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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
52718713 3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
74553c98 4
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5** Incompatible changes
6
7*** Obsolete features
8
de62ae86 9 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2).
5f819b2f 10 Support for yystype and yyltype (instead of YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE)
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11 is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875).
12 Support for YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875).
47db7ed1 13
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14** Warnings
15
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16*** Deprecated constructs
17
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18 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
19 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
20 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
518e8830 21
34904c57 22*** Warning categories are now displayed
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23
24 For instance:
25
26 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
27
28*** Useless semantic types
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29
30 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
31 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
32 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
33 types that trigger the warning:
34
35 %token <type1> term
36 %type <type2> nterm
37 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
38 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
39 %%
40 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
41
42 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
43 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
44
31557b9e 45*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 46
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47 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
48 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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49
50 %printer {} symbol1
51 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 52 %type <type> symbol3
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53 %%
54 exp: "a";
55
73370a9d 56*** Useless destructors or printers
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57
58 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
59 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
60 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
61 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
62
63 %token <type1> token1
64 <type2> token2
65 <type3> token3
66 <type4> token4
67 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
68 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
69
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70*** Conflicts
71
72 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
73 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
74
75 %glr-parser
76 %%
77 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
78
79 compare the previous version of bison:
80
81 $ bison foo.y
82 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
83 $ bison -Werror foo.y
84 bison: warnings being treated as errors
85 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
86
87 with the new behavior:
88
89 $ bison foo.y
90 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
91 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
92 $ bison -Werror foo.y
93 bison: warnings being treated as errors
94 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
95 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
96
97 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
98
99 %expect 0
100 %glr-parser
101 %%
102 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
103
104 Former behavior:
105
106 $ bison bar.y
107 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
108 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
109 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
110
111 New one:
112
113 $ bison bar.y
114 bar.y: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
115 bar.y: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
116
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117** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
118
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119 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
120 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
121 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 122
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123 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
124 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
125 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
126 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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127
128 one may now declare
129
e436fa67 130 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
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131
132** Java skeleton improvements
0ea583d2 133
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134 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
135 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
136 and "%define init_throws".
0ea583d2 137
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138** C++ skeletons improvements
139
e4c0985b 140*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
93549bcd 141
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142 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
143 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
144 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
93549bcd 145
e4c0985b 146*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
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147
148 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
149
150*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
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151
152 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
153 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
154 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
155 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
156 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
157 factory invoked by the user actions).
158
4c6622c2 159** Variable api.tokens.prefix
99c08fb6 160
4c6622c2 161 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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162 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
163 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
164
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165 %token FILE for ERROR
166 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
167 %%
168 start: FILE for ERROR;
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169
170 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
171 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
172 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
173 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
174
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175** Variable api.namespace
176
1f77b2e0 177 The 'namespace' variable is renamed 'api.namespace'. Backward
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178 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
179
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180** Variable parse.error
181
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182 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
183 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
184 verbose".
31b850d2 185
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186** Semantic predicates
187
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188 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
189 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 190 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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191 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
192 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
193 expressions.
ca2a6d15 194
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195** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
196
197 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
198 reduce/reduce conflicts.
199
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200* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
201
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202** Bug fixes
203
204 Bugs in the test suite have been fixed.
205
206 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
207 users to the appropriate place to report them.
208
209 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
210
211 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
212 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 213
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214** Changes in the format of errors and exceptions output
215
216 This used to be the format of many error reports:
217
218 foo.y:5.10-24: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
219 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
220
221 It is now:
222
223 foo.y:5.10-25: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
224 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
225
e1eeecd3 226* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 227
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228** Bug fixes
229
230 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
231 suite have been fixed.
232
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233** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
234
235 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
236 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 237
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238** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
239
240 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
241
77b214ef 242* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 243
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244 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
245
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246** Future Changes
247
248 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
249 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
250 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
251
252 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
253
254 write:
255
256 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
257
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258** Bug fixes
259
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260*** Type names are now properly escaped.
261
262*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 263
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264*** Stray @ or $ in actions
265
266 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
267 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
268 now does.
269
cd735a8c 270** Type names in actions
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271
272 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 273 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
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274
275 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
276
277 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 278 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 279
1505e8bb 280* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 281
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282** Future changes:
283
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284 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
285 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 286
aaf61036 287*** K&R C parsers
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288
289 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 290 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
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291 compilers.
292
258cddbc 293*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 294
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295 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
296 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 297
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298 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
299 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
300
301 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
302 %error-verbose.
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303
304*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
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305
306 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
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307 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
308 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
309 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
310 it.
0f11eec2 311
c2425191 312** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 313
258cddbc 314*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
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315
316 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 317 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 318
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319 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
320 # define YY_FOO_H
321 ...
322 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 323
258cddbc 324*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
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325
326 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
327 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
328
e29f0771 329 int bar_parse (void);
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330
331 rather than
332
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333 #define yyparse bar_parse
334 int yyparse (void);
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335
336 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
337 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 338
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339*** Exported symbols in C++
340
341 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
342 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
343 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
344
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345*** YYLSP_NEEDED
346
347 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
348 longer defined.
349
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350** New %define variable: api.prefix
351
352 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
353 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
354 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
355 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
356 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
357 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
358 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
359
360 The following examples compares both:
361
362 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
363 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
364 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
365 %% %%
366 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
367
368 bison generates:
369
370 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
371 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
372
373 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
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374 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
375 > # if defined YYDEBUG
376 > # if YYDEBUG
377 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
378 > # else
379 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
380 > # endif
381 > # else
382 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
383 > # endif
384 # endif | # endif
385
386 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
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387 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
388 # endif # endif
389
390 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
391 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
392 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
393 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
394 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
395 }; };
396 # endif # endif
397
398 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
399 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
400 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
401 { {
402 int ival; int ival;
403 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
404 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
405 #endif #endif
406
407 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
408
409 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
410
411 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
412
dfaac272 413* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 414
debe2c03 415** Future changes:
765e1bd4 416
e4ab1254 417 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 418
466b4cf2 419** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 420
d834eca0 421** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 422
d834eca0 423*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 424
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425 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
426 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 427
d834eca0 428*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 429
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430 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
431 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 432
466b4cf2 433** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 434
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435 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
436 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 437
22172d47 438** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 439
22172d47 440*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 441
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442 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
443 or higher.
936c88d1 444
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445*** Header guards
446
447 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
448 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
449
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450 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
451 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
452 ...
453 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
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454
455 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
456 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
457 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
458
459 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
460
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461 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
462 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
463 ...
464 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
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465
466*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 467
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468 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
469 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
470 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 471
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472** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
473
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474** Changes in the manual:
475
476*** %printer is documented
477
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478 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
479 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 480
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481 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
482 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
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483
484*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 485
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486 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
487 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
488 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
489 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 490
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491** Building bison:
492
493*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 494
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495 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
496 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 497
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498*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
499
500*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 501
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502 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
503 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 504
91aadcc7 505*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 506
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507 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
508 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 509
28801043 510* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 511
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512** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
513
514 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
515 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
516 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
517 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
518 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
519
f1b238df 520** Named references:
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521
522 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
523 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
524 actions code.
525
526 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
527 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
528 as named references:
529
4b568fc0 530 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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531 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
532
533 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
534
4b568fc0 535 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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536 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
537
5b1ff423 538 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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539 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
540 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
541
5b1ff423 542 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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543 will help to stabilize them.
544
f1b238df 545** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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546
547 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
548 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 549 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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550 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
551 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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552 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
553 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
554 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
555 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
556
557 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
558 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
559 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
560 file with these directives:
561
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562 %define lr.type lalr
563 %define lr.type ielr
564 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 565
7fceb615 566 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
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567 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
568 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 569 manual.
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570
571 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
572 stabilize them.
573
7fceb615 574** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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575
576 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
577 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
578 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 579 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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580 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
581 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
582 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 583 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 584 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
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585 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
586 tokens.
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587
588 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
589 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
590 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
591 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
592 inconsistent states.
593
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594 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
595 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
596 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
597 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
598 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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599 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
600 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
601 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
602 power.
603
604 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
605 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
606
607 %define parse.lac full
608
e4ab1254 609 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 610 details including a few caveats.
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611
612 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
613 stabilize it.
614
d397d9f0 615** %define improvements:
cf499cff 616
f1b238df 617*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 618
de5ab940 619 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 620
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621 -D NAME[=VALUE]
622 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
623
624 -F NAME[=VALUE]
625 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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626
627 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
628
de5ab940 629 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 630
de5ab940
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631 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
632 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
633 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 634 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 635
f1b238df 636*** Variables renamed:
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JD
637
638 The following %define variables
639
640 api.push_pull
641 lr.keep_unreachable_states
642
643 have been renamed to
644
645 api.push-pull
646 lr.keep-unreachable-states
647
648 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
649 for backward compatibility.
650
7262f54f 651*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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652
653 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
654 within quotations marks. For example,
655
656 %define api.push-pull "push"
657
658 can be rewritten as
659
660 %define api.push-pull push
661
d397d9f0 662*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 663
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664*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
665
666** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
667
668** Character literals not of length one:
669
670 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
671 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
672 the following grammar to be the same token:
673
674 exp: exp '++'
675 | exp '+' exp
676 ;
677
678 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
679 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
680
681** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
682
683 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
684 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
685 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
686 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
687
688** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
689
690 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
691 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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692 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
693 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 694
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695 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
696 do \
697 if (N) \
698 { \
699 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
700 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
701 } \
702 else \
703 { \
704 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
705 } \
706 while (false)
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707
708 use:
709
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710 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
711 do \
712 if (N) \
713 { \
714 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
715 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
716 } \
717 else \
718 { \
719 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
720 } \
721 while (false)
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722
723** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
724
725 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
726 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
727 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
728 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 729
f1b238df 730** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
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731
732 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
733 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
734 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
735 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
736 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
737 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
738 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
739 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
740
f1b238df 741** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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742
743 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
744 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
745 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
746 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
747
748 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
749
750 instead of
751
752 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
753
754 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
755 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
756 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
757 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
758 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
759 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
760 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
761
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762** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
763
e4ab1254 764 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
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765 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
766 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
767 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
768 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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769
770*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
771 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
772 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
773 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
774 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 775 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
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776 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
777 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
778 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
779 shifted or discarded.
780
781*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
782 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
783 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
784 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
785
786*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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787 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
788 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
789 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
790 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
791 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
792 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
793 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
794 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
795 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
796 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
797 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
798 by default.
53f036ce 799
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800** Java skeleton fixes:
801
802*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
803
804*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
805 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 806
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807*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
808
86408959
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809** -W/--warnings fixes:
810
e4ab1254 811*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
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812
813 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
814 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
815
816 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
817
786743d5
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818*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
819
820 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
821 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 822 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
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823 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
824 example:
825
826 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
827 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
828 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
829 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
830
831 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
832 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
833 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
834 then have no effect on the conflict report.
835
e4ab1254 836*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
837
838 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
839 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
840
841 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
842
e4ab1254 843*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 844
e4ab1254 845 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
846 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
847 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
848 suppress all warnings:
849
850 bison -Wnone gram.y
851
1f36f544
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852** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
853
854 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
855 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
856 produced an assertion failure. For example:
857
858 %left END 0
859
860 This bug has been fixed.
861
64877e5e 862* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 863
2bfcac9a
JD
864** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
865 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
866
8b9e021f
JD
867** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
868 been fixed.
869
4ad3921d
JD
870** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
871
06cb07d5
JD
872** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
873 been fixed.
874
9b5049bd
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875** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
876 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
877 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
878 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
879
93d7dde9
JD
880** Minor documentation fixes.
881
e19a049c 882* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 883
f39ab286
JD
884** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
885 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
886 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
887 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
888 affected platforms.
889
e4ab1254 890** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
891
892 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
893 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
894 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
895 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
896 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
897 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
898 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
899 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
900 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 901
d8911864
EB
902** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
903
a603c6e0
JD
904** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
905 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
906 avoided.
c938d650 907
98a345a2
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908** %code is now a permanent feature.
909
910 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
911
912 %{CODE%}
913
914 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
915 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
916
917 %code {CODE}
918 %code requires {CODE}
919 %code provides {CODE}
920 %code top {CODE}
921
922 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
923 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
924 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
925 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
926 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
927
928 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
929 is still considered experimental.
930
1625df5b
JD
931** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
932
933 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
934 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
935 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
936 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
937 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
938 specified by POSIX.
939
940 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
941 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
942 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
943 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
944 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 945 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
946 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
947
948 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
949
950 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
951 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
952 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
953 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
954 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
955 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 956 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
957 be removed altogether.
958
959 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
960 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
961 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
962 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
963 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 964 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
965 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
966 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
967 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
968 2.4.2 is not necessary.
969
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970** Internationalization.
971
972 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
973 message translations were not installed although supported by the
974 host system.
975
74553c98 976* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 977
0ea583d2
AD
978** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
979 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 980
0ea583d2
AD
981** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
982
983 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
984 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
985
986 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
987
988 instead of
989
990 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
991
e4ab1254 992 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
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993 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
994 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
995 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
996 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
997 feature.
998
999** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1000
402b123d 1001* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1002
402b123d 1003** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1004
1005 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1006 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1007 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1008 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1009 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1010
402b123d 1011** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1012
402b123d 1013** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1014 fixed.
1015
402b123d 1016* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1017
402b123d 1018** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1019 are now deprecated:
1020
1021 %define NAME "VALUE"
1022
e4ab1254 1023** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1024
1025 %define api.pure
1026
1027 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1028 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1029
402b123d 1030** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1031
1032 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1033 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1034 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1035 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1036 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1037
1038 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1039 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1040
e4ab1254 1041 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1042
59da312b
JD
1043 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1044 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1045
402b123d 1046** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1047 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1048 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1049
402b123d 1050** Java
59da312b
JD
1051
1052 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1053 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1054 %skeleton to select it.
1055
e4ab1254 1056 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1057
1058 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1059 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1060
402b123d 1061** %language
59da312b
JD
1062
1063 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1064 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1065 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1066 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1067
402b123d 1068** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1069
1070 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1071 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1072 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 1073
402b123d 1074** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1075 %defines. For example:
1076
1077 %defines "parser.h"
1078
402b123d 1079** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1080 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1081 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1082 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1083
402b123d 1084** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1085
1086 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1087 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1088 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1089
1090 1. Removes unreachable states.
1091
1092 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1093 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1094 directives in existing grammar files.
1095
1096 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1097 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1098
31984206
JD
1099 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1100
1101 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1102
e4ab1254 1103 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
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1104 for further discussion.
1105
e4ab1254 1106** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1107
e4ab1254
AD
1108 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1109 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1110 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1111 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1112 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1113 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1114 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1115 code.
1116
e4ab1254 1117** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1118 name.
1bb2bd75 1119
e4ab1254 1120** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1121 deprecated:
1122
1123 %file-prefix "parser"
1124 %name-prefix "c_"
1125 %output "parser.c"
1126
e4ab1254 1127** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1128
1129 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1130 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1131 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1132 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1133 it:
1134
e4ab1254
AD
1135 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1136 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1137 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1138 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1139
e4ab1254
AD
1140 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1141 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1142 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1143 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1144
1145 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1146 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1147
402b123d 1148** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1149
1150 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1151 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1152 about unused $2 in:
1153
1154 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1155
1156 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1157 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1158
1159 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1160
1161 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1162 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1163 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1164
e4ab1254
AD
1165 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1166 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1167
e4ab1254 1168** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1169
1170 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1171 %printer's:
1172
e4ab1254 1173 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1174 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1175 declared semantic type tags.
1176
e4ab1254 1177 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1178 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1179 type tags.
1180
e4ab1254
AD
1181 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1182 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1183 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1184 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1185
85894313
JD
1186 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1187 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1188 features.
1189
e4ab1254 1190 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1191 details.
1192
402b123d 1193** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1194 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1195 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1196
402b123d 1197** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1198 completely removed from Bison.
1199
402b123d 1200* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1201
402b123d 1202** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1203 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1204 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1205 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1206 and is required by POSIX.
1207
402b123d 1208** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1209 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1210
402b123d 1211** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1212
1213 For example:
1214
b2a0b7ca
JD
1215 %union { char *string; }
1216 %token <string> STRING1
1217 %token <string> STRING2
1218 %type <string> string1
1219 %type <string> string2
1220 %union { char character; }
1221 %token <character> CHR
1222 %type <character> chr
1223 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1224 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1225 %destructor { } <character>
1226
1227 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1228 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1229 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1230 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1231 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1232
85894313
JD
1233 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1234 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1235 future versions.]
1236
e4ab1254
AD
1237** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1238 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1239 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1240 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1241 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1242
402b123d 1243** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1244 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1245
1246 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1247 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1248 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1249 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1250 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1251
34f98f46 1252 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1253 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1254 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1255 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1256 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1257 after the token definitions.
1258
1259 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1260 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1261
402b123d 1262** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1263 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1264 %after-header.
1265
1266 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1267 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1268 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1269 convenient for you:
1270
1271 %before-header {
1272 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1273 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1274 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1275 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1276 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1277 }
1278 %start-header {
1279 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1280 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1281 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1282 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1283 }
1284 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1285 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1286 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1287 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1288 }
34f98f46
JD
1289 %end-header {
1290 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1291 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1292 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1293 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1294 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1295 }
34f98f46
JD
1296 %after-header {
1297 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1298 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1299 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1300 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1301 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1302 }
1303
1304 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1305 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1306
85894313
JD
1307 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1308 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1309
e4ab1254 1310** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1311 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1312 in a future release.
742e4900 1313
402b123d 1314* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1315
e4ab1254 1316** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1317 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1318
402b123d 1319** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1320 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1321
402b123d 1322* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1323
402b123d 1324** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1325 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1326 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1327
402b123d 1328** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1329
402b123d 1330** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1331
402b123d 1332** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1333 their contents together.
1334
402b123d 1335** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1336 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1337 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1338
8f3596a6 1339 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1340 | exp "+" exp
1341 ;
affac613 1342
8f3596a6
AD
1343 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1344 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1345 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1346
4e26c69e 1347 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1348 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1349 | exp "+" exp
1350 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1351 ;
affac613 1352
4e26c69e
PE
1353 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1354 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1355 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1356
8f3596a6 1357 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1358 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1359 ;
721be13c 1360
84866159
AD
1361 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1362 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1363
1364 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1365
721be13c
PE
1366 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1367 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1368
402b123d 1369** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1370 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1371 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1372 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1373
402b123d 1374** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1375 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1376 instead of warnings.
1377
402b123d 1378** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1379 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1380 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1381
e4ab1254 1382** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1383
402b123d 1384** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1385 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1386 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1387
402b123d 1388** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1389 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1390 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1391 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1392 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1393
1394 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1395 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1396 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1397 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1398
b50d2359 1399 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1400 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1401
402b123d 1402** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1403\f
402b123d 1404* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1405
402b123d 1406** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1407
402b123d 1408** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1409 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1410 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1411 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1412 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1413 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1414
402b123d 1415** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1416 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1417 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1418 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1419
402b123d 1420** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1421 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1422 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1423
402b123d 1424** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
1425 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1426 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1427 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1428 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1429\f
402b123d 1430* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1431
402b123d 1432** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1433
82de6b0d
PE
1434 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1435 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1436 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1437 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1438 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1439
82de6b0d
PE
1440 - Error token location.
1441 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1442 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1443 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1444 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1445
82de6b0d
PE
1446 - Semicolon changes:
1447 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1448 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1449
82de6b0d
PE
1450 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1451 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1452 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1453 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1454
82de6b0d 1455 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1456
402b123d 1457** New features
1452af69 1458
82de6b0d 1459 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1460
82de6b0d
PE
1461 - New directive: %initial-action.
1462 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1463 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1464
82de6b0d
PE
1465 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1466 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1467
e4ab1254 1468 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 1469 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1470
e4ab1254 1471 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 1472 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1473
82de6b0d 1474 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1475
82de6b0d
PE
1476 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1477 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1478
402b123d 1479** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1480
82de6b0d
PE
1481 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1482 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1483 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1484 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1485 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1486 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1487
82de6b0d
PE
1488 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1489 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1490
82de6b0d 1491 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1492\f
402b123d 1493* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1494
402b123d 1495** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1496 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1497
402b123d 1498** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1499
dc546b0f
PE
1500 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1501 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1502
dc546b0f
PE
1503 - %destructor
1504 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1505 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1506
dc546b0f
PE
1507 - %error-verbose
1508 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1509
dc546b0f
PE
1510 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1511 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1512
402b123d 1513** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1514
dc546b0f
PE
1515 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1516 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1517 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1518
e4ab1254
AD
1519 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1520 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1521 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1522 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 1523 be consistent.
74724a70 1524
dc546b0f
PE
1525 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1526 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1527
dc546b0f
PE
1528 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1529 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1530
dc546b0f
PE
1531 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1532 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1533
dc546b0f 1534 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 1535 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
1536 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1537 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1538 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1539
dc546b0f 1540 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1541
dc546b0f
PE
1542 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1543 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1544 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1545
402b123d 1546** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1547
e4ab1254
AD
1548 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1549 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1550 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1551 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1552 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 1553 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1554
e4ab1254 1555 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 1556 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1557
dc546b0f 1558 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 1559 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 1560
e4ab1254 1561 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
1562 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1563 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1564
402b123d 1565** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1566
dc546b0f
PE
1567 - GLR and inline
1568 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 1569 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 1570
e4ab1254
AD
1571 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1572 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1573
18ad57b3
AD
1574** %parse-param and %lex-param
1575 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1576 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1577 shortcomings:
1578
1579 - a single argument only can be added,
1580 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 1581 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
1582 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1583
1584 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1585 For instance:
1586
1587 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1588 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1589 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1590
1591 results in the following signatures:
1592
1593 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1594 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1595
1596 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1597
1598 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1599 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1600
402b123d 1601** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 1602 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 1603 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1604
402b123d 1605** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1606 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1607
402b123d 1608** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1609 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1610 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1611 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1612\f
402b123d 1613* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1614
402b123d 1615** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1616
402b123d 1617** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1618
402b123d 1619** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1620 Fix spurious parse errors.
1621
402b123d 1622** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1623 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1624 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1625
402b123d 1626** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1627 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1628 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1629
e9690142 1630 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
1631
1632 but the converse remains an error:
1633
e9690142 1634 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 1635
402b123d 1636** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1637 The following code:
1638
e9690142 1639 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
1640
1641 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1642 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1643\f
402b123d 1644* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1645
402b123d 1646** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1647 The declaration
1648 %glr-parser
1649 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1650 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1651 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1652 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1653
7933f2b5 1654 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1655 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1656
402b123d 1657** Output Directory
8c165d89 1658 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
1659 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1660 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 1661
402b123d 1662** Undefined token
007a50a4 1663 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1664 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1665
402b123d 1666** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1667 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1668 no longer the case.
1669
402b123d 1670** Error token
e88dbdbf 1671 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1672 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1673 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1674 will be mapped onto another number.
1675
402b123d 1676** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 1677 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
1678 error recovery is possible.
1679
402b123d 1680** End token
e4ab1254 1681 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 1682
402b123d 1683** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1684 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1685 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1686 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1687 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1688 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1689 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1690 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1691 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1692
402b123d 1693** Traces
5504898e
AD
1694 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1695
402b123d 1696** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1697 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1698 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1699 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1700 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1701
402b123d 1702** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1703 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1704 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1705 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1706
402b123d 1707** Useless rules
643a5994 1708 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1709 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1710
402b123d 1711** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1712 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1713
402b123d 1714** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1715 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1716 reported.
1717
e4ab1254 1718** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
1719 On a grammar such as
1720
e29f0771
AD
1721 %token useless useful
1722 %%
1723 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
1724
1725 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 1726 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 1727
402b123d 1728** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1729 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1730
402b123d 1731** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1732 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1733 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1734 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1735 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1736
402b123d 1737** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1738 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1739 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 1740 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1741 For instance
e29f0771 1742 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1743 or
e29f0771 1744 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1745
402b123d 1746** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1747 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1748
402b123d 1749** New translations
a861a339 1750 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1751 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1752
402b123d 1753** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
1754 When given
1755 %token 'a' "A"
1756 bison used to output
1757 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 1758
402b123d 1759** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1760 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1761 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1762 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1763
402b123d 1764** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1765 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1766 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1767 - itemset
1768 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 1769 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 1770 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1771 - solved
1772 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1773 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1774 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1775
402b123d 1776** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1777 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1778 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1779
e29f0771
AD
1780 %type <foo> bar
1781 %%
1782 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
1783
1784 This is fixed.
a861a339 1785
402b123d 1786** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1787\f
402b123d 1788* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1789
402b123d 1790** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1791 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1792 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1793 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1794
1795 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1796 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1797 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1798 kludge will be disabled.
1799
1800 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1801 extended.
76551463 1802\f
402b123d 1803* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1804
402b123d 1805** File name clashes are detected
76551463 1806 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 1807 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 1808
e4ab1254 1809** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1810 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1811 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1812 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1813 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1814 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1815
402b123d 1816** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1817 many portability hassles.
1818
402b123d 1819** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1820
402b123d 1821** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1822\f
402b123d 1823* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1824
402b123d 1825** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1826 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1827 under some conditions.
1828
402b123d 1829** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1830 As is done with $n.
1831\f
402b123d 1832* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1833
402b123d 1834** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1835
402b123d 1836** Portability fixes
76551463 1837
402b123d 1838** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1839\f
402b123d 1840* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1841
402b123d 1842** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1843
402b123d 1844** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1845 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1846 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1847 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 1848 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 1849
402b123d 1850** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1851 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1852 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1853
1854 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1855 problems as on AIX.
1856
402b123d 1857** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1858
402b123d 1859** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1860 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1861
402b123d 1862** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1863 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1864 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1865 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1866
402b123d 1867** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1868 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1869 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1870
402b123d 1871** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1872 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1873
402b123d 1874** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1875 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1876
402b123d 1877** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1878 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1879
402b123d 1880** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1881 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1882 any warning.
1883
402b123d 1884** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1885
402b123d 1886** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1887
402b123d 1888** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1889
402b123d 1890** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1891 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1892 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1893 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1894
402b123d 1895** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1896 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1897 previous allocations were not freed.
1898
402b123d 1899** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1900 Some newlines were missing.
1901 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1902
402b123d 1903** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1904 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1905
402b123d 1906** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1907 Was not used.
1908 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1909
402b123d 1910** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1911
402b123d 1912** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1913
402b123d 1914** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1915
402b123d 1916** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1917 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1918
402b123d 1919** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1920
402b123d 1921** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1922 New.
1923
402b123d 1924** --output
e4ab1254 1925 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 1926\f
402b123d 1927* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1928
e4ab1254
AD
1929** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1930 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1931 argument.
1932
e4ab1254 1933** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1934 experiment.
1935
402b123d 1936** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1937\f
402b123d 1938* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1939
402b123d 1940** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1941 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1942 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 1943 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 1944
e4ab1254 1945** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 1946
402b123d 1947** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1948
402b123d 1949** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1950
402b123d 1951** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1952
402b123d 1953** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1954
402b123d 1955** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1956
e4ab1254 1957** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 1958
e4ab1254 1959** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 1960
e4ab1254 1961** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 1962
402b123d 1963** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1964 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1965
402b123d 1966** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
1967 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1968 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 1969
402b123d 1970** @$
f987e9d2 1971 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1972\f
402b123d 1973* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1974
402b123d 1975** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1976
402b123d 1977** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1978
402b123d 1979** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1980
402b123d 1981** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1982\f
402b123d 1983* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1984
402b123d 1985** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1986 some systems has been fixed.
1987\f
402b123d 1988* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1989
7e508a2b 1990** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 1991
402b123d 1992** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1993
402b123d 1994** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1995
402b123d 1996** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1997
402b123d 1998** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1999
402b123d 2000** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2001
402b123d 2002** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2003 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2004\f
402b123d 2005* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2006
402b123d 2007** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2008the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2009
402b123d 2010** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2011example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2012of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2013
402b123d 2014** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2015and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2016table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2017purposes.
2018
402b123d 2019** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2020directives in the parser file.
2021
402b123d 2022** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2023Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2024
402b123d 2025** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2026the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2027The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2028a switch statement body.
2029\f
402b123d 2030* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2031
4d019228
DM
2032The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2033passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2034actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2035by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2036
6780ca7a 2037Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2038\f
402b123d 2039* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2040
2041--help option added.
6780ca7a 2042\f
402b123d 2043* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2044
2045Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2046
76551463
AD
2047-----
2048
34136e65 2049Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2050
74553c98 2051This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2052
f16b0819 2053This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2054it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2055the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2056(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2057
f16b0819 2058This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2059but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2060MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2061GNU General Public License for more details.
2062
2063You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2064along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2065
2066 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2067 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2068 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2069 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2070 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2071 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2072 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2073 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2074 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2075 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2076 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2077 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2078 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2079 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2080 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2081 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2082 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1
AD
2083 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
2084 LocalWords: TOK
7e508a2b
AD
2085
2086Local Variables:
2087mode: outline
e4ab1254 2088fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2089End: