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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
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3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
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5** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
6
7 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
8 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser resulted
9 in an yyerror function that did not take a location as a parameter. With this
10 new value, the user may request a better pure parser, where yyerror does take
11 a location as a parameter (in location-tracking parsers).
12
13 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
14 "%define api.pure full".
15
5a05f42e 16** Changes in the format of error messages
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17
18 This used to be the format of many error reports:
19
20 foo.y:5.10-24: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
21 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
22
23 It is now:
24
25 foo.y:5.10-25: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
26 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
27
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28** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
29
30 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
31 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
7287be84 32 before re-throwing the exception.
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33
34 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
35 appreciated.
36
7287be84 37** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
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38
39 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
40 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
41 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
42 then responsible to define her type.
43
44 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
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45 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
46 them.
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47
48 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
49 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
50 compatibility).
51
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52 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
53 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
54 api.position.type.
55
9c16d399 56** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
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57
58 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
59 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
60 numbered and left-justified.
61
62 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
63 diamond shaped nodes.
64
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65 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
66 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
67
68 Two nodes were added to the documentation: Xml and Graphviz.
69
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70* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
71
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72** Bug fixes
73
74 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
75
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76** Documentation
77
78 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
79 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 80
9d3f7eaf 81* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 82
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83 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
84 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
85 reporting them to us.
86
87** Bug fixes
88
89 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
90 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
91 3.2.
92
93 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 94
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95 Nul characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
96
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97 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
98 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
99
0ac15849 100* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 101
468455e1 102 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 103
6eb8f74f 104* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 105
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106** Bug fixes
107
9a50c55a 108 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
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109
110 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
111 users to the appropriate place to report them.
112
113 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
114
115 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
116 generated, are removed.
933ec544 117
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118 All the generated headers are self-contained.
119
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120** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
121
122 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
123 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
124 For instance the header generated from
125
126 %define api.prefix "calc"
127 %defines "lib/parse.h"
128
129 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
130
7b70847e 131** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
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132
133 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
134 warnings such as:
135
136 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
137 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
138 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
139 *++yyvsp = yylval;
140 ^
141
142 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
143
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144 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
145 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
146 addressed.
147
e1eeecd3 148* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 149
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150** Bug fixes
151
152 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
153 suite have been fixed.
154
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155** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
156
157 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
158 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 159
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160** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
161
162 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
163
77b214ef 164* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 165
cbaea010 166 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
8617d87e 167
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168** Future Changes
169
170 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
171 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
172 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
173
174 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
175
176 write:
177
178 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
179
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180** Bug fixes
181
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182*** Type names are now properly escaped.
183
184*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 185
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186*** Stray @ or $ in actions
187
188 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
189 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
190 now does.
191
cd735a8c 192** Type names in actions
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193
194 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 195 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
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196
197 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
198
199 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 200 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
4982f078 201
1505e8bb 202* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
ad6b775f 203
c2425191 204** Future Changes
0f11eec2 205
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206 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
207 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 208
aaf61036 209*** K&R C parsers
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210
211 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 212 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
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213 compilers.
214
258cddbc 215*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
55d1006f 216
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217 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
218 YYLTYPE.
55d1006f 219
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220 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
221 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
222
223 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
224 %error-verbose.
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225
226*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
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227
228 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
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229 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
230 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
231 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
232 it.
0f11eec2 233
c2425191 234** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 235
258cddbc 236*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
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237
238 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 239 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 240
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241 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
242 # define YY_FOO_H
243 ...
244 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 245
258cddbc 246*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
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247
248 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
249 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
250
e29f0771 251 int bar_parse (void);
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252
253 rather than
254
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255 #define yyparse bar_parse
256 int yyparse (void);
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257
258 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
259 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 260
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261*** Exported symbols in C++
262
263 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
264 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
265 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
266
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267*** YYLSP_NEEDED
268
269 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
270 longer defined.
271
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272** New %define variable: api.prefix
273
274 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
275 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
276 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
277 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
278 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
279 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
280 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
281
282 The following examples compares both:
283
284 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
285 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
286 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
287 %% %%
288 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
289
290 bison generates:
291
292 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
293 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
294
295 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
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296 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
297 > # if defined YYDEBUG
298 > # if YYDEBUG
299 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
300 > # else
301 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
302 > # endif
303 > # else
304 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
305 > # endif
306 # endif | # endif
307
308 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
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309 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
310 # endif # endif
311
312 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
313 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
314 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
315 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
316 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
317 }; };
318 # endif # endif
319
320 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
321 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
322 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
323 { {
324 int ival; int ival;
325 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
326 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
327 #endif #endif
328
329 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
330
331 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
332
333 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
334
dfaac272 335* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
90dcd415 336
debe2c03 337** Future changes:
041308d0 338
e4ab1254 339 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
ef51bfa7 340
466b4cf2 341** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
94556574 342
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343** glr.c improvements:
344
345*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
346
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347 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
348 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
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349
350*** __attribute__ is preserved:
debe2c03 351
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352 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
353 when -std is passed to GCC).
debe2c03 354
466b4cf2 355** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 356
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357 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
358 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 359
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360** Changes for C++:
361
362*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 363
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364 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
365 or higher.
ef51bfa7 366
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367*** Header guards
368
369 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
370 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
371
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372 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
373 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
374 ...
375 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
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376
377 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
378 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
379 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
380
381 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
382
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383 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
384 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
385 ...
386 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
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387
388*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 389
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390 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
391 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
392 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 393
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394** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
395
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396** Changes in the manual:
397
398*** %printer is documented
399
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400 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
401 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 402
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403 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
404 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
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405
406*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 407
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408 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
409 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
410 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
411 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 412
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413** Building bison:
414
415*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
416
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417 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
418 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 419
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420*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
421
422*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 423
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424 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
425 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 426
91aadcc7 427*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 428
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429 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
430 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 431
b2bc8a1b 432* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 433
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434** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
435
436 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
437 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
438 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
439 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
440 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
441
3b1977ea 442** Named references:
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443
444 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
445 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
446 actions code.
447
448 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
449 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
450 as named references:
451
ac3297d5 452 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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453 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
454
455 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
456
ac3297d5 457 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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458 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
459
f840c05a 460 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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461 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
462 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
463
f840c05a 464 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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465 will help to stabilize them.
466
3b1977ea 467** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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468
469 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
470 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 471 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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472 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
473 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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474 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
475 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
476 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
477 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
478
479 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
480 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
481 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
482 file with these directives:
483
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484 %define lr.type lalr
485 %define lr.type ielr
486 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 487
6f04ee6c 488 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
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489 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
490 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
6f04ee6c 491 manual.
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492
493 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
494 stabilize them.
495
6f04ee6c 496** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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497
498 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
499 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
500 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 501 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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502 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
503 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
504 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
6f04ee6c 505 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 506 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
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507 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
508 tokens.
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509
510 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
511 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
512 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
513 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
514 inconsistent states.
515
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516 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
517 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
518 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
519 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
520 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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521 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
522 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
523 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
524 power.
525
526 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
527 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
528
529 %define parse.lac full
530
e4ab1254 531 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
6f04ee6c 532 details including a few caveats.
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533
534 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
535 stabilize it.
536
6ee881f6 537** %define improvements:
f37495f6 538
3b1977ea 539*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 540
34d41938 541 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 542
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543 -D NAME[=VALUE]
544 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
545
546 -F NAME[=VALUE]
547 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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548
549 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
550
34d41938 551 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 552
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553 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
554 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
555 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 556 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 557
3b1977ea 558*** Variables renamed:
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559
560 The following %define variables
561
562 api.push_pull
563 lr.keep_unreachable_states
564
565 have been renamed to
566
567 api.push-pull
568 lr.keep-unreachable-states
569
570 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
571 for backward compatibility.
572
723206df 573*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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574
575 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
576 within quotations marks. For example,
577
578 %define api.push-pull "push"
579
580 can be rewritten as
581
582 %define api.push-pull push
583
6ee881f6 584*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 585
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586*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
587
588** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
589
590** Character literals not of length one:
591
592 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
593 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
594 the following grammar to be the same token:
595
596 exp: exp '++'
597 | exp '+' exp
598 ;
599
600 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
601 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
602
603** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
604
605 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
606 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
607 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
608 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
609
610** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
611
612 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
613 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
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614 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
615 and "last" members, instead of
6ee881f6 616
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617 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
618 do \
619 if (N) \
620 { \
621 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
622 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
623 } \
624 else \
625 { \
626 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
627 } \
628 while (false)
6ee881f6
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629
630 use:
631
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632 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
633 do \
634 if (N) \
635 { \
636 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
637 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
638 } \
639 else \
640 { \
641 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
642 } \
643 while (false)
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644
645** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
646
647 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
648 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
649 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
650 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 651
3b1977ea 652** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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653
654 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
655 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
656 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
657 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
658 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
659 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
660 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
661 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
662
3b1977ea 663** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
a2d05674
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664
665 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
666 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
667 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
668 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
669
670 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
671
672 instead of
673
674 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
675
676 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
677 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
678 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
679 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
680 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
681 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
682 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
683
095a1d11
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684** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
685
e4ab1254 686 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
6f04ee6c
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687 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
688 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
689 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
690 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
095a1d11
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691
692*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
693 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
694 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
695 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
696 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 697 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
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698 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
699 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
700 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
701 shifted or discarded.
702
703*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
704 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
705 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
706 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
707
708*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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709 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
710 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
711 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
712 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
713 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
714 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
715 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
716 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
717 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
718 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
719 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
720 by default.
1fa30307 721
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722** Java skeleton fixes:
723
724*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
725
726*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
727 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 728
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729*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
730
248dba53
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731** -W/--warnings fixes:
732
e4ab1254 733*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
248dba53
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734
735 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
736 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
737
738 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
739
6f8bdce2
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740*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
741
742 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
743 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 744 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
6f8bdce2
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745 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
746 example:
747
748 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
749 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
750 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
751 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
752
753 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
754 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
755 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
756 then have no effect on the conflict report.
757
e4ab1254 758*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
dab96632
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759
760 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
761 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
762
763 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
764
e4ab1254 765*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 766
e4ab1254 767 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
8ffd7912
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768 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
769 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
770 suppress all warnings:
771
772 bison -Wnone gram.y
773
9d6af153
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774** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
775
776 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
777 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
778 produced an assertion failure. For example:
779
780 %left END 0
781
782 This bug has been fixed.
783
7527c744 784* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 785
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786** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
787 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
788
7a9c3cb3
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789** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
790 been fixed.
791
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792** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
793
88bb35d6
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794** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
795 been fixed.
796
43fdc9fd
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797** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
798 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
799 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
800 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
801
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802** Minor documentation fixes.
803
ea66d039 804* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 805
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806** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
807 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
ea66d039
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808 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
809 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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810 affected platforms.
811
e4ab1254 812** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
2c203528
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813
814 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
815 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
816 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
817 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
818 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
819 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
820 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
43fdc9fd
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821 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
822 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 823
c5196098
EB
824** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
825
34731471
JD
826** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
827 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
828 avoided.
af2ffe5c 829
966aba65
JD
830** %code is now a permanent feature.
831
832 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
833
834 %{CODE%}
835
836 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
837 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
838
839 %code {CODE}
840 %code requires {CODE}
841 %code provides {CODE}
842 %code top {CODE}
843
844 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
845 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
846 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
847 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
848 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
849
850 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
851 is still considered experimental.
852
41d35e54
JD
853** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
854
855 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
856 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
857 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
858 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
859 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
860 specified by POSIX.
861
862 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
863 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
864 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
865 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
866 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 867 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
41d35e54
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868 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
869
870 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
871
872 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
873 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
874 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
875 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
876 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
877 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 878 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
41d35e54
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879 be removed altogether.
880
881 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
882 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
883 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
884 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
885 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 886 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
41d35e54
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887 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
888 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
889 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
890 2.4.2 is not necessary.
891
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892** Internationalization.
893
894 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
895 message translations were not installed although supported by the
896 host system.
897
41930e7a 898* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 899
a957d06c
JD
900** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
901 declarations have been fixed.
902
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903** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
904
905 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
906 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
907
908 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
909
910 instead of
911
912 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
913
e4ab1254 914 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
d07932ef
JD
915 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
916 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
917 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
918 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
919 feature.
a957d06c
JD
920
921** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 922
d6fb461d 923* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 924
d6fb461d 925** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
926
927 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
928 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
929 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
930 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
931 in future releases.
7bd1665a 932
d6fb461d 933** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 934
d6fb461d 935** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
936 fixed.
937
d6fb461d 938* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 939
d6fb461d 940** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
941 are now deprecated:
942
943 %define NAME "VALUE"
944
e4ab1254 945** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
946
947 %define api.pure
948
949 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
950 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
951
d6fb461d 952** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
953
954 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
955 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
956 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
957 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
958 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
959
960 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
961 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
962
e4ab1254 963 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 964
59da312b
JD
965 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
966 feedback will help to stabilize it.
967
d6fb461d 968** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
969 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
970 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 971
d6fb461d 972** Java
59da312b
JD
973
974 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 975 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
976 %skeleton to select it.
977
e4ab1254 978 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
979
980 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
981 feedback will help to stabilize it.
982
d6fb461d 983** %language
59da312b
JD
984
985 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
986 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
987 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
988 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 989
d6fb461d 990** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
991
992 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 993 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 994 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 995
d6fb461d 996** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
997 %defines. For example:
998
999 %defines "parser.h"
1000
d6fb461d 1001** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1002 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1003 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1004 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1005
d6fb461d 1006** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1007
1008 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1009 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1010 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1011
1012 1. Removes unreachable states.
1013
1014 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1015 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1016 directives in existing grammar files.
1017
1018 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1019 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1020
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1021 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1022
1023 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1024
e4ab1254 1025 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1026 for further discussion.
1027
e4ab1254 1028** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1029
e4ab1254
AD
1030 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1031 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1032 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1033 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1034 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1035 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1036 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
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1037 code.
1038
e4ab1254 1039** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1040 name.
1bb2bd75 1041
e4ab1254 1042** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1043 deprecated:
1044
1045 %file-prefix "parser"
1046 %name-prefix "c_"
1047 %output "parser.c"
1048
e4ab1254 1049** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
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1050
1051 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
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1052 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1053 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1054 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1055 it:
1056
e4ab1254
AD
1057 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1058 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1059 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1060 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1061
e4ab1254
AD
1062 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1063 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1064 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1065 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1066
1067 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1068 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1069
d6fb461d 1070** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1071
1072 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1073 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1074 about unused $2 in:
1075
1076 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1077
1078 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1079 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1080
1081 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1082
1083 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1084 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1085 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1086
e4ab1254
AD
1087 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1088 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1089
e4ab1254 1090** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
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1091
1092 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1093 %printer's:
1094
e4ab1254 1095 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1096 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1097 declared semantic type tags.
1098
e4ab1254 1099 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1100 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1101 type tags.
1102
e4ab1254
AD
1103 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1104 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1105 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1106 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1107
85894313
JD
1108 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1109 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1110 features.
1111
e4ab1254 1112 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1113 details.
1114
d6fb461d 1115** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1116 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1117 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1118
d6fb461d 1119** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1120 completely removed from Bison.
1121
d6fb461d 1122* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1123
d6fb461d 1124** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1125 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1126 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1127 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1128 and is required by POSIX.
1129
d6fb461d 1130** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
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1131 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1132
d6fb461d 1133** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1134
1135 For example:
1136
b2a0b7ca
JD
1137 %union { char *string; }
1138 %token <string> STRING1
1139 %token <string> STRING2
1140 %type <string> string1
1141 %type <string> string2
1142 %union { char character; }
1143 %token <character> CHR
1144 %type <character> chr
1145 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1146 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1147 %destructor { } <character>
1148
1149 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1150 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1151 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1152 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1153 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1154
85894313
JD
1155 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1156 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1157 future versions.]
1158
e4ab1254
AD
1159** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1160 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1161 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1162 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1163 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1164
d6fb461d 1165** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1166 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1167
1168 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1169 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1170 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1171 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1172 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1173
34f98f46 1174 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1175 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1176 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1177 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1178 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1179 after the token definitions.
1180
1181 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1182 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1183
d6fb461d 1184** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1185 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1186 %after-header.
1187
1188 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1189 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1190 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1191 convenient for you:
1192
1193 %before-header {
1194 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1195 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1196 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1197 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1198 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1199 }
1200 %start-header {
1201 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1202 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1203 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1204 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1205 }
1206 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1207 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1208 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1209 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1210 }
34f98f46
JD
1211 %end-header {
1212 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1213 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1214 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1215 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1216 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1217 }
34f98f46
JD
1218 %after-header {
1219 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1220 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1221 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1222 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1223 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1224 }
1225
1226 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1227 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1228
85894313
JD
1229 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1230 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1231
e4ab1254 1232** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1233 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1234 in a future release.
742e4900 1235
d6fb461d 1236* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1237
e4ab1254 1238** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1239 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1240
d6fb461d 1241** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1242 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1243
d6fb461d 1244* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1245
d6fb461d 1246** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1247 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1248 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1249
d6fb461d 1250** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1251
d6fb461d 1252** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1253
d6fb461d 1254** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1255 their contents together.
1256
d6fb461d 1257** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1258 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1259 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1260
8f3596a6 1261 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e29f0771
AD
1262 | exp "+" exp
1263 ;
affac613 1264
8f3596a6
AD
1265 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1266 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1267 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1268
4e26c69e 1269 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e29f0771
AD
1270 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1271 | exp "+" exp
1272 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1273 ;
affac613 1274
4e26c69e
PE
1275 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1276 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1277 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1278
8f3596a6 1279 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e29f0771
AD
1280 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1281 ;
721be13c 1282
84866159
AD
1283 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1284 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1285
1286 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1287
721be13c
PE
1288 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1289 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1290
d6fb461d 1291** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1292 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1293 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1294 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1295
d6fb461d 1296** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1297 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1298 instead of warnings.
1299
d6fb461d 1300** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1301 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1302 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1303
e4ab1254 1304** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1305
d6fb461d 1306** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1307 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1308 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1309
d6fb461d 1310** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1311 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1312 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1313 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1314 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1315
1316 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1317 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1318 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1319 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1320
b50d2359 1321 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1322 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1323
d6fb461d 1324** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1325\f
d6fb461d 1326* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1327
d6fb461d 1328** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1329
d6fb461d 1330** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1331 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1332 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1333 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1334 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1335 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1336
d6fb461d 1337** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1338 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1339 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1340 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1341
d6fb461d 1342** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1343 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1344 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1345
d6fb461d 1346** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
1347 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1348 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1349 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1350 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1351\f
d6fb461d 1352* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1353
d6fb461d 1354** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1355
82de6b0d
PE
1356 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1357 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1358 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1359 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1360 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1361
82de6b0d
PE
1362 - Error token location.
1363 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1364 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1365 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1366 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1367
82de6b0d
PE
1368 - Semicolon changes:
1369 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1370 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1371
82de6b0d
PE
1372 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1373 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1374 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1375 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1376
82de6b0d 1377 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1378
d6fb461d 1379** New features
1452af69 1380
82de6b0d 1381 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1382
82de6b0d
PE
1383 - New directive: %initial-action.
1384 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1385 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1386
82de6b0d
PE
1387 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1388 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1389
e4ab1254 1390 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 1391 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1392
e4ab1254 1393 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 1394 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1395
82de6b0d 1396 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1397
82de6b0d
PE
1398 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1399 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1400
d6fb461d 1401** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1402
82de6b0d
PE
1403 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1404 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1405 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1406 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1407 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1408 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1409
82de6b0d
PE
1410 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1411 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1412
82de6b0d 1413 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1414\f
d6fb461d 1415* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1416
d6fb461d 1417** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1418 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1419
d6fb461d 1420** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1421
dc546b0f
PE
1422 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1423 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1424
dc546b0f
PE
1425 - %destructor
1426 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1427 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1428
dc546b0f
PE
1429 - %error-verbose
1430 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1431
dc546b0f
PE
1432 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1433 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1434
d6fb461d 1435** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1436
dc546b0f
PE
1437 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1438 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1439 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1440
e4ab1254
AD
1441 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1442 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1443 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1444 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 1445 be consistent.
74724a70 1446
dc546b0f
PE
1447 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1448 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1449
dc546b0f
PE
1450 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1451 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1452
dc546b0f
PE
1453 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1454 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1455
dc546b0f 1456 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 1457 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
1458 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1459 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1460 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1461
dc546b0f 1462 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1463
dc546b0f
PE
1464 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1465 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1466 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1467
d6fb461d 1468** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1469
e4ab1254
AD
1470 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1471 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1472 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1473 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1474 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 1475 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1476
e4ab1254 1477 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 1478 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1479
dc546b0f 1480 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 1481 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 1482
e4ab1254 1483 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
1484 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1485 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1486
d6fb461d 1487** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1488
dc546b0f
PE
1489 - GLR and inline
1490 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 1491 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 1492
e4ab1254
AD
1493 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1494 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1495
18ad57b3
AD
1496** %parse-param and %lex-param
1497 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1498 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1499 shortcomings:
1500
1501 - a single argument only can be added,
1502 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 1503 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
1504 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1505
1506 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1507 For instance:
1508
1509 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1510 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1511 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1512
1513 results in the following signatures:
1514
1515 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1516 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1517
1518 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1519
1520 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1521 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1522
d6fb461d 1523** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 1524 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 1525 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1526
d6fb461d 1527** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1528 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1529
d6fb461d 1530** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1531 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1532 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1533 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1534\f
d6fb461d 1535* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1536
d6fb461d 1537** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1538
d6fb461d 1539** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1540
d6fb461d 1541** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1542 Fix spurious parse errors.
1543
d6fb461d 1544** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1545 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1546 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1547
d6fb461d 1548** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1549 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1550 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1551
e29f0771 1552 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
1553
1554 but the converse remains an error:
1555
e29f0771 1556 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 1557
d6fb461d 1558** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1559 The following code:
1560
e29f0771 1561 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
1562
1563 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1564 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1565\f
d6fb461d 1566* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1567
d6fb461d 1568** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1569 The declaration
1570 %glr-parser
1571 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1572 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1573 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1574 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1575
7933f2b5 1576 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1577 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1578
d6fb461d 1579** Output Directory
8c165d89 1580 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
1581 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1582 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 1583
d6fb461d 1584** Undefined token
007a50a4 1585 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1586 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1587
d6fb461d 1588** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1589 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1590 no longer the case.
1591
d6fb461d 1592** Error token
e88dbdbf 1593 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1594 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1595 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1596 will be mapped onto another number.
1597
d6fb461d 1598** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 1599 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
1600 error recovery is possible.
1601
d6fb461d 1602** End token
e4ab1254 1603 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 1604
d6fb461d 1605** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1606 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1607 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1608 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1609 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1610 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1611 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1612 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1613 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1614
d6fb461d 1615** Traces
5504898e
AD
1616 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1617
d6fb461d 1618** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1619 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1620 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1621 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1622 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1623
d6fb461d 1624** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1625 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1626 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1627 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1628
d6fb461d 1629** Useless rules
643a5994 1630 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1631 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1632
d6fb461d 1633** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1634 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1635
d6fb461d 1636** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1637 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1638 reported.
1639
e4ab1254 1640** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
1641 On a grammar such as
1642
e29f0771
AD
1643 %token useless useful
1644 %%
1645 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
1646
1647 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 1648 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 1649
d6fb461d 1650** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1651 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1652
d6fb461d 1653** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1654 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1655 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1656 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1657 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1658
d6fb461d 1659** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1660 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1661 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 1662 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1663 For instance
e29f0771 1664 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1665 or
e29f0771 1666 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1667
d6fb461d 1668** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1669 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1670
d6fb461d 1671** New translations
a861a339 1672 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1673 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1674
d6fb461d 1675** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
1676 When given
1677 %token 'a' "A"
1678 bison used to output
1679 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 1680
d6fb461d 1681** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1682 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1683 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1684 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1685
d6fb461d 1686** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1687 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1688 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1689 - itemset
1690 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 1691 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 1692 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1693 - solved
1694 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1695 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1696 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1697
d6fb461d 1698** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1699 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1700 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1701
e29f0771
AD
1702 %type <foo> bar
1703 %%
1704 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
1705
1706 This is fixed.
a861a339 1707
d6fb461d 1708** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1709\f
d6fb461d 1710* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1711
d6fb461d 1712** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1713 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1714 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1715 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1716
1717 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1718 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1719 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1720 kludge will be disabled.
1721
1722 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1723 extended.
76551463 1724\f
d6fb461d 1725* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1726
d6fb461d 1727** File name clashes are detected
76551463 1728 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 1729 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 1730
e4ab1254 1731** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1732 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1733 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1734 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1735 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1736 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1737
d6fb461d 1738** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1739 many portability hassles.
1740
d6fb461d 1741** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1742
d6fb461d 1743** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1744\f
d6fb461d 1745* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1746
d6fb461d 1747** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1748 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1749 under some conditions.
1750
d6fb461d 1751** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1752 As is done with $n.
1753\f
d6fb461d 1754* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1755
d6fb461d 1756** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1757
d6fb461d 1758** Portability fixes
76551463 1759
d6fb461d 1760** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1761\f
d6fb461d 1762* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1763
d6fb461d 1764** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1765
d6fb461d 1766** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1767 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1768 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1769 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 1770 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 1771
d6fb461d 1772** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1773 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1774 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1775
1776 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1777 problems as on AIX.
1778
d6fb461d 1779** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1780
d6fb461d 1781** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1782 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1783
d6fb461d 1784** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1785 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1786 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1787 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1788
d6fb461d 1789** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1790 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1791 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1792
d6fb461d 1793** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1794 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1795
d6fb461d 1796** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1797 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1798
d6fb461d 1799** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1800 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1801
d6fb461d 1802** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1803 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1804 any warning.
1805
d6fb461d 1806** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1807
d6fb461d 1808** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1809
d6fb461d 1810** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1811
d6fb461d 1812** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1813 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1814 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1815 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1816
d6fb461d 1817** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1818 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1819 previous allocations were not freed.
1820
d6fb461d 1821** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1822 Some newlines were missing.
1823 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1824
d6fb461d 1825** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1826 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1827
d6fb461d 1828** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1829 Was not used.
1830 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1831
d6fb461d 1832** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1833
d6fb461d 1834** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1835
d6fb461d 1836** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1837
d6fb461d 1838** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1839 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1840
d6fb461d 1841** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1842
d6fb461d 1843** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1844 New.
1845
d6fb461d 1846** --output
e4ab1254 1847 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 1848\f
d6fb461d 1849* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1850
e4ab1254
AD
1851** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1852 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1853 argument.
1854
e4ab1254 1855** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1856 experiment.
1857
d6fb461d 1858** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1859\f
d6fb461d 1860* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1861
d6fb461d 1862** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1863 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1864 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 1865 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 1866
e4ab1254 1867** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 1868
d6fb461d 1869** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1870
d6fb461d 1871** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1872
d6fb461d 1873** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1874
d6fb461d 1875** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1876
d6fb461d 1877** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1878
e4ab1254 1879** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 1880
e4ab1254 1881** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 1882
e4ab1254 1883** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 1884
d6fb461d 1885** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1886 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1887
d6fb461d 1888** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
1889 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1890 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 1891
d6fb461d 1892** @$
f987e9d2 1893 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1894\f
d6fb461d 1895* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1896
d6fb461d 1897** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1898
d6fb461d 1899** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1900
d6fb461d 1901** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1902
d6fb461d 1903** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1904\f
d6fb461d 1905* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1906
d6fb461d 1907** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1908 some systems has been fixed.
1909\f
d6fb461d 1910* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1911
7e508a2b 1912** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 1913
d6fb461d 1914** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1915
d6fb461d 1916** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1917
d6fb461d 1918** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1919
d6fb461d 1920** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1921
d6fb461d 1922** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1923
d6fb461d 1924** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1925 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1926\f
d6fb461d 1927* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1928
d6fb461d 1929** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1930the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1931
d6fb461d 1932** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 1933example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 1934of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 1935
d6fb461d 1936** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1937and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1938table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1939purposes.
1940
d6fb461d 1941** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1942directives in the parser file.
1943
d6fb461d 1944** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1945Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1946
d6fb461d 1947** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1948the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1949The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1950a switch statement body.
1951\f
d6fb461d 1952* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1953
4d019228
DM
1954The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1955passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1956actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1957by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1958
6780ca7a 1959Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1960\f
d6fb461d 1961* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1962
1963--help option added.
6780ca7a 1964\f
d6fb461d 1965* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1966
1967Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 1968
76551463
AD
1969-----
1970
c932d613 1971Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1972
8defe11b 1973This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1974
f16b0819 1975This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1976it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1977the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1978(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1979
f16b0819 1980This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1981but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1982MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1983GNU General Public License for more details.
1984
1985You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1986along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
1987
1988 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1989 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1990 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1991 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1992 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1993 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1994 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1995 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1996 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1997 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1998 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1999 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2000 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2001 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2002 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2003 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2004 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
7287be84
AD
2005 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp calc yyo fval Wmaybe
2006 LocalWords: yyvsp pragmas noreturn java's
7e508a2b
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2007
2008Local Variables:
2009mode: outline
e4ab1254 2010fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2011End: