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