New translations
a861a339 1566 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1567 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1568
d6fb461d 1569** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
1570 When given
1571 %token 'a' "A"
1572 bison used to output
1573 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 1574
d6fb461d 1575** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1576 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1577 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1578 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1579
d6fb461d 1580** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1581 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1582 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1583 - itemset
1584 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 1585 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 1586 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1587 - solved
1588 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1589 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1590 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1591
d6fb461d 1592** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1593 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1594 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1595
e29f0771
AD
1596 %type <foo> bar
1597 %%
1598 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
1599
1600 This is fixed.
a861a339 1601
d6fb461d 1602** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1603\f
d6fb461d 1604* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1605
d6fb461d 1606** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1607 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1608 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1609 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1610
1611 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1612 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1613 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1614 kludge will be disabled.
1615
1616 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1617 extended.
76551463 1618\f
d6fb461d 1619* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1620
d6fb461d 1621** File name clashes are detected
76551463 1622 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 1623 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 1624
e4ab1254 1625** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1626 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1627 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1628 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1629 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1630 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1631
d6fb461d 1632** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1633 many portability hassles.
1634
d6fb461d 1635** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1636
d6fb461d 1637** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1638\f
d6fb461d 1639* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1640
d6fb461d 1641** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1642 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1643 under some conditions.
1644
d6fb461d 1645** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1646 As is done with $n.
1647\f
d6fb461d 1648* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1649
d6fb461d 1650** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1651
d6fb461d 1652** Portability fixes
76551463 1653
d6fb461d 1654** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1655\f
d6fb461d 1656* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1657
d6fb461d 1658** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1659
d6fb461d 1660** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1661 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1662 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1663 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 1664 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 1665
d6fb461d 1666** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1667 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1668 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1669
1670 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1671 problems as on AIX.
1672
d6fb461d 1673** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1674
d6fb461d 1675** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1676 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1677
d6fb461d 1678** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1679 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1680 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1681 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1682
d6fb461d 1683** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1684 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1685 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1686
d6fb461d 1687** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1688 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1689
d6fb461d 1690** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1691 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1692
d6fb461d 1693** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1694 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1695
d6fb461d 1696** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1697 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1698 any warning.
1699
d6fb461d 1700** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1701
d6fb461d 1702** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1703
d6fb461d 1704** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1705
d6fb461d 1706** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1707 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1708 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1709 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1710
d6fb461d 1711** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1712 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1713 previous allocations were not freed.
1714
d6fb461d 1715** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1716 Some newlines were missing.
1717 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1718
d6fb461d 1719** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1720 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1721
d6fb461d 1722** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1723 Was not used.
1724 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1725
d6fb461d 1726** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1727
d6fb461d 1728** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1729
d6fb461d 1730** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1731
d6fb461d 1732** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1733 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1734
d6fb461d 1735** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1736
d6fb461d 1737** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1738 New.
1739
d6fb461d 1740** --output
e4ab1254 1741 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 1742\f
d6fb461d 1743* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1744
e4ab1254
AD
1745** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1746 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1747 argument.
1748
e4ab1254 1749** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1750 experiment.
1751
d6fb461d 1752** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1753\f
d6fb461d 1754* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1755
d6fb461d 1756** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1757 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1758 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 1759 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 1760
e4ab1254 1761** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 1762
d6fb461d 1763** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1764
d6fb461d 1765** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1766
d6fb461d 1767** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1768
d6fb461d 1769** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1770
d6fb461d 1771** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1772
e4ab1254 1773** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 1774
e4ab1254 1775** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 1776
e4ab1254 1777** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 1778
d6fb461d 1779** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1780 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1781
d6fb461d 1782** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
1783 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1784 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 1785
d6fb461d 1786** @$
f987e9d2 1787 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1788\f
d6fb461d 1789* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1790
d6fb461d 1791** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1792
d6fb461d 1793** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1794
d6fb461d 1795** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1796
d6fb461d 1797** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1798\f
d6fb461d 1799* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1800
d6fb461d 1801** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1802 some systems has been fixed.
1803\f
d6fb461d 1804* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1805
7e508a2b 1806** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 1807
d6fb461d 1808** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1809
d6fb461d 1810** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1811
d6fb461d 1812** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1813
d6fb461d 1814** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1815
d6fb461d 1816** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1817
d6fb461d 1818** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1819 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1820\f
d6fb461d 1821* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1822
d6fb461d 1823** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1824the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1825
d6fb461d 1826** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 1827example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 1828of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 1829
d6fb461d 1830** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1831and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1832table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1833purposes.
1834
d6fb461d 1835** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1836directives in the parser file.
1837
d6fb461d 1838** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1839Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1840
d6fb461d 1841** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1842the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1843The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1844a switch statement body.
1845\f
d6fb461d 1846* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1847
4d019228
DM
1848The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1849passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1850actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1851by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1852
6780ca7a 1853Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1854\f
d6fb461d 1855* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1856
1857--help option added.
6780ca7a 1858\f
d6fb461d 1859* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1860
1861Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 1862
76551463
AD
1863-----
1864
c932d613 1865Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1866
8defe11b 1867This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1868
f16b0819 1869This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1870it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1871the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1872(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1873
f16b0819 1874This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1875but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1876MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1877GNU General Public License for more details.
1878
1879You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1880along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
1881
1882 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1883 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1884 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1885 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1886 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1887 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1888 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1889 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1890 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1891 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1892 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1893 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1894 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 1895 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 1896 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
1897 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
1898 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
a2b3f101 1899 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp calc yyo fval
7e508a2b
AD
1900
1901Local Variables:
1902mode: outline
e4ab1254 1903fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 1904End: