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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
52718713 3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
74553c98 4
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5** Warnings
6
dcb366b1 7*** Warning categories are now displayed in warnings
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8
9 For instance:
10
11 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
12
13*** Useless semantic types
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14
15 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
16 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
17 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
18 types that trigger the warning:
19
20 %token <type1> term
21 %type <type2> nterm
22 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
23 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
24 %%
25 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
26
27 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
28 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
29
73370a9d 30*** Undeclared symbols
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31
32 Bison used to raise an error for %printer and %destructor directives for
33 undefined symbols.
34
35 %printer {} symbol1
36 %destructor {} symbol2
37 %%
38 exp: "a";
39
40 This is now only a warning.
41
73370a9d 42*** Useless destructors or printers
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43
44 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
45 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
46 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
47 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
48
49 %token <type1> token1
50 <type2> token2
51 <type3> token3
52 <type4> token4
53 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
54 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
55
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56** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
57
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58 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
59 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
60 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 61
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62 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
63 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
64 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
65 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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66
67 one may now declare
68
e436fa67 69 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
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70
71** Java skeleton improvements
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72
73 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
74 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
75 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
76
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77** C++ skeleton improvements
78
79 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
80 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
81 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
82 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
83 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
84 factory invoked by the user actions).
85
4c6622c2 86** Variable api.tokens.prefix
99c08fb6 87
4c6622c2 88 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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89 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
90 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
91
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92 %token FILE for ERROR
93 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
94 %%
95 start: FILE for ERROR;
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96
97 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
98 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
99 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
100 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
101
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102** Variable api.namespace
103
104 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
105 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
106
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107** Variable parse.error
108
109 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
110 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
111 %define parse.error "verbose".
112
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113** Semantic predicates
114
115 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
116 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
117 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
118 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
119 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
dcb366b1 120 run-time expressions.
ca2a6d15 121
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122* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
123
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124
125* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.90 (2012-07-05) [beta]
0f11eec2 126
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127 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
128 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 129
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130*** K&C parsers
131
132 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 133 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
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134 compilers.
135
258cddbc 136*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 137
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138 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
139 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 140
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141 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
142 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
143
144 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
145 %error-verbose.
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146
147*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
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148
149 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
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150 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
151 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
152 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
153 it.
0f11eec2 154
c2425191 155** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 156
258cddbc 157*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
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158
159 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 160 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 161
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162 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
163 # define YY_FOO_H
164 ...
165 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 166
258cddbc 167*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
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168
169 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
170 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
171
e29f0771 172 int bar_parse (void);
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173
174 rather than
175
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176 #define yyparse bar_parse
177 int yyparse (void);
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178
179 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
180 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 181
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182*** Exported symbols in C++
183
184 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
185 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
186 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
187
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188*** YYLSP_NEEDED
189
190 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
191 longer defined.
192
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193** New %define variable: api.prefix
194
195 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
196 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
197 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
198 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
199 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
200 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
201 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
202
203 The following examples compares both:
204
205 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
206 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
207 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
208 %% %%
209 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
210
211 bison generates:
212
213 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
214 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
215
216 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
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217 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
218 > # if defined YYDEBUG
219 > # if YYDEBUG
220 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
221 > # else
222 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
223 > # endif
224 > # else
225 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
226 > # endif
227 # endif | # endif
228
229 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
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230 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
231 # endif # endif
232
233 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
234 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
235 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
236 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
237 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
238 }; };
239 # endif # endif
240
241 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
242 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
243 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
244 { {
245 int ival; int ival;
246 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
247 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
248 #endif #endif
249
250 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
251
252 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
253
254 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
255
dfaac272 256* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 257
debe2c03 258** Future changes:
765e1bd4 259
e4ab1254 260 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 261
466b4cf2 262** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 263
d834eca0 264** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 265
d834eca0 266*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 267
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268 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
269 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 270
d834eca0 271*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 272
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273 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
274 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 275
466b4cf2 276** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 277
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278 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
279 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 280
22172d47 281** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 282
22172d47 283*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 284
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285 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
286 or higher.
936c88d1 287
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288*** Header guards
289
290 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
291 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
292
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293 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
294 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
295 ...
296 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
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297
298 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
299 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
300 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
301
302 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
303
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304 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
305 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
306 ...
307 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
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308
309*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 310
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311 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
312 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
313 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 314
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315** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
316
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317** Changes in the manual:
318
319*** %printer is documented
320
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321 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
322 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 323
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324 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
325 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
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326
327*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 328
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329 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
330 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
331 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
332 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 333
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334** Building bison:
335
336*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 337
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338 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
339 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 340
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341*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
342
343*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 344
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345 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
346 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 347
91aadcc7 348*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 349
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350 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
351 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 352
28801043 353* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 354
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355** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
356
357 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
358 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
359 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
360 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
361 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
362
f1b238df 363** Named references:
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364
365 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
366 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
367 actions code.
368
369 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
370 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
371 as named references:
372
4b568fc0 373 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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374 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
375
376 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
377
4b568fc0 378 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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379 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
380
5b1ff423 381 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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382 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
383 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
384
5b1ff423 385 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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386 will help to stabilize them.
387
f1b238df 388** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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389
390 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
391 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 392 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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393 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
394 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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395 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
396 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
397 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
398 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
399
400 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
401 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
402 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
403 file with these directives:
404
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405 %define lr.type lalr
406 %define lr.type ielr
407 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 408
7fceb615 409 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
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410 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
411 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 412 manual.
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413
414 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
415 stabilize them.
416
7fceb615 417** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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418
419 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
420 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
421 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 422 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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423 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
424 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
425 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 426 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 427 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
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428 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
429 tokens.
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430
431 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
432 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
433 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
434 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
435 inconsistent states.
436
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437 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
438 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
439 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
440 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
441 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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442 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
443 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
444 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
445 power.
446
447 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
448 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
449
450 %define parse.lac full
451
e4ab1254 452 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 453 details including a few caveats.
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454
455 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
456 stabilize it.
457
d397d9f0 458** %define improvements:
cf499cff 459
f1b238df 460*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 461
de5ab940 462 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 463
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464 -D NAME[=VALUE]
465 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
466
467 -F NAME[=VALUE]
468 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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469
470 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
471
de5ab940 472 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 473
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474 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
475 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
476 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 477 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 478
f1b238df 479*** Variables renamed:
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480
481 The following %define variables
482
483 api.push_pull
484 lr.keep_unreachable_states
485
486 have been renamed to
487
488 api.push-pull
489 lr.keep-unreachable-states
490
491 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
492 for backward compatibility.
493
7262f54f 494*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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495
496 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
497 within quotations marks. For example,
498
499 %define api.push-pull "push"
500
501 can be rewritten as
502
503 %define api.push-pull push
504
d397d9f0 505*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 506
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507*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
508
509** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
510
511** Character literals not of length one:
512
513 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
514 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
515 the following grammar to be the same token:
516
517 exp: exp '++'
518 | exp '+' exp
519 ;
520
521 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
522 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
523
524** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
525
526 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
527 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
528 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
529 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
530
531** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
532
533 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
534 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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535 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
536 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 537
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538 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
539 do \
540 if (N) \
541 { \
542 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
543 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
544 } \
545 else \
546 { \
547 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
548 } \
549 while (false)
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550
551 use:
552
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553 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
554 do \
555 if (N) \
556 { \
557 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
558 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
559 } \
560 else \
561 { \
562 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
563 } \
564 while (false)
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565
566** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
567
568 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
569 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
570 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
571 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 572
f1b238df 573** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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574
575 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
576 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
577 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
578 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
579 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
580 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
581 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
582 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
583
f1b238df 584** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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585
586 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
587 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
588 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
589 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
590
591 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
592
593 instead of
594
595 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
596
597 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
598 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
599 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
600 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
601 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
602 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
603 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
604
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605** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
606
e4ab1254 607 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
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608 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
609 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
610 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
611 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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612
613*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
614 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
615 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
616 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
617 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 618 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
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619 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
620 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
621 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
622 shifted or discarded.
623
624*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
625 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
626 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
627 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
628
629*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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630 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
631 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
632 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
633 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
634 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
635 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
636 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
637 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
638 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
639 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
640 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
641 by default.
53f036ce 642
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643** Java skeleton fixes:
644
645*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
646
647*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
648 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 649
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650*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
651
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652** -W/--warnings fixes:
653
e4ab1254 654*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
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655
656 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
657 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
658
659 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
660
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661*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
662
663 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
664 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 665 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
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666 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
667 example:
668
669 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
670 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
671 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
672 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
673
674 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
675 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
676 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
677 then have no effect on the conflict report.
678
e4ab1254 679*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
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680
681 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
682 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
683
684 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
685
e4ab1254 686*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 687
e4ab1254 688 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
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689 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
690 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
691 suppress all warnings:
692
693 bison -Wnone gram.y
694
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695** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
696
697 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
698 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
699 produced an assertion failure. For example:
700
701 %left END 0
702
703 This bug has been fixed.
704
64877e5e 705* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 706
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707** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
708 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
709
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710** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
711 been fixed.
712
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713** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
714
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715** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
716 been fixed.
717
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718** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
719 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
720 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
721 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
722
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723** Minor documentation fixes.
724
e19a049c 725* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 726
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727** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
728 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
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729 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
730 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
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731 affected platforms.
732
e4ab1254 733** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
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734
735 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
736 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
737 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
738 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
739 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
740 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
741 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
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742 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
743 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 744
d8911864
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745** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
746
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747** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
748 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
749 avoided.
c938d650 750
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751** %code is now a permanent feature.
752
753 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
754
755 %{CODE%}
756
757 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
758 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
759
760 %code {CODE}
761 %code requires {CODE}
762 %code provides {CODE}
763 %code top {CODE}
764
765 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
766 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
767 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
768 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
769 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
770
771 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
772 is still considered experimental.
773
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774** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
775
776 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
777 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
778 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
779 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
780 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
781 specified by POSIX.
782
783 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
784 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
785 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
786 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
787 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 788 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
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789 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
790
791 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
792
793 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
794 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
795 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
796 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
797 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
798 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 799 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
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800 be removed altogether.
801
802 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
803 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
804 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
805 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
806 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 807 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
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808 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
809 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
810 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
811 2.4.2 is not necessary.
812
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813** Internationalization.
814
815 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
816 message translations were not installed although supported by the
817 host system.
818
74553c98 819* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 820
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821** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
822 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 823
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824** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
825
826 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
827 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
828
829 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
830
831 instead of
832
833 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
834
e4ab1254 835 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
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836 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
837 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
838 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
839 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
840 feature.
841
842** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 843
402b123d 844* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 845
402b123d 846** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
847
848 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
849 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
850 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
851 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
852 in future releases.
7bd1665a 853
402b123d 854** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 855
402b123d 856** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
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857 fixed.
858
402b123d 859* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 860
402b123d 861** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
862 are now deprecated:
863
864 %define NAME "VALUE"
865
e4ab1254 866** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
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867
868 %define api.pure
869
870 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
871 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
872
402b123d 873** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
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874
875 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
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876 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
877 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
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878 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
879 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
880
881 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
882 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
883
e4ab1254 884 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 885
59da312b
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886 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
887 feedback will help to stabilize it.
888
402b123d 889** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
890 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
891 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 892
402b123d 893** Java
59da312b
JD
894
895 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 896 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
897 %skeleton to select it.
898
e4ab1254 899 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
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900
901 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
902 feedback will help to stabilize it.
903
402b123d 904** %language
59da312b
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905
906 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
907 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
908 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
909 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 910
402b123d 911** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
912
913 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 914 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 915 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 916
402b123d 917** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
918 %defines. For example:
919
920 %defines "parser.h"
921
402b123d 922** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
923 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
924 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
925 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 926
402b123d 927** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
928
929 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
930 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
931 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
932
933 1. Removes unreachable states.
934
935 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
936 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
937 directives in existing grammar files.
938
939 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 940 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 941
31984206
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942 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
943
944 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
945
e4ab1254 946 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
947 for further discussion.
948
e4ab1254 949** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 950
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951 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
952 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
953 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
954 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
955 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
956 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 957 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
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958 code.
959
e4ab1254 960** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 961 name.
1bb2bd75 962
e4ab1254 963** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
964 deprecated:
965
966 %file-prefix "parser"
967 %name-prefix "c_"
968 %output "parser.c"
969
e4ab1254 970** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
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971
972 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
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973 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
974 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
975 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
976 it:
977
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978 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
979 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
980 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
981 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 982
e4ab1254
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983 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
984 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
985 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
986 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
987
988 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
989 determine whether they should become permanent features.
990
402b123d 991** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
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992
993 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
994 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
995 about unused $2 in:
996
997 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
998
999 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1000 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1001
1002 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1003
1004 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1005 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1006 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1007
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1008 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1009 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1010
e4ab1254 1011** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
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1012
1013 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
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1014 %printer's:
1015
e4ab1254 1016 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1017 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1018 declared semantic type tags.
1019
e4ab1254 1020 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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1021 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1022 type tags.
1023
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1024 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1025 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
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1026 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1027 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1028
85894313
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1029 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1030 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1031 features.
1032
e4ab1254 1033 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1034 details.
1035
402b123d 1036** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1037 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1038 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1039
402b123d 1040** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
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1041 completely removed from Bison.
1042
402b123d 1043* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1044
402b123d 1045** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1046 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1047 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1048 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1049 and is required by POSIX.
1050
402b123d 1051** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
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1052 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1053
402b123d 1054** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1055
1056 For example:
1057
b2a0b7ca
JD
1058 %union { char *string; }
1059 %token <string> STRING1
1060 %token <string> STRING2
1061 %type <string> string1
1062 %type <string> string2
1063 %union { char character; }
1064 %token <character> CHR
1065 %type <character> chr
1066 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1067 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1068 %destructor { } <character>
1069
1070 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1071 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1072 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1073 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1074 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1075
85894313
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1076 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1077 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1078 future versions.]
1079
e4ab1254
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1080** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1081 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
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1082 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1083 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1084 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1085
402b123d 1086** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1087 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
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1088
1089 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1090 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1091 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1092 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1093 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1094
34f98f46 1095 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1096 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1097 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1098 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1099 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1100 after the token definitions.
1101
1102 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1103 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1104
402b123d 1105** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
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1106 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1107 %after-header.
1108
1109 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1110 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1111 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1112 convenient for you:
1113
1114 %before-header {
1115 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1116 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1117 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1118 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1119 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
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1120 }
1121 %start-header {
1122 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1123 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1124 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1125 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
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1126 }
1127 %union {
34f98f46
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1128 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1129 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1130 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1131 }
34f98f46
JD
1132 %end-header {
1133 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1134 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1135 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1136 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1137 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1138 }
34f98f46
JD
1139 %after-header {
1140 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1141 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1142 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1143 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1144 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1145 }
1146
1147 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1148 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1149
85894313
JD
1150 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1151 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1152
e4ab1254 1153** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1154 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1155 in a future release.
742e4900 1156
402b123d 1157* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1158
e4ab1254 1159** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1160 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1161
402b123d 1162** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1163 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1164
402b123d 1165* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1166
402b123d 1167** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1168 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1169 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1170
402b123d 1171** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1172
402b123d 1173** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1174
402b123d 1175** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1176 their contents together.
1177
402b123d 1178** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1179 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1180 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1181
8f3596a6 1182 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1183 | exp "+" exp
1184 ;
affac613 1185
8f3596a6
AD
1186 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1187 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1188 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1189
4e26c69e 1190 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1191 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1192 | exp "+" exp
1193 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1194 ;
affac613 1195
4e26c69e
PE
1196 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1197 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1198 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1199
8f3596a6 1200 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1201 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1202 ;
721be13c 1203
84866159
AD
1204 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1205 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1206
1207 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1208
721be13c
PE
1209 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1210 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1211
402b123d 1212** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1213 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1214 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1215 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1216
402b123d 1217** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1218 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1219 instead of warnings.
1220
402b123d 1221** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1222 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1223 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1224
e4ab1254 1225** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1226
402b123d 1227** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1228 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1229 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1230
402b123d 1231** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1232 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1233 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1234 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1235 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1236
1237 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1238 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1239 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1240 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1241
b50d2359 1242 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1243 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1244
402b123d 1245** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1246\f
402b123d 1247* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1248
402b123d 1249** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1250
402b123d 1251** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1252 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1253 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1254 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1255 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1256 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1257
402b123d 1258** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1259 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1260 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1261 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1262
402b123d 1263** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1264 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1265 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1266
402b123d 1267** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
1268 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1269 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1270 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1271 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1272\f
402b123d 1273* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1274
402b123d 1275** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1276
82de6b0d
PE
1277 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1278 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1279 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1280 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1281 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1282
82de6b0d
PE
1283 - Error token location.
1284 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1285 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1286 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1287 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1288
82de6b0d
PE
1289 - Semicolon changes:
1290 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1291 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1292
82de6b0d
PE
1293 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1294 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1295 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1296 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1297
82de6b0d 1298 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1299
402b123d 1300** New features
1452af69 1301
82de6b0d 1302 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1303
82de6b0d
PE
1304 - New directive: %initial-action.
1305 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1306 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1307
82de6b0d
PE
1308 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1309 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1310
e4ab1254 1311 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 1312 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1313
e4ab1254 1314 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 1315 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1316
82de6b0d 1317 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1318
82de6b0d
PE
1319 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1320 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1321
402b123d 1322** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1323
82de6b0d
PE
1324 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1325 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1326 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1327 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1328 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1329 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1330
82de6b0d
PE
1331 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1332 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1333
82de6b0d 1334 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1335\f
402b123d 1336* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1337
402b123d 1338** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1339 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1340
402b123d 1341** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1342
dc546b0f
PE
1343 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1344 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1345
dc546b0f
PE
1346 - %destructor
1347 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1348 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1349
dc546b0f
PE
1350 - %error-verbose
1351 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1352
dc546b0f
PE
1353 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1354 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1355
402b123d 1356** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1357
dc546b0f
PE
1358 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1359 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1360 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1361
e4ab1254
AD
1362 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1363 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1364 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1365 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 1366 be consistent.
74724a70 1367
dc546b0f
PE
1368 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1369 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1370
dc546b0f
PE
1371 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1372 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1373
dc546b0f
PE
1374 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1375 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1376
dc546b0f 1377 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 1378 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
1379 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1380 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1381 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1382
dc546b0f 1383 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1384
dc546b0f
PE
1385 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1386 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1387 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1388
402b123d 1389** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1390
e4ab1254
AD
1391 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1392 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1393 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1394 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1395 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 1396 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1397
e4ab1254 1398 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 1399 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1400
dc546b0f 1401 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 1402 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 1403
e4ab1254 1404 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
1405 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1406 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1407
402b123d 1408** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1409
dc546b0f
PE
1410 - GLR and inline
1411 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 1412 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 1413
e4ab1254
AD
1414 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1415 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1416
18ad57b3
AD
1417** %parse-param and %lex-param
1418 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1419 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1420 shortcomings:
1421
1422 - a single argument only can be added,
1423 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 1424 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
1425 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1426
1427 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1428 For instance:
1429
1430 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1431 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1432 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1433
1434 results in the following signatures:
1435
1436 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1437 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1438
1439 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1440
1441 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1442 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1443
402b123d 1444** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 1445 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 1446 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1447
402b123d 1448** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1449 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1450
402b123d 1451** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1452 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1453 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1454 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1455\f
402b123d 1456* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1457
402b123d 1458** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1459
402b123d 1460** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1461
402b123d 1462** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1463 Fix spurious parse errors.
1464
402b123d 1465** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1466 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1467 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1468
402b123d 1469** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1470 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1471 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1472
e9690142 1473 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
1474
1475 but the converse remains an error:
1476
e9690142 1477 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 1478
402b123d 1479** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1480 The following code:
1481
e9690142 1482 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
1483
1484 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1485 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1486\f
402b123d 1487* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1488
402b123d 1489** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1490 The declaration
1491 %glr-parser
1492 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1493 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1494 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1495 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1496
7933f2b5 1497 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1498 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1499
402b123d 1500** Output Directory
8c165d89 1501 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
1502 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1503 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 1504
402b123d 1505** Undefined token
007a50a4 1506 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1507 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1508
402b123d 1509** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1510 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1511 no longer the case.
1512
402b123d 1513** Error token
e88dbdbf 1514 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1515 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1516 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1517 will be mapped onto another number.
1518
402b123d 1519** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 1520 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
1521 error recovery is possible.
1522
402b123d 1523** End token
e4ab1254 1524 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 1525
402b123d 1526** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1527 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1528 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1529 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1530 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1531 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1532 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1533 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1534 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1535
402b123d 1536** Traces
5504898e
AD
1537 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1538
402b123d 1539** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1540 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1541 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1542 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1543 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1544
402b123d 1545** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1546 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1547 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1548 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1549
402b123d 1550** Useless rules
643a5994 1551 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1552 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1553
402b123d 1554** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1555 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1556
402b123d 1557** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1558 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1559 reported.
1560
e4ab1254 1561** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
1562 On a grammar such as
1563
e29f0771
AD
1564 %token useless useful
1565 %%
1566 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
1567
1568 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 1569 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 1570
402b123d 1571** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1572 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1573
402b123d 1574** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1575 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1576 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1577 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1578 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1579
402b123d 1580** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1581 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1582 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 1583 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1584 For instance
e29f0771 1585 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1586 or
e29f0771 1587 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1588
402b123d 1589** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1590 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1591
402b123d 1592** New translations
a861a339 1593 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1594 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1595
402b123d 1596** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
1597 When given
1598 %token 'a' "A"
1599 bison used to output
1600 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 1601
402b123d 1602** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1603 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1604 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1605 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1606
402b123d 1607** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1608 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1609 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1610 - itemset
1611 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 1612 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 1613 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1614 - solved
1615 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1616 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1617 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1618
402b123d 1619** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1620 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1621 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1622
e29f0771
AD
1623 %type <foo> bar
1624 %%
1625 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
1626
1627 This is fixed.
a861a339 1628
402b123d 1629** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1630\f
402b123d 1631* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1632
402b123d 1633** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1634 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1635 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1636 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1637
1638 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1639 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1640 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1641 kludge will be disabled.
1642
1643 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1644 extended.
76551463 1645\f
402b123d 1646* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1647
402b123d 1648** File name clashes are detected
76551463 1649 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 1650 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 1651
e4ab1254 1652** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1653 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1654 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1655 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1656 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1657 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1658
402b123d 1659** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1660 many portability hassles.
1661
402b123d 1662** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1663
402b123d 1664** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1665\f
402b123d 1666* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1667
402b123d 1668** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1669 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1670 under some conditions.
1671
402b123d 1672** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1673 As is done with $n.
1674\f
402b123d 1675* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1676
402b123d 1677** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1678
402b123d 1679** Portability fixes
76551463 1680
402b123d 1681** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1682\f
402b123d 1683* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1684
402b123d 1685** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1686
402b123d 1687** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1688 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1689 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1690 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 1691 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 1692
402b123d 1693** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1694 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1695 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1696
1697 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1698 problems as on AIX.
1699
402b123d 1700** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1701
402b123d 1702** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1703 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1704
402b123d 1705** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1706 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1707 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1708 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1709
402b123d 1710** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1711 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1712 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1713
402b123d 1714** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1715 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1716
402b123d 1717** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1718 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1719
402b123d 1720** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1721 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1722
402b123d 1723** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1724 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1725 any warning.
1726
402b123d 1727** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1728
402b123d 1729** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1730
402b123d 1731** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1732
402b123d 1733** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1734 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1735 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1736 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1737
402b123d 1738** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1739 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1740 previous allocations were not freed.
1741
402b123d 1742** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1743 Some newlines were missing.
1744 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1745
402b123d 1746** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1747 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1748
402b123d 1749** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1750 Was not used.
1751 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1752
402b123d 1753** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1754
402b123d 1755** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1756
402b123d 1757** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1758
402b123d 1759** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1760 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1761
402b123d 1762** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1763
402b123d 1764** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1765 New.
1766
402b123d 1767** --output
e4ab1254 1768 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 1769\f
402b123d 1770* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1771
e4ab1254
AD
1772** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1773 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1774 argument.
1775
e4ab1254 1776** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1777 experiment.
1778
402b123d 1779** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1780\f
402b123d 1781* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1782
402b123d 1783** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1784 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1785 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 1786 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 1787
e4ab1254 1788** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 1789
402b123d 1790** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1791
402b123d 1792** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1793
402b123d 1794** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1795
402b123d 1796** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1797
402b123d 1798** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1799
e4ab1254 1800** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 1801
e4ab1254 1802** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 1803
e4ab1254 1804** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 1805
402b123d 1806** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1807 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1808
402b123d 1809** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
1810 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1811 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 1812
402b123d 1813** @$
f987e9d2 1814 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1815\f
402b123d 1816* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1817
402b123d 1818** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1819
402b123d 1820** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1821
402b123d 1822** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1823
402b123d 1824** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1825\f
402b123d 1826* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1827
402b123d 1828** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1829 some systems has been fixed.
1830\f
402b123d 1831* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1832
7e508a2b 1833** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 1834
402b123d 1835** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1836
402b123d 1837** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1838
402b123d 1839** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1840
402b123d 1841** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1842
402b123d 1843** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1844
402b123d 1845** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1846 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1847\f
402b123d 1848* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1849
402b123d 1850** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1851the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1852
402b123d 1853** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 1854example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 1855of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 1856
402b123d 1857** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1858and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1859table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1860purposes.
1861
402b123d 1862** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1863directives in the parser file.
1864
402b123d 1865** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1866Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1867
402b123d 1868** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1869the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1870The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1871a switch statement body.
1872\f
402b123d 1873* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1874
4d019228
DM
1875The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1876passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1877actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1878by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1879
6780ca7a 1880Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1881\f
402b123d 1882* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1883
1884--help option added.
6780ca7a 1885\f
402b123d 1886* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1887
1888Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 1889
76551463
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1890-----
1891
34136e65 1892Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1893
74553c98 1894This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1895
f16b0819 1896This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1897it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1898the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1899(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1900
f16b0819 1901This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1902but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1903MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1904GNU General Public License for more details.
1905
1906You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1907along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
1908
1909 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1910 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1911 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1912 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1913 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1914 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1915 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1916 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1917 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1918 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1919 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1920 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1921 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 1922 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 1923 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
1924 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
1925 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1
AD
1926 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1927 LocalWords: TOK
7e508a2b
AD
1928
1929Local Variables:
1930mode: outline
e4ab1254 1931fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 1932End: