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4* Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
5
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6** Named References Support
7
8 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
9 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
10 actions code.
11
12 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
13 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
14 as named references:
15
16 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
17 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
18
19 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
20
21 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
22 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
23
f840c05a 24 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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25 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
26 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
27
f840c05a 28 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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29 will help to stabilize them.
30
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31** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support
32
33 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
34 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
35 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
36 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in
37 parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
38 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
39 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
40 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
41 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
42
43 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
44 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
45 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
46 file with these directives:
47
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48 %define lr.type lalr
49 %define lr.type ielr
50 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 51
620b5727 52 The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
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53 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation
54 for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the
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55 section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the
56 details.
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57
58 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
59 stabilize them.
60
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61** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now an error not a warning.
62
f37495f6 63** %define improvements.
e3a33f7c 64
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65*** Unrecognized variables are now an error not a warning.
66
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67*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
68
69*** Can now be invoked via the command line.
4ecd3681 70
34d41938 71 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 72
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73 -D NAME[=VALUE]
74 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
75
76 -F NAME[=VALUE]
77 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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78
79 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
80
34d41938 81 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 82
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83 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
84 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
85 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
86 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 87
f37495f6 88*** Variables renamed.
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89
90 The following %define variables
91
92 api.push_pull
93 lr.keep_unreachable_states
94
95 have been renamed to
96
97 api.push-pull
98 lr.keep-unreachable-states
99
100 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
101 for backward compatibility.
102
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103*** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file.
104
105 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
106 within quotations marks. For example,
107
108 %define api.push-pull "push"
109
110 can be rewritten as
111
112 %define api.push-pull push
113
114** Symbol names.
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115
116 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables
117 (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position,
118 similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over
119 POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc
120 mode (--yacc).
121
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122** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it.
123
124 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
125 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
126 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
127 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
128 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
129 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
130 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
131 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
132
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133** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
134
135 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
136 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
137 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
138 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
139
140 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
141
142 instead of
143
144 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
145
146 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
147 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
148 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
149 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
150 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
151 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
152 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
153
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154** Character literals not of length one.
155
156 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
157 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
158 the following grammar to be the same token:
159
160 exp: exp '++'
161 | exp '+' exp
162 ;
163
164 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
165 some future release, Bison will report an error instead.
166
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167** Verbose error messages fixed for nonassociative tokens.
168
169 When %error-verbose is specified, syntax error messages produced by
170 the generated parser include the unexpected token as well as a list of
171 expected tokens. Previously, this list erroneously included tokens
172 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
173 were resolved with %nonassoc. Such tokens are now properly omitted
174 from the list.
175
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176** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions.
177
178 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
179 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
180 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
181 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
182
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183** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC
184
185 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
186 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
187 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
188 and "last" members, instead of
189
190 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
191 do \
192 if (N) \
193 { \
194 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
195 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
196 } \
197 else \
198 { \
199 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
200 } \
201 while (false)
202
203 use:
204
205 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
206 do \
207 if (N) \
208 { \
209 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
210 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
211 } \
212 else \
213 { \
214 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
215 } \
216 while (false)
217
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218** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++
219
220 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
221 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
222 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
223 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
224
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225* Changes in version 2.4.3 (????-??-??):
226
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227** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
228 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
229
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230** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
231 been fixed.
232
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233** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
234
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235** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
236 been fixed.
237
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238** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
239 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
240 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
241 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
242
ea66d039 243* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 244
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245** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
246 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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247 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
248 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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249 affected platforms.
250
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251** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
252
253 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
254 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
255 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
256 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
257 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
258 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
259 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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260 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
261 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 262
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263** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
264
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265** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
266 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
267 avoided.
af2ffe5c 268
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269** %code is now a permanent feature.
270
271 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
272
273 %{CODE%}
274
275 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
276 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
277
278 %code {CODE}
279 %code requires {CODE}
280 %code provides {CODE}
281 %code top {CODE}
282
283 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
284 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
285 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
286 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
287 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
288
289 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
290 is still considered experimental.
291
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292** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
293
294 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
295 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
296 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
297 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
298 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
299 specified by POSIX.
300
301 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
302 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
303 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
304 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
305 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
306 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
307 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
308
309 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
310
311 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
312 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
313 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
314 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
315 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
316 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
317 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
318 be removed altogether.
319
320 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
321 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
322 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
323 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
324 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
325 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
326 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
327 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
328 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
329 2.4.2 is not necessary.
330
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331** Internationalization.
332
333 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
334 message translations were not installed although supported by the
335 host system.
336
41930e7a 337* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 338
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339** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
340 declarations have been fixed.
341
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342** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
343
344 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
345 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
346
347 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
348
349 instead of
350
351 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
352
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353 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
354 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
355 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
356 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
357 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
358 feature.
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359
360** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 361
d6fb461d 362* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 363
d6fb461d 364** %language is an experimental feature.
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365
366 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
367 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
368 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
369 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
370 in future releases.
7bd1665a 371
d6fb461d 372** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 373
d6fb461d 374** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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375 fixed.
376
d6fb461d 377* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 378
d6fb461d 379** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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380 are now deprecated:
381
382 %define NAME "VALUE"
383
d6fb461d 384** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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385
386 %define api.pure
387
388 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
389 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
390
d6fb461d 391** Push Parsing
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392
393 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 394 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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395 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
396 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
397 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
398
399 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
400 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
401
402 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
403
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404 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
405 feedback will help to stabilize it.
406
d6fb461d 407** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
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408 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
409 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 410
d6fb461d 411** Java
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412
413 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
414 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
415 %skeleton to select it.
416
417 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
418
419 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
420 feedback will help to stabilize it.
421
d6fb461d 422** %language
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423
424 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
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425 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
426 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
427 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 428
d6fb461d 429** XML Automaton Report
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430
431 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
432 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
433 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 434
d6fb461d 435** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
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436 %defines. For example:
437
438 %defines "parser.h"
439
d6fb461d 440** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
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441 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
442 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
443 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 444
d6fb461d 445** Unreachable State Removal
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446
447 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
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448 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
449 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
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450
451 1. Removes unreachable states.
452
453 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
454 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
455 directives in existing grammar files.
456
457 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 458 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 459
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460 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
461
462 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
463
464 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
465 for further discussion.
466
d6fb461d 467** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 468
c373bf8b 469 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
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470 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
471 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
472 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
473 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
474 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
475 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
476 code.
477
d6fb461d 478** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 479 name.
1bb2bd75 480
d6fb461d 481** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
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482 deprecated:
483
484 %file-prefix "parser"
485 %name-prefix "c_"
486 %output "parser.c"
487
d6fb461d 488** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
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489
490 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
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491 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
492 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
493 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
494 it:
495
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496 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
497 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
498 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
499 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 500
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501 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
502 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
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503 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
504 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
505
506 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
507 determine whether they should become permanent features.
508
d6fb461d 509** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
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510
511 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
512 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
513 about unused $2 in:
514
515 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
516
517 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
518 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
519
520 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
521
522 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
523 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
524 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
525
59da312b 526 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
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527 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
528
d6fb461d 529** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
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530
531 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
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532 %printer's:
533
534 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
535 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
536 declared semantic type tags.
537
3ebecc24 538 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
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539 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
540 type tags.
541
542 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 543 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
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544 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
545 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
546
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547 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
548 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
549 features.
550
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551 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
552 details.
553
d6fb461d 554** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
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555 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
556 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
557
d6fb461d 558** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
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559 completely removed from Bison.
560
d6fb461d 561* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 562
d6fb461d 563** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
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564 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
565 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
566 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
567 and is required by POSIX.
568
d6fb461d 569** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
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570 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
571
d6fb461d 572** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
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573
574 For example:
575
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576 %union { char *string; }
577 %token <string> STRING1
578 %token <string> STRING2
579 %type <string> string1
580 %type <string> string2
581 %union { char character; }
582 %token <character> CHR
583 %type <character> chr
584 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
585 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
586 %destructor { } <character>
587
588 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
589 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
590 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
591 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
592 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 593
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594 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
595 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
596 future versions.]
597
d6fb461d 598** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
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599 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
600 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
601 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
602 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
603
d6fb461d 604** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 605 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
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606
607 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
608 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
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609 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
610 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 611 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 612
34f98f46 613 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
614 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
615 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
616 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
617 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
618 after the token definitions.
619
620 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
621 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
622
d6fb461d 623** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
624 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
625 %after-header.
626
627 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
628 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
629 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
630 convenient for you:
631
632 %before-header {
633 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
634 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
635 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
636 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
637 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
638 }
639 %start-header {
640 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
641 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
642 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
643 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
644 }
645 %union {
34f98f46
JD
646 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
647 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
648 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 649 }
34f98f46
JD
650 %end-header {
651 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
652 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
653 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
654 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
655 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 656 }
34f98f46
JD
657 %after-header {
658 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
659 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
660 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
661 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
662 * Bison-generated definitions. */
663 }
664
665 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
666 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 667
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668 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
669 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
670
d6fb461d 671** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
672 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
673 in a future release.
742e4900 674
d6fb461d 675* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 676
d6fb461d 677** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
678 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
679
d6fb461d 680** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
681 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
682
d6fb461d 683* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 684
d6fb461d 685** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
686 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
687 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 688
d6fb461d 689** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 690
d6fb461d 691** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 692
d6fb461d 693** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
694 their contents together.
695
d6fb461d 696** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
697 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
698 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 699
8f3596a6 700 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
701 | exp "+" exp
702 ;
affac613 703
8f3596a6
AD
704 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
705 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 706 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 707
4e26c69e
PE
708 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
709 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
710 | exp "+" exp
711 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 712 ;
affac613 713
4e26c69e
PE
714 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
715 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
716 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 717
8f3596a6 718 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
719 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
720 ;
721
84866159
AD
722 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
723 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
724
725 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
726
721be13c
PE
727 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
728 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 729
d6fb461d 730** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
731 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
732 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
733 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 734
d6fb461d 735** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
736 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
737 instead of warnings.
738
d6fb461d 739** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
740 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
741 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 742
d6fb461d 743** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 744
d6fb461d 745** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
746 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
747 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 748
d6fb461d 749** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
750 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
751 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
752 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
753 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
754
755 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
756 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
757 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
758 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 759
b50d2359 760 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 761 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 762
d6fb461d 763** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 764\f
d6fb461d 765* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 766
d6fb461d 767** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 768
d6fb461d 769** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
770 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
771 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
772 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
773 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
774 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 775
d6fb461d 776** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
777 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
778 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
779 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
780
d6fb461d 781** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
782 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
783 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
784
d6fb461d 785** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
786 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
787 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
788 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
789 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 790\f
d6fb461d 791* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 792
d6fb461d 793** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 794
82de6b0d
PE
795 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
796 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
797 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
798 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
799 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 800
82de6b0d
PE
801 - Error token location.
802 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
803 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
804 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
805 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 806
82de6b0d
PE
807 - Semicolon changes:
808 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
809 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 810
82de6b0d
PE
811 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
812 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
813 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
814 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 815
82de6b0d 816 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 817
d6fb461d 818** New features
1452af69 819
82de6b0d 820 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 821
82de6b0d
PE
822 - New directive: %initial-action.
823 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
824 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 825
82de6b0d
PE
826 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
827 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 828
82de6b0d
PE
829 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
830 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 831
82de6b0d 832 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 833 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 834
82de6b0d 835 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 836
82de6b0d
PE
837 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
838 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 839
d6fb461d 840** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 841
82de6b0d
PE
842 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
843 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
844 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
845 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
846 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
847 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 848
82de6b0d
PE
849 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
850 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 851
82de6b0d 852 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 853\f
d6fb461d 854* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 855
d6fb461d 856** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 857 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 858
d6fb461d 859** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 860
dc546b0f
PE
861 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
862 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 863
dc546b0f
PE
864 - %destructor
865 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
866 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 867
dc546b0f
PE
868 - %error-verbose
869 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 870
dc546b0f
PE
871 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
872 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 873
d6fb461d 874** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 875
dc546b0f
PE
876 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
877 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
878 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 879
dc546b0f
PE
880 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
881 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
882 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
883 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
884 be consistent.
74724a70 885
dc546b0f
PE
886 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
887 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 888
dc546b0f
PE
889 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
890 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 891
dc546b0f
PE
892 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
893 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 894
dc546b0f
PE
895 - Yacc command and library now available
896 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
897 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
898 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
899 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 900
dc546b0f 901 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 902
dc546b0f
PE
903 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
904 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
905 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 906
d6fb461d 907** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 908
dc546b0f
PE
909 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
910 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
911 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
912 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
913 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
914 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 915
dc546b0f
PE
916 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
917 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 918
dc546b0f
PE
919 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
920 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 921
dc546b0f
PE
922 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
923 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
924 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 925
d6fb461d 926** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 927
dc546b0f
PE
928 - GLR and inline
929 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
930 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 931
dc546b0f
PE
932 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
933 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 934
d6fb461d 935** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
936 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
937 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 938
d6fb461d 939** #line in output files
dc546b0f 940 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 941
d6fb461d 942** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
943 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
944 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
945 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 946\f
d6fb461d 947* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 948
d6fb461d 949** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 950
d6fb461d 951** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 952
d6fb461d 953** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
954 Fix spurious parse errors.
955
d6fb461d 956** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
957 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
958 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
959
d6fb461d 960** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
961 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
962 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
963
964 untyped: ... typed;
965
966 but the converse remains an error:
967
968 typed: ... untyped;
969
d6fb461d 970** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
971 The following code:
972
973 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
974
975 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
976 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 977\f
d6fb461d 978* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 979
d6fb461d 980** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
981 The declaration
982 %glr-parser
983 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
984 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 985 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
986 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
987
7933f2b5 988 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
989 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
990
d6fb461d 991** Output Directory
8c165d89 992 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 993 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
994 now creates `bar.c'.
995
d6fb461d 996** Undefined token
007a50a4 997 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 998 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 999
d6fb461d 1000** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1001 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1002 no longer the case.
1003
d6fb461d 1004** Error token
e88dbdbf 1005 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1006 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1007 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1008 will be mapped onto another number.
1009
d6fb461d 1010** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1011 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1012 error recovery is possible.
1013
d6fb461d 1014** End token
217598da
AD
1015 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1016
d6fb461d 1017** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1018 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1019 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1020 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1021 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1022 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1023 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1024 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1025 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1026
d6fb461d 1027** Traces
5504898e
AD
1028 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1029
d6fb461d 1030** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1031 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1032 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1033 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1034 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1035
d6fb461d 1036** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1037 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1038 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1039 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1040
d6fb461d 1041** Useless rules
643a5994 1042 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1043 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1044
d6fb461d 1045** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1046 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1047
d6fb461d 1048** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1049 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1050 reported.
1051
d6fb461d 1052** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1053 On a grammar such as
1054
1055 %token useless useful
1056 %%
1057 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1058
1059 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1060 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1061
d6fb461d 1062** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1063 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1064
d6fb461d 1065** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1066 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1067 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1068 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1069 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1070
d6fb461d 1071** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1072 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1073 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1074 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1075 For instance
7bd6c77e 1076 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1077 or
7bd6c77e 1078 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1079
d6fb461d 1080** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1081 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1082
d6fb461d 1083** New translations
a861a339 1084 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1085 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1086
d6fb461d 1087** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1088 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1089
d6fb461d 1090** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1091 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1092 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1093 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1094
d6fb461d 1095** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1096 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1097 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1098 - itemset
1099 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1100 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1101 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1102 - solved
1103 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1104 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1105 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1106
d6fb461d 1107** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1108 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1109 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1110
1111 %type <foo> bar
1112 %%
1113 bar: '0' {} '0';
1114
1115 This is fixed.
a861a339 1116
d6fb461d 1117** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1118\f
d6fb461d 1119* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1120
d6fb461d 1121** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1122 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1123 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1124 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1125
1126 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1127 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1128 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1129 kludge will be disabled.
1130
1131 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1132 extended.
76551463 1133\f
d6fb461d 1134* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1135
d6fb461d 1136** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1137 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1138 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1139
d6fb461d 1140** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1141 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1142 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1143 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1144 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1145 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1146
d6fb461d 1147** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1148 many portability hassles.
1149
d6fb461d 1150** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1151
d6fb461d 1152** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1153\f
d6fb461d 1154* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1155
d6fb461d 1156** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1157 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1158 under some conditions.
1159
d6fb461d 1160** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1161 As is done with $n.
1162\f
d6fb461d 1163* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1164
d6fb461d 1165** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1166
d6fb461d 1167** Portability fixes
76551463 1168
d6fb461d 1169** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1170\f
d6fb461d 1171* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1172
d6fb461d 1173** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1174
d6fb461d 1175** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1176 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1177 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1178 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1179 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1180
d6fb461d 1181** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1182 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1183 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1184
1185 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1186 problems as on AIX.
1187
d6fb461d 1188** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1189
d6fb461d 1190** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1191 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1192
d6fb461d 1193** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1194 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1195 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1196 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1197
d6fb461d 1198** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1199 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1200 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1201
d6fb461d 1202** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1203 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1204
d6fb461d 1205** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1206 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1207
d6fb461d 1208** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1209 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1210
d6fb461d 1211** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1212 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1213 any warning.
1214
d6fb461d 1215** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1216
d6fb461d 1217** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1218
d6fb461d 1219** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1220
d6fb461d 1221** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1222 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1223 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1224 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1225
d6fb461d 1226** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1227 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1228 previous allocations were not freed.
1229
d6fb461d 1230** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1231 Some newlines were missing.
1232 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1233
d6fb461d 1234** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1235 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1236
d6fb461d 1237** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1238 Was not used.
1239 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1240
d6fb461d 1241** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1242
d6fb461d 1243** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1244
d6fb461d 1245** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1246
d6fb461d 1247** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1248 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1249
d6fb461d 1250** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1251
d6fb461d 1252** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1253 New.
1254
d6fb461d 1255** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1256 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1257\f
d6fb461d 1258* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1259
d6fb461d 1260** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1261 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1262 argument.
1263
d6fb461d 1264** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1265 experiment.
1266
d6fb461d 1267** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1268\f
d6fb461d 1269* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1270
d6fb461d 1271** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1272 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1273 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1274 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1275
d6fb461d 1276** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1277
d6fb461d 1278** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1279
d6fb461d 1280** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1281
d6fb461d 1282** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1283
d6fb461d 1284** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1285
d6fb461d 1286** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1287
d6fb461d 1288** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1289
d6fb461d 1290** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1291
d6fb461d 1292** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1293
d6fb461d 1294** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1295 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1296
d6fb461d 1297** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1298 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1299 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1300
d6fb461d 1301** @$
f987e9d2 1302 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1303\f
d6fb461d 1304* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1305
d6fb461d 1306** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1307
d6fb461d 1308** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1309
d6fb461d 1310** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1311
d6fb461d 1312** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1313\f
d6fb461d 1314* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1315
d6fb461d 1316** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1317 some systems has been fixed.
1318\f
d6fb461d 1319* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1320
d6fb461d 1321** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1322
d6fb461d 1323** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1324
d6fb461d 1325** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1326
d6fb461d 1327** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1328
d6fb461d 1329** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1330
d6fb461d 1331** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1332
d6fb461d 1333** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1334 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1335\f
d6fb461d 1336* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1337
d6fb461d 1338** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1339the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1340
d6fb461d 1341** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1342example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1343of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1344
d6fb461d 1345** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1346and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1347table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1348purposes.
1349
d6fb461d 1350** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1351directives in the parser file.
1352
d6fb461d 1353** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1354Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1355
d6fb461d 1356** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1357the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1358The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1359a switch statement body.
1360\f
d6fb461d 1361* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1362
4d019228
DM
1363The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1364passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1365actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1366by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1367
6780ca7a 1368Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1369\f
d6fb461d 1370* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1371
1372--help option added.
6780ca7a 1373\f
d6fb461d 1374* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1375
1376Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1377
1378Local Variables:
1379mode: outline
1380End:
76551463
AD
1381
1382-----
1383
6e30ede8
PE
1384Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
13852004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation,
1386Inc.
76551463 1387
8defe11b 1388This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1389
f16b0819 1390This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1391it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1392the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1393(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1394
f16b0819 1395This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1396but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1397MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1398GNU General Public License for more details.
1399
1400You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1401along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.