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4* Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
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6** Some portability problems in the test suite have been fixed.
7
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8** Minor improvements have been made to the manual.
9
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10** YYBACKUP works as expected.
11
b2bc8a1b 12* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
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14** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
15
16 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
17 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
18 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
19 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
20 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
21
3b1977ea 22** Named references:
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23
24 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
25 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
26 actions code.
27
28 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
29 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
30 as named references:
31
ac3297d5 32 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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33 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
34
35 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
36
ac3297d5 37 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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38 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
39
f840c05a 40 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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41 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
42 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
43
f840c05a 44 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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45 will help to stabilize them.
46
3b1977ea 47** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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48
49 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
50 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 51 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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52 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
53 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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54 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
55 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
56 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
57 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
58
59 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
60 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
61 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
62 file with these directives:
63
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64 %define lr.type lalr
65 %define lr.type ielr
66 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 67
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68 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
69 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
70 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
71 manual.
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72
73 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
74 stabilize them.
75
6f04ee6c 76** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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77
78 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
79 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
80 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 81 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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82 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
83 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
84 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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85 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
86 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
87 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
88 tokens.
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89
90 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
91 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
92 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
93 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
94 inconsistent states.
95
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96 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
97 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
98 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
99 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
100 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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101 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
102 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
103 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
104 power.
105
106 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
107 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
108
109 %define parse.lac full
110
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111 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
112 details including a few caveats.
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113
114 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
115 stabilize it.
116
6ee881f6 117** %define improvements:
f37495f6 118
3b1977ea 119*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 120
34d41938 121 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 122
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123 -D NAME[=VALUE]
124 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
125
126 -F NAME[=VALUE]
127 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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128
129 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
130
34d41938 131 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 132
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133 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
134 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
135 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
ac3297d5 136 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 137
3b1977ea 138*** Variables renamed:
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139
140 The following %define variables
141
142 api.push_pull
143 lr.keep_unreachable_states
144
145 have been renamed to
146
147 api.push-pull
148 lr.keep-unreachable-states
149
150 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
151 for backward compatibility.
152
723206df 153*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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154
155 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
156 within quotations marks. For example,
157
158 %define api.push-pull "push"
159
160 can be rewritten as
161
162 %define api.push-pull push
163
6ee881f6 164*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 165
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166*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
167
168** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
169
170** Character literals not of length one:
171
172 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
173 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
174 the following grammar to be the same token:
175
176 exp: exp '++'
177 | exp '+' exp
178 ;
179
180 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
181 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
182
183** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
184
185 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
186 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
187 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
188 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
189
190** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
191
192 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
193 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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194 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
195 and `last' members, instead of
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196
197 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
198 do \
199 if (N) \
200 { \
201 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
202 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
203 } \
204 else \
205 { \
206 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
207 } \
208 while (false)
209
210 use:
211
212 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
213 do \
214 if (N) \
215 { \
216 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
217 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
218 } \
219 else \
220 { \
221 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
222 } \
223 while (false)
224
225** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
226
227 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
228 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
229 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
230 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 231
3b1977ea 232** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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233
234 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
235 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
236 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
237 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
238 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
239 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
240 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
241 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
242
3b1977ea 243** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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244
245 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
246 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
247 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
248 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
249
250 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
251
252 instead of
253
254 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
255
256 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
257 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
258 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
259 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
260 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
261 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
262 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
263
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264** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
265
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266 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
267 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
268 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
269 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
270 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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271
272*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
273 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
274 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
275 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
276 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
ac3297d5 277 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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278 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
279 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
280 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
281 shifted or discarded.
282
283*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
284 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
285 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
286 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
287
288*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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289 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
290 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
291 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
292 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
293 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
294 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
295 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
296 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
297 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
298 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
299 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
300 by default.
1fa30307 301
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302** Java skeleton fixes:
303
304*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
305
306*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
307 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 308
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309*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
310
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311** -W/--warnings fixes:
312
ac3297d5 313*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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314
315 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
316 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
317
318 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
319
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320*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
321
322 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
323 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
ac3297d5 324 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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325 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
326 example:
327
328 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
329 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
330 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
331 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
332
333 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
334 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
335 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
336 then have no effect on the conflict report.
337
ac3297d5 338*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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339
340 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
341 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
342
343 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
344
b2bc8a1b 345*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 346
ac3297d5 347 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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348 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
349 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
350 suppress all warnings:
351
352 bison -Wnone gram.y
353
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354** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
355
356 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
357 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
358 produced an assertion failure. For example:
359
360 %left END 0
361
362 This bug has been fixed.
363
7527c744 364* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 365
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366** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
367 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
368
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369** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
370 been fixed.
371
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372** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
373
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374** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
375 been fixed.
376
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377** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
378 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
379 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
380 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
381
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382** Minor documentation fixes.
383
ea66d039 384* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 385
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386** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
387 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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388 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
389 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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390 affected platforms.
391
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392** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
393
394 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
395 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
396 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
397 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
398 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
399 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
400 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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401 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
402 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 403
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404** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
405
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406** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
407 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
408 avoided.
af2ffe5c 409
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410** %code is now a permanent feature.
411
412 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
413
414 %{CODE%}
415
416 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
417 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
418
419 %code {CODE}
420 %code requires {CODE}
421 %code provides {CODE}
422 %code top {CODE}
423
424 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
425 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
426 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
427 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
428 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
429
430 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
431 is still considered experimental.
432
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433** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
434
435 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
436 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
437 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
438 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
439 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
440 specified by POSIX.
441
442 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
443 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
444 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
445 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
446 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
447 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
448 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
449
450 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
451
452 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
453 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
454 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
455 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
456 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
457 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
458 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
459 be removed altogether.
460
461 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
462 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
463 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
464 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
465 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
466 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
467 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
468 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
469 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
470 2.4.2 is not necessary.
471
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472** Internationalization.
473
474 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
475 message translations were not installed although supported by the
476 host system.
477
41930e7a 478* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 479
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480** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
481 declarations have been fixed.
482
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483** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
484
485 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
486 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
487
488 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
489
490 instead of
491
492 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
493
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494 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
495 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
496 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
497 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
498 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
499 feature.
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500
501** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 502
d6fb461d 503* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 504
d6fb461d 505** %language is an experimental feature.
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506
507 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
508 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
509 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
510 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
511 in future releases.
7bd1665a 512
d6fb461d 513** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 514
d6fb461d 515** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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516 fixed.
517
d6fb461d 518* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 519
d6fb461d 520** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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521 are now deprecated:
522
523 %define NAME "VALUE"
524
d6fb461d 525** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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526
527 %define api.pure
528
529 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
530 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
531
d6fb461d 532** Push Parsing
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533
534 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 535 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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536 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
537 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
538 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
539
540 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
541 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
542
543 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
544
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545 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
546 feedback will help to stabilize it.
547
d6fb461d 548** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
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549 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
550 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 551
d6fb461d 552** Java
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553
554 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
555 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
556 %skeleton to select it.
557
558 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
559
560 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
561 feedback will help to stabilize it.
562
d6fb461d 563** %language
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564
565 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
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566 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
567 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
568 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 569
d6fb461d 570** XML Automaton Report
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571
572 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
573 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
574 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 575
d6fb461d 576** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
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577 %defines. For example:
578
579 %defines "parser.h"
580
d6fb461d 581** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
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582 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
583 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
584 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 585
d6fb461d 586** Unreachable State Removal
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587
588 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
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589 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
590 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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591
592 1. Removes unreachable states.
593
594 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
595 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
596 directives in existing grammar files.
597
598 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 599 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 600
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601 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
602
603 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
604
605 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
606 for further discussion.
607
d6fb461d 608** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 609
c373bf8b 610 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
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611 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
612 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
613 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
614 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
615 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
616 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
617 code.
618
d6fb461d 619** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 620 name.
1bb2bd75 621
d6fb461d 622** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
623 deprecated:
624
625 %file-prefix "parser"
626 %name-prefix "c_"
627 %output "parser.c"
628
d6fb461d 629** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
630
631 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
632 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
633 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
634 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
635 it:
636
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637 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
638 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
639 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
640 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 641
61fee93e
JD
642 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
643 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
644 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
645 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
646
647 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
648 determine whether they should become permanent features.
649
d6fb461d 650** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
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651
652 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
653 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
654 about unused $2 in:
655
656 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
657
658 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
659 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
660
661 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
662
663 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
664 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
665 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
666
59da312b 667 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
668 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
669
d6fb461d 670** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
671
672 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
673 %printer's:
674
675 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
676 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
677 declared semantic type tags.
678
3ebecc24 679 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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680 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
681 type tags.
682
683 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 684 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
685 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
686 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
687
85894313
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688 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
689 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
690 features.
691
12e35840
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692 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
693 details.
694
d6fb461d 695** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
696 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
697 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
698
d6fb461d 699** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
700 completely removed from Bison.
