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4* Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
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6** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
7
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
bb9191dd 9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives
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10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
11
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
16
17 one may now declare
18
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
20
21** Java skeleton improvements
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22
23 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
24 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
25 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
26
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27** C++ skeleton improvements
28
29 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
30 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
31 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
32 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
33 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
34 factory invoked by the user actions).
35
4c6622c2 36** Variable api.tokens.prefix
99c08fb6 37
4c6622c2 38 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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39 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
40 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
41
42 %token FILE for ERROR
4c6622c2 43 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
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44 %%
45 start: FILE for ERROR;
46
47 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
48 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
49 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
50 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
51
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52** Variable api.namespace
53
54 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
55 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
56
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57** Variable parse.error
58
59 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
60 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
61 %define parse.error "verbose".
62
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63** Semantic predicates
64
65 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
66 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
67 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
68 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
69 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
70 runtime expressions.
71
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72* Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
73
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74** Some portability problems in the test suite have been fixed.
75
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76** Minor improvements have been made to the manual.
77
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78** YYBACKUP works as expected.
79
28801043 80* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 81
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82** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
83
84 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
85 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
86 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
87 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
88 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
89
f1b238df 90** Named references:
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91
92 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
93 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
94 actions code.
95
96 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
97 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
98 as named references:
99
4b568fc0 100 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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101 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
102
103 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
104
4b568fc0 105 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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106 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
107
5b1ff423 108 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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109 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
110 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
111
5b1ff423 112 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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113 will help to stabilize them.
114
f1b238df 115** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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116
117 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
118 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 119 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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120 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
121 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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122 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
123 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
124 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
125 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
126
127 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
128 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
129 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
130 file with these directives:
131
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132 %define lr.type lalr
133 %define lr.type ielr
134 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 135
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136 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
137 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
138 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
139 manual.
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140
141 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
142 stabilize them.
143
7fceb615 144** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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145
146 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
147 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
148 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 149 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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150 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
151 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
152 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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153 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
154 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
155 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
156 tokens.
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157
158 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
159 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
160 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
161 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
162 inconsistent states.
163
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164 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
165 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
166 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
167 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
168 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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169 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
170 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
171 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
172 power.
173
174 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
175 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
176
177 %define parse.lac full
178
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179 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
180 details including a few caveats.
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181
182 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
183 stabilize it.
184
d397d9f0 185** %define improvements:
cf499cff 186
f1b238df 187*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 188
de5ab940 189 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 190
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191 -D NAME[=VALUE]
192 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
193
194 -F NAME[=VALUE]
195 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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196
197 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
198
de5ab940 199 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 200
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201 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
202 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
203 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
4b568fc0 204 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
50cca368 205
f1b238df 206*** Variables renamed:
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207
208 The following %define variables
209
210 api.push_pull
211 lr.keep_unreachable_states
212
213 have been renamed to
214
215 api.push-pull
216 lr.keep-unreachable-states
217
218 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
219 for backward compatibility.
220
7262f54f 221*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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222
223 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
224 within quotations marks. For example,
225
226 %define api.push-pull "push"
227
228 can be rewritten as
229
230 %define api.push-pull push
231
d397d9f0 232*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 233
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234*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
235
236** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
237
238** Character literals not of length one:
239
240 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
241 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
242 the following grammar to be the same token:
243
244 exp: exp '++'
245 | exp '+' exp
246 ;
247
248 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
249 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
250
251** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
252
253 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
254 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
255 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
256 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
257
258** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
259
260 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
261 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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262 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
263 and `last' members, instead of
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264
265 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
266 do \
267 if (N) \
268 { \
269 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
270 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
271 } \
272 else \
273 { \
274 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
275 } \
276 while (false)
277
278 use:
279
280 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
281 do \
282 if (N) \
283 { \
284 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
285 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
286 } \
287 else \
288 { \
289 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
290 } \
291 while (false)
292
293** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
294
295 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
296 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
297 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
298 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 299
f1b238df 300** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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301
302 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
303 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
304 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
305 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
306 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
307 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
308 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
309 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
310
f1b238df 311** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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312
313 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
314 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
315 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
316 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
317
318 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
319
320 instead of
321
322 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
323
324 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
325 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
326 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
327 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
328 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
329 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
330 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
331
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332** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
333
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334 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
335 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
336 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
337 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
338 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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339
340*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
341 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
342 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
343 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
344 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
4b568fc0 345 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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346 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
347 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
348 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
349 shifted or discarded.
350
351*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
352 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
353 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
354 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
355
356*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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357 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
358 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
359 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
360 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
361 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
362 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
363 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
364 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
365 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
366 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
367 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
368 by default.
53f036ce 369
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370** Java skeleton fixes:
371
372*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
373
374*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
375 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 376
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377*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
378
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379** -W/--warnings fixes:
380
4b568fc0 381*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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382
383 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
384 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
385
386 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
387
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388*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
389
390 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
391 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
4b568fc0 392 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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393 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
394 example:
395
396 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
397 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
398 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
399 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
400
401 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
402 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
403 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
404 then have no effect on the conflict report.
405
4b568fc0 406*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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407
408 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
409 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
410
411 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
412
28801043 413*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 414
4b568fc0 415 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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416 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
417 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
418 suppress all warnings:
419
420 bison -Wnone gram.y
421
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422** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
423
424 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
425 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
426 produced an assertion failure. For example:
427
428 %left END 0
429
430 This bug has been fixed.
431
64877e5e 432* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 433
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434** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
435 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
436
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437** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
438 been fixed.
439
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440** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
441
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442** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
443 been fixed.
444
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445** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
446 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
447 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
448 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
449
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450** Minor documentation fixes.
451
e19a049c 452* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 453
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454** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
455 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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456 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
457 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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458 affected platforms.
459
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460** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
461
462 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
463 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
464 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
465 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
466 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
467 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
468 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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469 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
470 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 471
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472** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
473
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474** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
475 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
476 avoided.
c938d650 477
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478** %code is now a permanent feature.
479
480 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
481
482 %{CODE%}
483
484 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
485 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
486
487 %code {CODE}
488 %code requires {CODE}
489 %code provides {CODE}
490 %code top {CODE}
491
492 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
493 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
494 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
495 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
496 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
497
498 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
499 is still considered experimental.
500
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501** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
502
503 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
504 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
505 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
506 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
507 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
508 specified by POSIX.
509
510 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
511 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
512 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
513 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
514 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
515 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
516 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
517
518 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
519
520 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
521 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
522 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
523 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
524 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
525 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
526 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
527 be removed altogether.
528
529 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
530 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
531 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
532 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
533 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
534 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
535 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
536 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
537 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
538 2.4.2 is not necessary.
539
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540** Internationalization.
541
542 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
543 message translations were not installed although supported by the
544 host system.
545
74553c98 546* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 547
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548** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
549 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 550
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551** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
552
553 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
554 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
555
556 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
557
558 instead of
559
560 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
561
562 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
563 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
564 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
565 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
566 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
567 feature.
568
569** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 570
402b123d 571* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 572
402b123d 573** %language is an experimental feature.
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574
575 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
576 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
577 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
578 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
579 in future releases.
7bd1665a 580
402b123d 581** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 582
402b123d 583** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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584 fixed.
585
402b123d 586* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 587
402b123d 588** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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589 are now deprecated:
590
591 %define NAME "VALUE"
592
402b123d 593** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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594
595 %define api.pure
596
597 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
598 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
599
402b123d 600** Push Parsing
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601
602 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 603 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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604 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
605 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
606 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
607
608 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
609 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
610
611 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
612
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613 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
614 feedback will help to stabilize it.
615
402b123d 616** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
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617 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
618 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 619
402b123d 620** Java
59da312b
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621
622 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
623 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
624 %skeleton to select it.
625
626 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
627
628 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
629 feedback will help to stabilize it.
630
402b123d 631** %language
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632
633 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
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634 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
635 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
636 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 637
402b123d 638** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
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639
640 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
641 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
642 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 643
402b123d 644** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
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645 %defines. For example:
646
647 %defines "parser.h"
648
402b123d 649** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
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650 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
651 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
652 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 653
402b123d 654** Unreachable State Removal
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655
656 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
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657 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
658 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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659
660 1. Removes unreachable states.
661
662 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
663 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
664 directives in existing grammar files.
665
666 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 667 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 668
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669 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
670
671 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
672
673 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
674 for further discussion.
675
402b123d 676** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 677
c373bf8b 678 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
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679 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
680 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
681 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
682 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
683 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
684 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
685 code.
686
402b123d 687** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 688 name.
1bb2bd75 689
402b123d 690** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
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691 deprecated:
692
693 %file-prefix "parser"
694 %name-prefix "c_"
695 %output "parser.c"
696
402b123d 697** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
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698
699 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
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700 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
701 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
702 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
703 it:
704
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705 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
706 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
707 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
708 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 709
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710 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
711 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
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712 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
713 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
714
715 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
716 determine whether they should become permanent features.
717
402b123d 718** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
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719
720 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
721 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
722 about unused $2 in:
723
724 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
725
726 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
727 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
728
729 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
730
731 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
732 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
733 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
734
59da312b 735 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
736 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
737
402b123d 738** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
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739
740 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
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741 %printer's:
742
743 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
744 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
745 declared semantic type tags.
746
3ebecc24 747 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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748 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
749 type tags.
750
751 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 752 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
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753 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
754 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
755
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756 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
757 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
758 features.
759
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760 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
761 details.
762
402b123d 763** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
764 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
765 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
766
402b123d 767** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
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768 completely removed from Bison.
769
402b123d 770* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 771
402b123d 772** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
773 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
774 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
775 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
776 and is required by POSIX.
777
402b123d 778** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
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779 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
780
402b123d 781** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
782
783 For example:
784
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JD
785 %union { char *string; }
786 %token <string> STRING1
787 %token <string> STRING2
788 %type <string> string1
789 %type <string> string2
790 %union { char character; }
791 %token <character> CHR
792 %type <character> chr
793 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
794 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
795 %destructor { } <character>
796
797 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
798 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
799 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
800 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
801 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 802
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803 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
804 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
805 future versions.]
806
402b123d 807** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
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808 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
809 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
810 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
811 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
812
402b123d 813** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 814 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
815
816 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
817 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
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818 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
819 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 820 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 821
34f98f46 822 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
823 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
824 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
825 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
826 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
827 after the token definitions.
828
829 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
830 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
831
402b123d 832** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
833 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
834 %after-header.
835
836 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
837 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
838 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
839 convenient for you:
840
841 %before-header {
842 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
843 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
844 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
845 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
846 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
847 }
848 %start-header {
849 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
850 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
851 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
852 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
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853 }
854 %union {
34f98f46
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855 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
856 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
857 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 858 }
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859 %end-header {
860 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
861 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
862 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
863 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
864 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 865 }
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866 %after-header {
867 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
868 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
869 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
870 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
871 * Bison-generated definitions. */
872 }
873
874 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
875 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 876
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877 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
878 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
879
402b123d 880** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
881 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
882 in a future release.
742e4900 883
402b123d 884* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 885
402b123d 886** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
887 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
888
402b123d 889** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
890 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
891
402b123d 892* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 893
402b123d 894** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
895 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
896 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 897
402b123d 898** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 899
402b123d 900** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 901
402b123d 902** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
903 their contents together.
904
402b123d 905** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
906 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
907 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 908
8f3596a6 909 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
910 | exp "+" exp
911 ;
affac613 912
8f3596a6
AD
913 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
914 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 915 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 916
4e26c69e 917 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
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JD
918 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
919 | exp "+" exp
920 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
921 ;
affac613 922
4e26c69e
PE
923 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
924 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
925 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 926
8f3596a6 927 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
928 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
929 ;
721be13c 930
84866159
AD
931 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
932 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
933
934 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
935
721be13c
PE
936 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
937 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 938
402b123d 939** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
940 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
941 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
942 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 943
402b123d 944** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
945 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
946 instead of warnings.
947
402b123d 948** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
949 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
950 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 951
402b123d 952** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 953
402b123d 954** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
955 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
956 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 957
402b123d 958** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
959 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
960 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
961 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
962 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
963
964 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
965 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
966 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
967 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 968
b50d2359 969 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 970 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 971
402b123d 972** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 973\f
402b123d 974* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 975
402b123d 976** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 977
402b123d 978** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
979 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
980 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
981 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
982 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
983 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 984
402b123d 985** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
986 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
987 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
988 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
989
402b123d 990** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
991 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
992 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
993
402b123d 994** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
995 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
996 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
997 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
998 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 999\f
402b123d 1000* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1001
402b123d 1002** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1003
82de6b0d
PE
1004 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1005 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1006 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1007 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1008 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1009
82de6b0d
PE
1010 - Error token location.
1011 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1012 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1013 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1014 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1015
82de6b0d
PE
1016 - Semicolon changes:
1017 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1018 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1019
82de6b0d
PE
1020 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1021 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1022 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1023 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1024
82de6b0d 1025 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1026
402b123d 1027** New features
1452af69 1028
82de6b0d 1029 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1030
82de6b0d
PE
1031 - New directive: %initial-action.
1032 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1033 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1034
82de6b0d
PE
1035 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1036 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1037
82de6b0d
PE
1038 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1039 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1040
82de6b0d 1041 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 1042 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1043
82de6b0d 1044 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1045
82de6b0d
PE
1046 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1047 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1048
402b123d 1049** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1050
82de6b0d
PE
1051 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1052 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1053 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1054 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1055 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1056 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1057
82de6b0d
PE
1058 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1059 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1060
82de6b0d 1061 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1062\f
402b123d 1063* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1064
402b123d 1065** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1066 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1067
402b123d 1068** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1069
dc546b0f
PE
1070 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1071 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1072
dc546b0f
PE
1073 - %destructor
1074 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1075 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1076
dc546b0f
PE
1077 - %error-verbose
1078 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1079
dc546b0f
PE
1080 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1081 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1082
402b123d 1083** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1084
dc546b0f
PE
1085 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1086 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1087 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1088
dc546b0f
PE
1089 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1090 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1091 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1092 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1093 be consistent.
74724a70 1094
dc546b0f
PE
1095 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1096 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1097
dc546b0f
PE
1098 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1099 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1100
dc546b0f
PE
1101 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1102 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1103
dc546b0f
PE
1104 - Yacc command and library now available
1105 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1106 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1107 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1108 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1109
dc546b0f 1110 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1111
dc546b0f
PE
1112 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1113 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1114 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1115
402b123d 1116** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1117
dc546b0f
PE
1118 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1119 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1120 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1121 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1122 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1123 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1124
dc546b0f
PE
1125 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1126 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1127
dc546b0f
PE
1128 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1129 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1130
dc546b0f
PE
1131 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1132 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1133 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1134
402b123d 1135** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1136
dc546b0f
PE
1137 - GLR and inline
1138 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1139 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1140
dc546b0f
PE
1141 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1142 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1143
402b123d 1144** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1145 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1146 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1147
402b123d 1148** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1149 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1150
402b123d 1151** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1152 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1153 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1154 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1155\f
402b123d 1156* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1157
402b123d 1158** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1159
402b123d 1160** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1161
402b123d 1162** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1163 Fix spurious parse errors.
1164
402b123d 1165** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1166 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1167 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1168
402b123d 1169** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1170 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1171 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1172
e9690142 1173 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
1174
1175 but the converse remains an error:
1176
e9690142 1177 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 1178
402b123d 1179** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1180 The following code:
1181
e9690142 1182 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
1183
1184 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1185 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1186\f
402b123d 1187* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1188
402b123d 1189** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1190 The declaration
1191 %glr-parser
1192 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1193 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1194 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1195 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1196
7933f2b5 1197 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1198 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1199
402b123d 1200** Output Directory
8c165d89 1201 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1202 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1203 now creates `bar.c'.
1204
402b123d 1205** Undefined token
007a50a4 1206 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1207 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1208
402b123d 1209** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1210 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1211 no longer the case.
1212
402b123d 1213** Error token
e88dbdbf 1214 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1215 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1216 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1217 will be mapped onto another number.
1218
402b123d 1219** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1220 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1221 error recovery is possible.
1222
402b123d 1223** End token
217598da
AD
1224 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1225
402b123d 1226** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1227 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1228 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1229 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1230 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1231 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1232 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1233 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1234 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1235
402b123d 1236** Traces
5504898e
AD
1237 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1238
402b123d 1239** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1240 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1241 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1242 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1243 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1244
402b123d 1245** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1246 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1247 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1248 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1249
402b123d 1250** Useless rules
643a5994 1251 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1252 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1253
402b123d 1254** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1255 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1256
402b123d 1257** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1258 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1259 reported.
1260
402b123d 1261** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1262 On a grammar such as
1263
1264 %token useless useful
1265 %%
1266 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1267
1268 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1269 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1270
402b123d 1271** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1272 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1273
402b123d 1274** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1275 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1276 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1277 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1278 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1279
402b123d 1280** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1281 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1282 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1283 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1284 For instance
7bd6c77e 1285 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1286 or
7bd6c77e 1287 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1288
402b123d 1289** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1290 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1291
402b123d 1292** New translations
a861a339 1293 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1294 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1295
402b123d 1296** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1297 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1298
402b123d 1299** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1300 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1301 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1302 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1303
402b123d 1304** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1305 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1306 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1307 - itemset
1308 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1309 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1310 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1311 - solved
1312 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1313 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1314 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1315
402b123d 1316** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1317 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1318 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1319
1320 %type <foo> bar
1321 %%
1322 bar: '0' {} '0';
1323
1324 This is fixed.
a861a339 1325
402b123d 1326** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1327\f
402b123d 1328* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1329
402b123d 1330** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1331 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1332 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1333 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1334
1335 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1336 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1337 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1338 kludge will be disabled.
1339
1340 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1341 extended.
76551463 1342\f
402b123d 1343* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1344
402b123d 1345** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1346 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1347 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1348
402b123d 1349** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1350 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1351 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1352 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1353 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1354 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1355
402b123d 1356** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1357 many portability hassles.
1358
402b123d 1359** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1360
402b123d 1361** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1362\f
402b123d 1363* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1364
402b123d 1365** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1366 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1367 under some conditions.
1368
402b123d 1369** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1370 As is done with $n.
1371\f
402b123d 1372* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1373
402b123d 1374** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1375
402b123d 1376** Portability fixes
76551463 1377
402b123d 1378** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1379\f
402b123d 1380* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1381
402b123d 1382** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1383
402b123d 1384** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1385 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1386 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1387 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1388 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1389
402b123d 1390** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1391 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1392 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1393
1394 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1395 problems as on AIX.
1396
402b123d 1397** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1398
402b123d 1399** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1400 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1401
402b123d 1402** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1403 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1404 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1405 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1406
402b123d 1407** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1408 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1409 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1410
402b123d 1411** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1412 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1413
402b123d 1414** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1415 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1416
402b123d 1417** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1418 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1419
402b123d 1420** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1421 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1422 any warning.
1423
402b123d 1424** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1425
402b123d 1426** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1427
402b123d 1428** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1429
402b123d 1430** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1431 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1432 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1433 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1434
402b123d 1435** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1436 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1437 previous allocations were not freed.
1438
402b123d 1439** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1440 Some newlines were missing.
1441 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1442
402b123d 1443** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1444 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1445
402b123d 1446** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1447 Was not used.
1448 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1449
402b123d 1450** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1451
402b123d 1452** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1453
402b123d 1454** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1455
402b123d 1456** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1457 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1458
402b123d 1459** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1460
402b123d 1461** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1462 New.
1463
402b123d 1464** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1465 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1466\f
402b123d 1467* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1468
402b123d 1469** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1470 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1471 argument.
1472
402b123d 1473** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1474 experiment.
1475
402b123d 1476** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1477\f
402b123d 1478* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1479
402b123d 1480** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1481 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1482 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1483 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1484
402b123d 1485** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1486
402b123d 1487** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1488
402b123d 1489** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1490
402b123d 1491** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1492
402b123d 1493** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1494
402b123d 1495** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1496
402b123d 1497** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1498
402b123d 1499** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1500
402b123d 1501** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1502
402b123d 1503** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1504 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1505
402b123d 1506** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1507 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1508 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1509
402b123d 1510** @$
f987e9d2 1511 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1512\f
402b123d 1513* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1514
402b123d 1515** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1516
402b123d 1517** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1518
402b123d 1519** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1520
402b123d 1521** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1522\f
402b123d 1523* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1524
402b123d 1525** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1526 some systems has been fixed.
1527\f
402b123d 1528* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1529
402b123d 1530** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1531
402b123d 1532** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1533
402b123d 1534** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1535
402b123d 1536** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1537
402b123d 1538** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1539
402b123d 1540** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1541
402b123d 1542** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1543 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1544\f
402b123d 1545* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1546
402b123d 1547** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1548the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1549
402b123d 1550** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1551example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1552of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1553
402b123d 1554** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1555and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1556table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1557purposes.
1558
402b123d 1559** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1560directives in the parser file.
1561
402b123d 1562** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1563Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1564
402b123d 1565** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1566the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1567The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1568a switch statement body.
1569\f
402b123d 1570* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1571
4d019228
DM
1572The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1573passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1574actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1575by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1576
6780ca7a 1577Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1578\f
402b123d 1579* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1580
1581--help option added.
6780ca7a 1582\f
402b123d 1583* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1584
1585Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1586
1587Local Variables:
1588mode: outline
1589End:
76551463
AD
1590
1591-----
1592
34136e65 1593Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1594
74553c98 1595This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1596
f16b0819 1597This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1598it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1599the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1600(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1601
f16b0819 1602This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1603but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1604MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1605GNU General Public License for more details.
1606
1607You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1608along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.