701
d6fb461d 702* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 703
d6fb461d 704** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
705 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
706 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
707 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
708 and is required by POSIX.
709
d6fb461d 710** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
711 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
712
d6fb461d 713** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
714
715 For example:
716
b2a0b7ca
JD
717 %union { char *string; }
718 %token <string> STRING1
719 %token <string> STRING2
720 %type <string> string1
721 %type <string> string2
722 %union { char character; }
723 %token <character> CHR
724 %type <character> chr
725 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
726 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
727 %destructor { } <character>
728
729 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
730 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
731 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
732 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
733 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 734
85894313
JD
735 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
736 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
737 future versions.]
738
d6fb461d 739** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
740 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
741 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
742 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
743 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
744
d6fb461d 745** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 746 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
747
748 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
749 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
750 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
751 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 752 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 753
34f98f46 754 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
755 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
756 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
757 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
758 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
759 after the token definitions.
760
761 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
762 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
763
d6fb461d 764** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
765 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
766 %after-header.
767
768 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
769 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
770 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
771 convenient for you:
772
773 %before-header {
774 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
775 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
776 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
777 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
778 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
779 }
780 %start-header {
781 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
782 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
783 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
784 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
785 }
786 %union {
34f98f46
JD
787 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
788 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
789 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 790 }
34f98f46
JD
791 %end-header {
792 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
793 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
794 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
795 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
796 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 797 }
34f98f46
JD
798 %after-header {
799 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
800 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
801 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
802 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
803 * Bison-generated definitions. */
804 }
805
806 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
807 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 808
85894313
JD
809 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
810 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
811
d6fb461d 812** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
813 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
814 in a future release.
742e4900 815
d6fb461d 816* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 817
d6fb461d 818** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
819 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
820
d6fb461d 821** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
822 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
823
d6fb461d 824* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 825
d6fb461d 826** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
827 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
828 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 829
d6fb461d 830** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 831
d6fb461d 832** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 833
d6fb461d 834** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
835 their contents together.
836
d6fb461d 837** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
838 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
839 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 840
8f3596a6 841 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
842 | exp "+" exp
843 ;
affac613 844
8f3596a6
AD
845 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
846 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 847 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 848
4e26c69e
PE
849 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
850 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
851 | exp "+" exp
852 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 853 ;
affac613 854
4e26c69e
PE
855 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
856 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
857 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 858
8f3596a6 859 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
860 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
861 ;
862
84866159
AD
863 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
864 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
865
866 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
867
721be13c
PE
868 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
869 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 870
d6fb461d 871** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
872 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
873 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
874 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 875
d6fb461d 876** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
877 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
878 instead of warnings.
879
d6fb461d 880** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
881 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
882 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 883
d6fb461d 884** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 885
d6fb461d 886** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
887 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
888 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 889
d6fb461d 890** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
891 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
892 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
893 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
894 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
895
896 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
897 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
898 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
899 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 900
b50d2359 901 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 902 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 903
d6fb461d 904** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 905\f
d6fb461d 906* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 907
d6fb461d 908** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 909
d6fb461d 910** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
911 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
912 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
913 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
914 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
915 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 916
d6fb461d 917** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
918 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
919 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
920 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
921
d6fb461d 922** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
923 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
924 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
925
d6fb461d 926** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
927 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
928 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
929 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
930 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 931\f
d6fb461d 932* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 933
d6fb461d 934** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 935
82de6b0d
PE
936 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
937 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
938 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
939 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
940 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 941
82de6b0d
PE
942 - Error token location.
943 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
944 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
945 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
946 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 947
82de6b0d
PE
948 - Semicolon changes:
949 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
950 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 951
82de6b0d
PE
952 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
953 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
954 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
955 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 956
82de6b0d 957 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 958
d6fb461d 959** New features
1452af69 960
82de6b0d 961 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 962
82de6b0d
PE
963 - New directive: %initial-action.
964 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
965 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 966
82de6b0d
PE
967 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
968 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 969
82de6b0d
PE
970 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
971 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 972
82de6b0d 973 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 974 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 975
82de6b0d 976 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 977
82de6b0d
PE
978 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
979 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 980
d6fb461d 981** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 982
82de6b0d
PE
983 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
984 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
985 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
986 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
987 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
988 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 989
82de6b0d
PE
990 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
991 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 992
82de6b0d 993 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 994\f
d6fb461d 995* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 996
d6fb461d 997** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 998 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 999
d6fb461d 1000** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1001
dc546b0f
PE
1002 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1003 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1004
dc546b0f
PE
1005 - %destructor
1006 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1007 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1008
dc546b0f
PE
1009 - %error-verbose
1010 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1011
dc546b0f
PE
1012 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1013 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1014
d6fb461d 1015** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1016
dc546b0f
PE
1017 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1018 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1019 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1020
dc546b0f
PE
1021 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1022 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1023 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1024 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1025 be consistent.
74724a70 1026
dc546b0f
PE
1027 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1028 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1029
dc546b0f
PE
1030 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1031 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1032
dc546b0f
PE
1033 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1034 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1035
dc546b0f
PE
1036 - Yacc command and library now available
1037 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1038 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1039 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1040 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1041
dc546b0f 1042 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1043
dc546b0f
PE
1044 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1045 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1046 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1047
d6fb461d 1048** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1049
dc546b0f
PE
1050 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1051 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1052 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1053 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1054 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1055 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1056
dc546b0f
PE
1057 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1058 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1059
dc546b0f
PE
1060 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1061 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1062
dc546b0f
PE
1063 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1064 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1065 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1066
d6fb461d 1067** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1068
dc546b0f
PE
1069 - GLR and inline
1070 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1071 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1072
dc546b0f
PE
1073 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1074 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1075
d6fb461d 1076** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1077 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1078 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1079
d6fb461d 1080** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1081 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1082
d6fb461d 1083** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1084 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1085 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1086 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1087\f
d6fb461d 1088* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1089
d6fb461d 1090** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1091
d6fb461d 1092** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1093
d6fb461d 1094** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1095 Fix spurious parse errors.
1096
d6fb461d 1097** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1098 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1099 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1100
d6fb461d 1101** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1102 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1103 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1104
1105 untyped: ... typed;
1106
1107 but the converse remains an error:
1108
1109 typed: ... untyped;
1110
d6fb461d 1111** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1112 The following code:
1113
1114 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1115
1116 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1117 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1118\f
d6fb461d 1119* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1120
d6fb461d 1121** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1122 The declaration
1123 %glr-parser
1124 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1125 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1126 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1127 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1128
7933f2b5 1129 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1130 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1131
d6fb461d 1132** Output Directory
8c165d89 1133 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1134 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1135 now creates `bar.c'.
1136
d6fb461d 1137** Undefined token
007a50a4 1138 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1139 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1140
d6fb461d 1141** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1142 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1143 no longer the case.
1144
d6fb461d 1145** Error token
e88dbdbf 1146 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1147 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1148 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1149 will be mapped onto another number.
1150
d6fb461d 1151** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1152 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1153 error recovery is possible.
1154
d6fb461d 1155** End token
217598da
AD
1156 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1157
d6fb461d 1158** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1159 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1160 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1161 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1162 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1163 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1164 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1165 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1166 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1167
d6fb461d 1168** Traces
5504898e
AD
1169 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1170
d6fb461d 1171** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1172 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1173 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1174 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1175 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1176
d6fb461d 1177** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1178 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1179 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1180 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1181
d6fb461d 1182** Useless rules
643a5994 1183 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1184 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1185
d6fb461d 1186** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1187 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1188
d6fb461d 1189** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1190 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1191 reported.
1192
d6fb461d 1193** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1194 On a grammar such as
1195
1196 %token useless useful
1197 %%
1198 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1199
1200 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1201 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1202
d6fb461d 1203** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1204 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1205
d6fb461d 1206** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1207 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1208 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1209 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1210 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1211
d6fb461d 1212** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1213 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1214 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1215 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1216 For instance
7bd6c77e 1217 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1218 or
7bd6c77e 1219 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1220
d6fb461d 1221** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1222 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1223
d6fb461d 1224** New translations
a861a339 1225 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1226 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1227
d6fb461d 1228** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1229 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1230
d6fb461d 1231** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1232 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1233 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1234 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1235
d6fb461d 1236** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1237 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1238 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1239 - itemset
1240 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1241 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1242 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1243 - solved
1244 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1245 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1246 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1247
d6fb461d 1248** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1249 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1250 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1251
1252 %type <foo> bar
1253 %%
1254 bar: '0' {} '0';
1255
1256 This is fixed.
a861a339 1257
d6fb461d 1258** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1259\f
d6fb461d 1260* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1261
d6fb461d 1262** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1263 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1264 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1265 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1266
1267 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1268 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1269 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1270 kludge will be disabled.
1271
1272 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1273 extended.
76551463 1274\f
d6fb461d 1275* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1276
d6fb461d 1277** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1278 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1279 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1280
d6fb461d 1281** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1282 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1283 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1284 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1285 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1286 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1287
d6fb461d 1288** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1289 many portability hassles.
1290
d6fb461d 1291** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1292
d6fb461d 1293** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1294\f
d6fb461d 1295* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1296
d6fb461d 1297** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1298 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1299 under some conditions.
1300
d6fb461d 1301** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1302 As is done with $n.
1303\f
d6fb461d 1304* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1305
d6fb461d 1306** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1307
d6fb461d 1308** Portability fixes
76551463 1309
d6fb461d 1310** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1311\f
d6fb461d 1312* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1313
d6fb461d 1314** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1315
d6fb461d 1316** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1317 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1318 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1319 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1320 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1321
d6fb461d 1322** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1323 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1324 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1325
1326 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1327 problems as on AIX.
1328
d6fb461d 1329** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1330
d6fb461d 1331** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1332 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1333
d6fb461d 1334** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1335 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1336 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1337 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1338
d6fb461d 1339** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1340 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1341 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1342
d6fb461d 1343** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1344 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1345
d6fb461d 1346** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1347 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1348
d6fb461d 1349** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1350 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1351
d6fb461d 1352** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1353 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1354 any warning.
1355
d6fb461d 1356** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1357
d6fb461d 1358** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1359
d6fb461d 1360** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1361
d6fb461d 1362** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1363 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1364 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1365 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1366
d6fb461d 1367** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1368 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1369 previous allocations were not freed.
1370
d6fb461d 1371** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1372 Some newlines were missing.
1373 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1374
d6fb461d 1375** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1376 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1377
d6fb461d 1378** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1379 Was not used.
1380 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1381
d6fb461d 1382** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1383
d6fb461d 1384** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1385
d6fb461d 1386** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1387
d6fb461d 1388** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1389 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1390
d6fb461d 1391** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1392
d6fb461d 1393** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1394 New.
1395
d6fb461d 1396** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1397 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1398\f
d6fb461d 1399* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1400
d6fb461d 1401** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1402 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1403 argument.
1404
d6fb461d 1405** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1406 experiment.
1407
d6fb461d 1408** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1409\f
d6fb461d 1410* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1411
d6fb461d 1412** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1413 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1414 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1415 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1416
d6fb461d 1417** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1418
d6fb461d 1419** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1420
d6fb461d 1421** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1422
d6fb461d 1423** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1424
d6fb461d 1425** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1426
d6fb461d 1427** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1428
d6fb461d 1429** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1430
d6fb461d 1431** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1432
d6fb461d 1433** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1434
d6fb461d 1435** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1436 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1437
d6fb461d 1438** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1439 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1440 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1441
d6fb461d 1442** @$
f987e9d2 1443 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1444\f
d6fb461d 1445* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1446
d6fb461d 1447** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1448
d6fb461d 1449** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1450
d6fb461d 1451** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1452
d6fb461d 1453** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1454\f
d6fb461d 1455* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1456
d6fb461d 1457** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1458 some systems has been fixed.
1459\f
d6fb461d 1460* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1461
d6fb461d 1462** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1463
d6fb461d 1464** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1465
d6fb461d 1466** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1467
d6fb461d 1468** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1469
d6fb461d 1470** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1471
d6fb461d 1472** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1473
d6fb461d 1474** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1475 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1476\f
d6fb461d 1477* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1478
d6fb461d 1479** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1480the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1481
d6fb461d 1482** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1483example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1484of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1485
d6fb461d 1486** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1487and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1488table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1489purposes.
1490
d6fb461d 1491** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1492directives in the parser file.
1493
d6fb461d 1494** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1495Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1496
d6fb461d 1497** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1498the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1499The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1500a switch statement body.
1501\f
d6fb461d 1502* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1503
4d019228
DM
1504The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1505passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1506actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1507by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1508
6780ca7a 1509Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1510\f
d6fb461d 1511* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1512
1513--help option added.
6780ca7a 1514\f
d6fb461d 1515* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1516
1517Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1518
1519Local Variables:
1520mode: outline
1521End:
76551463
AD
1522
1523-----
1524
c932d613 1525Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1526
8defe11b 1527This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1528
f16b0819 1529This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1530it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1531the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1532(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1533
f16b0819 1534This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1535but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1536MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1537GNU General Public License for more details.
1538
1539You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1540along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.