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api.token.prefix: use code values
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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
52718713 3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
74553c98 4
8458a411 5** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 6
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7 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
8 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
9 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
10
8458a411 11** Backward incompatible changes
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12
13*** Obsolete features
14
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15 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
16
17 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
18 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
19
20 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
21 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 22
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23 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
24 in the release 2.5).
25
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26*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
27
28 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
29 Bison extensions.
30
31 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
32 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
33 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
34
35 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
36 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
37 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
38 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
39 warnings for Bison extensions.
40
41 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
42 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
43 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
44 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
45
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46** Bug fixes
47
c21e515e 48*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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49
50 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
51 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
52 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
53 preprocessor expansion:
54
55 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
56
6c7022f7 57 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
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58 identifiers for user-provided variables.
59
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60*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
61
62 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
63 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
64
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65** Diagnostics reported by Bison
66
67 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
68 Santet.
73370a9d 69
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70*** Carets
71
72 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
73 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
74 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
75
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76 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
77 the caret information only. For instance on:
78
79 %%
80 exp: 'a' | 'a';
81
82 Bison 2.7 reports:
83
84 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
85 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
86
87 Now bison reports:
88
89 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
90 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
91 exp: 'a' | 'a';
92 ^^^
93
94 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
95
96 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
97 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
98
1048a1c9 99*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 100
1048a1c9 101 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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102 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
103 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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104
105 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 106 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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107 errors (and only those):
108
109 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
110
111 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
112 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
113
114 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
115
116 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
117
118 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
119 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
120
121 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
122 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
123 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 124
46bdb8ec 125*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 126
46bdb8ec 127 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 128
46bdb8ec 129 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 130
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131 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
132 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 133 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 134
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135 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
136 with failure):
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137
138 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 139 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 140
46bdb8ec 141 it now reports:
1048a1c9 142
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143 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
144
145*** Deprecated constructs
146
147 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
148 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
149 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
150
73370a9d 151*** Useless semantic types
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152
153 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
154 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
155 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
156 types that trigger the warning:
157
158 %token <type1> term
159 %type <type2> nterm
160 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
161 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
162 %%
163 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
164
165 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
166 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
167
31557b9e 168*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 169
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170 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
171 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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172
173 %printer {} symbol1
174 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 175 %type <type> symbol3
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176 %%
177 exp: "a";
178
73370a9d 179*** Useless destructors or printers
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180
181 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
182 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
183 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
184 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
185
186 %token <type1> token1
187 <type2> token2
188 <type3> token3
189 <type4> token4
190 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
191 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
192
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193*** Conflicts
194
195 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
196 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
197
198 %glr-parser
199 %%
200 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
201
202 compare the previous version of bison:
203
204 $ bison foo.y
205 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
206 $ bison -Werror foo.y
207 bison: warnings being treated as errors
208 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
209
210 with the new behavior:
211
212 $ bison foo.y
213 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
214 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
215 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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216 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
217 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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218
219 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
220
221 %expect 0
222 %glr-parser
223 %%
224 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
225
226 Former behavior:
227
228 $ bison bar.y
229 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
230 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
231 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
232
233 New one:
234
235 $ bison bar.y
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236 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
237 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 238
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239** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
240
241 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
242 with '-Wyacc'.
243
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244** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
245
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246 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
247 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
248 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 249
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250 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
251 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
252 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
253 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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254
255 one may now declare
256
e436fa67 257 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 258
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259** Types of values for %define variables
260
261 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
262 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
263 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
264 foo {bar}'.
265
266 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
267
268 %define lr.type lalr
269
270 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
271
272 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
273
274 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
275
2a6b66c5 276** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 277
2a6b66c5 278 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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279 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
280 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
281
e436fa67 282 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 283 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
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284 %%
285 start: FILE for ERROR;
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286
287 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
288 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
289 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
290 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
291
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292** Variable api.value.type
293
294 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
295 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
296 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
297
298 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
299
300 %union
301 {
302 int ival;
303 char *sval;
304 }
305 %token <ival> INT "integer"
306 %token <sval> STRING "string"
307 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
308 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
309
310 /* In yylex(). */
311 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
312 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
313
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314 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
315
316 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 317 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 318 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 319
435575cb 320 %define api.value.type union
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321 %token <int> INT "integer"
322 %token <char *> STRING "string"
323 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
324 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
325
326 /* In yylex(). */
327 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
328 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
329
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330 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
331 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 332
435575cb 333 %define api.value.type variant
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334 %token <int> INT "integer"
335 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
336
630a0218 337 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 338 used to be used.
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339
340 %code requires
341 {
342 struct my_value
343 {
344 enum
345 {
346 is_int, is_string
347 } kind;
348 union
349 {
350 int ival;
351 char *sval;
352 } u;
353 };
354 }
435575cb 355 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
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356 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
357 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
358 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
359 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
360
361 /* In yylex(). */
362 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
363 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
364
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365** Variable parse.error
366
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367 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
368 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
369 verbose".
31b850d2 370
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371** Renamed %define variables
372
373 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
374 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
375
376 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
377 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
378 namespace -> api.namespace
379 stype -> api.value.type
380
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381** Semantic predicates
382
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383 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
384
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385 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
386 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 387 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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388 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
389 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
390 expressions.
ca2a6d15 391
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392** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
393
394 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
395 reduce/reduce conflicts.
396
5202b6ac 397** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 398
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399 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
400
401 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
402 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
403 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
404 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
405
406 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
407 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
408 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
409
410 %right A B 'c' 'd'
411
412 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
413 input order is now preserved.
414
415 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
416 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
417 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 418
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419** Useless precedence and associativity
420
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421 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
422
1282c124 423 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
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424 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
425 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
426 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
427 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
428 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
429 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
430
431*** Precedence warning category
432
433 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
434 useless precedence and associativity directives.
435
436*** Useless associativity
437
438 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
439 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
440 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
441 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
442 For example:
443
444 %left '+'
445 %left '*'
446 %%
447 exp:
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448 "number"
449 | exp '+' "number"
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450 | exp '*' exp
451 ;
452
453 will produce a
454
455 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
456 %left '+'
457 ^^^
458
459*** Useless precedence
460
461 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
462 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
463 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
464 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
465
466 %precedence '='
467 %%
1282c124 468 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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469
470 will produce a
471
472 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
473 %precedence '='
474 ^^^
475
476*** Useless precedence and associativity
477
478 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
479 as follows:
480
481 %nonassoc '='
482 %%
1282c124 483 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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484
485 The warning is:
486
487 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
488 %nonassoc '='
489 ^^^
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490
491** Empty rules
492
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493 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
494
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495 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
496 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
497 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
498 %empty. On the following grammar:
499
500 %%
501 s: a b c;
502 a: ;
503 b: %empty;
504 c: 'a' %empty;
505
506 bison reports:
507
508 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
509 a: {}
510 ^^
511 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
512 c: 'a' %empty {};
513 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 514
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515** Java skeleton improvements
516
517 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
518
519 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
520 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
521 and "%define init_throws".
522
523** C++ skeletons improvements
524
525*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
526
527 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
528 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
529 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
530
531*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
532
533 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
534
535*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
536
537 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
538 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
539 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
540 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
541 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
542 factory invoked by the user actions).
543
544*** %define api.value.type variant
545
546 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
547 from Théophile Ranquet.
548
549 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
550 instance:
551
552 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
553 %token <int> NUMBER;
554 %token SEMICOLON ";"
555 %type <::std::string> item;
556 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
557 %%
558 result:
559 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
560 ;
561
562 list:
6240346a 563 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
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564 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
565 ;
566
567 item:
568 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
569 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
570 ;
571
572*** %define api.token.constructor
573
574 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
575 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
576 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
577
578 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
579 {
580 parser::location_type loc = ...;
581 ...
582 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
583 ...
584 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
585 ...
586 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
587 ...
588 }
589
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590*** C++ locations
591
592 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
593 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
594
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595* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
596
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597** Bug fixes
598
599*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
600
601 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 602
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603*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
604
c13bb348 605* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 606
edf9a06f 607** Bug fixes
7bada535 608
edf9a06f 609 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 610
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611 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
612
d4fe9e88 613** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 614
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615 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
616
d4fe9e88 617*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 618
d4fe9e88 619 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 620
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621 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
622 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 623
d4fe9e88 624 It is now:
1f1bd572 625
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626 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
627 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 628
d4fe9e88 629*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 630
d4fe9e88 631 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 632
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633 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
634 %type <sval> exp
635 ^^^^^^
636 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
637 %type <ival> exp
638 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 639
d4fe9e88 640 or
cbaea010 641
7bada535 642 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 643 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 644 ^^^^
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645 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
646 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
647 ^^^
648 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
649 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
650 ^^^
651 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
652 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
653 ^^^
7bada535 654
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655 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
656 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
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657 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
658 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 659
1f1bd572 660** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 661
1f1bd572 662 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
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663 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
664 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
665 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
666 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
667 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
668
669 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
670 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 671
7287be84 672** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
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673
674 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
675 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
676 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
677 then responsible to define her type.
678
679 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
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680 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
681 them.
db8ab2be
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682
683 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
684 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
685 compatibility).
686
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687 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
688 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
689 api.position.type.
690
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691** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
692
693 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
694 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
695 before re-throwing the exception.
696
697 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
698 appreciated.
699
9c16d399 700** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 701
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702 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
703
fc4fdd62
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704 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
705 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
706 numbered and left-justified.
707
708 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
709 diamond shaped nodes.
710
9c16d399
TR
711 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
712 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
713
d4fe9e88 714** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 715
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716 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
717 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 718
53e2cd1e
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719** Documentation
720
721 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
722 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 723
d4fe9e88
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724 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
725 were not properly documented.
726
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727 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
728
9d3f7eaf 729* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 730
a68b1f23
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731 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
732 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
733 reporting them to us.
734
735** Bug fixes
736
737 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
738 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
739 3.2.
740
741 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 742
1282c124 743 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 744
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745 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
746 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
747
0ac15849 748* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 749
468455e1 750 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 751
6eb8f74f 752* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 753
6b4cb804
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754** Bug fixes
755
a1a77e1f 756 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
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757
758 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
759 users to the appropriate place to report them.
760
761 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
762
763 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
764 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 765
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766 All the generated headers are self-contained.
767
c9d5bcc9
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768** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
769
770 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
771 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
772 For instance the header generated from
773
774 %define api.prefix "calc"
775 %defines "lib/parse.h"
776
777 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
778
c12c4c50 779** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
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780
781 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
782 warnings such as:
783
784 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
785 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
786 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
787 *++yyvsp = yylval;
788 ^
789
790 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
791
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792 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
793 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
794 addressed.
795
e1eeecd3 796* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 797
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798** Bug fixes
799
800 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
801 suite have been fixed.
802
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803** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
804
805 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
806 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 807
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808** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
809
810 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
811
77b214ef 812* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 813
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814 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
815
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816** Future Changes
817
818 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
819 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
820 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
821
822 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
823
824 write:
825
826 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
827
8617d87e
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828** Bug fixes
829
0e164d43
AD
830*** Type names are now properly escaped.
831
832*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 833
26313726
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834*** Stray @ or $ in actions
835
836 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
837 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
838 now does.
839
cd735a8c 840** Type names in actions
4982f078
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841
842 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 843 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
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844
845 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
846
847 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 848 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 849
1505e8bb 850* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 851
d0a30438 852** Future changes
9553083c 853
55d1006f
AD
854 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
855 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 856
aaf61036 857*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
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858
859 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 860 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
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861 compilers.
862
258cddbc 863*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 864
258cddbc
AD
865 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
866 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 867
258cddbc
AD
868 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
869 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
870
871 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
872 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
873
874*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
875
876 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
877 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
878 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
879 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
880 it.
0f11eec2 881
c2425191 882** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 883
258cddbc 884*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
885
886 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 887 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 888
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AD
889 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
890 # define YY_FOO_H
891 ...
892 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 893
258cddbc 894*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
895
896 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
897 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
898
e29f0771 899 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
900
901 rather than
902
e29f0771
AD
903 #define yyparse bar_parse
904 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
905
906 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
907 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 908
258cddbc
AD
909*** Exported symbols in C++
910
911 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
912 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
913 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
914
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AD
915*** YYLSP_NEEDED
916
917 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
918 longer defined.
919
4b3847c3
AD
920** New %define variable: api.prefix
921
922 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
923 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
924 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
925 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
926 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
927 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
928 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
929
930 The following examples compares both:
931
932 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
933 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
934 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
935 %% %%
936 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
937
938 bison generates:
939
940 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
941 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
942
943 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
944 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
945 > # if defined YYDEBUG
946 > # if YYDEBUG
947 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
948 > # else
949 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
950 > # endif
951 > # else
952 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
953 > # endif
954 # endif | # endif
955
956 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
957 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
958 # endif # endif
959
960 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
961 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
962 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
963 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
964 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
965 }; };
966 # endif # endif
967
968 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
969 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
970 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
971 { {
972 int ival; int ival;
973 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
974 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
975 #endif #endif
976
977 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
978
979 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
980
981 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
982
dfaac272 983* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 984
debe2c03 985** Future changes:
765e1bd4 986
e4ab1254 987 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 988
466b4cf2 989** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 990
d834eca0 991** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 992
d834eca0 993*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 994
e4ab1254
AD
995 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
996 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 997
d834eca0 998*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 999
e4ab1254
AD
1000 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1001 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1002
466b4cf2 1003** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1004
e4ab1254
AD
1005 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1006 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1007
22172d47 1008** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1009
22172d47 1010*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1011
e4ab1254
AD
1012 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1013 or higher.
936c88d1 1014
22172d47
AD
1015*** Header guards
1016
1017 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1018 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1019
e29f0771
AD
1020 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1021 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1022 ...
1023 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1024
1025 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1026 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1027 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1028
1029 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1030
e29f0771
AD
1031 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1032 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1033 ...
1034 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1035
1036*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1037
e4ab1254
AD
1038 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1039 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1040 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1041
466b4cf2
AD
1042** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1043
7e508a2b
AD
1044** Changes in the manual:
1045
1046*** %printer is documented
1047
e4ab1254
AD
1048 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1049 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1050
e4ab1254
AD
1051 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1052 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1053
1054*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1055
e4ab1254
AD
1056 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1057 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1058 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1059 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1060
86b08b49
AD
1061** Building bison:
1062
1063*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1064
e4ab1254
AD
1065 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1066 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1067
8ef26c2a
AD
1068*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1069
1070*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1071
e4ab1254
AD
1072 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1073 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1074
91aadcc7 1075*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1076
e4ab1254
AD
1077 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1078 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1079
28801043 1080* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1081
82f3355e
JD
1082** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1083
1084 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1085 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1086 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1087 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1088 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1089
f1b238df 1090** Named references:
66381412
AR
1091
1092 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1093 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1094 actions code.
1095
1096 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1097 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1098 as named references:
1099
4b568fc0 1100 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1101 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1102
1103 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1104
4b568fc0 1105 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1106 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1107
5b1ff423 1108 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1109 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1110 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1111
5b1ff423 1112 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1113 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1114 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1115
f1b238df 1116** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1117
1118 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1119 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1120 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1121 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1122 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
1123 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1124 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1125 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1126 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1127
1128 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1129 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1130 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1131 file with these directives:
1132
cf499cff
JD
1133 %define lr.type lalr
1134 %define lr.type ielr
1135 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1136
7fceb615 1137 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
1138 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1139 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1140 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1141
1142 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1143 stabilize them.
1144
8458a411
AD
1145** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1146
1147 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1148
1149 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1150 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1151 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1152 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1153 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1154 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1155 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1156 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1157 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
1158 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1159 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
1160
1161 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1162 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1163 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1164 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1165 inconsistent states.
1166
7fceb615
JD
1167 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1168 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1169 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1170 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1171 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1172 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1173 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1174 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1175 power.
1176
1177 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1178 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1179
1180 %define parse.lac full
1181
e4ab1254 1182 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1183 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1184
1185 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1186 stabilize it.
1187
d397d9f0 1188** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1189
f1b238df 1190*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1191
de5ab940 1192 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1193
de5ab940
JD
1194 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1195 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1196
1197 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1198 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1199
1200 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1201
de5ab940 1202 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1203
de5ab940
JD
1204 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1205 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1206 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1207 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1208
f1b238df 1209*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1210
1211 The following %define variables
1212
1213 api.push_pull
1214 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1215
1216 have been renamed to
1217
1218 api.push-pull
1219 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1220
1221 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1222 for backward compatibility.
1223
7262f54f 1224*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1225
1226 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1227 within quotations marks. For example,
1228
1229 %define api.push-pull "push"
1230
1231 can be rewritten as
1232
1233 %define api.push-pull push
1234
d397d9f0 1235*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1236
d397d9f0
JD
1237*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1238
1239** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1240
1241** Character literals not of length one:
1242
1243 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1244 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1245 the following grammar to be the same token:
1246
1247 exp: exp '++'
1248 | exp '+' exp
1249 ;
1250
1251 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1252 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1253
1254** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1255
1256 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1257 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1258 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1259 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1260
1261** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1262
1263 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1264 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
AD
1265 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1266 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1267
e29f0771
AD
1268 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1269 do \
1270 if (N) \
1271 { \
1272 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1273 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1274 } \
1275 else \
1276 { \
1277 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1278 } \
1279 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1280
1281 use:
1282
e29f0771
AD
1283 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1284 do \
1285 if (N) \
1286 { \
1287 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1288 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1289 } \
1290 else \
1291 { \
1292 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1293 } \
1294 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1295
1296** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1297
1298 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1299 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1300 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1301 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1302
f1b238df 1303** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1304
1305 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1306 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1307 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1308 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1309 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1310 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1311 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1312 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1313
f1b238df 1314** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1315
1316 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1317 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1318 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1319 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1320
1321 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1322
1323 instead of
1324
1325 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1326
1327 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1328 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1329 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1330 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1331 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1332 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1333 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1334
d2060f06
JD
1335** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1336
e4ab1254 1337 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1338 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1339 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1340 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1341 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1342
1343*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1344 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1345 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1346 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1347 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1348 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1349 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1350 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1351 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1352 shifted or discarded.
1353
1354*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1355 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1356 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1357 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1358
1359*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1360 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1361 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1362 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1363 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1364 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1365 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1366 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1367 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1368 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1369 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1370 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1371 by default.
53f036ce 1372
1a33f4f6
JD
1373** Java skeleton fixes:
1374
1375*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1376
1377*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1378 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1379
02803d55
JD
1380*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1381
86408959
JD
1382** -W/--warnings fixes:
1383
e4ab1254 1384*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1385
1386 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1387 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1388
1389 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1390
786743d5
JD
1391*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1392
1393 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1394 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1395 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1396 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1397 example:
1398
1399 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1400 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1401 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1402 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1403
1404 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1405 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1406 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1407 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1408
e4ab1254 1409*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1410
1411 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1412 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1413
1414 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1415
e4ab1254 1416*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1417
e4ab1254 1418 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1419 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1420 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1421 suppress all warnings:
1422
1423 bison -Wnone gram.y
1424
1f36f544
JD
1425** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1426
1427 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1428 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1429 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1430
1431 %left END 0
1432
1433 This bug has been fixed.
1434
64877e5e 1435* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1436
2bfcac9a
JD
1437** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1438 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1439
8b9e021f
JD
1440** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1441 been fixed.
1442
4ad3921d
JD
1443** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1444
06cb07d5
JD
1445** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1446 been fixed.
1447
9b5049bd
JD
1448** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1449 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1450 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1451 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1452
93d7dde9
JD
1453** Minor documentation fixes.
1454
e19a049c 1455* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1456
f39ab286
JD
1457** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1458 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1459 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1460 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1461 affected platforms.
1462
e4ab1254 1463** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1464
1465 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1466 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1467 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1468 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1469 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1470 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1471 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1472 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1473 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1474
d8911864
EB
1475** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1476
a603c6e0
JD
1477** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1478 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1479 avoided.
c938d650 1480
98a345a2
JD
1481** %code is now a permanent feature.
1482
1483 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1484
1485 %{CODE%}
1486
1487 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1488 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1489
1490 %code {CODE}
1491 %code requires {CODE}
1492 %code provides {CODE}
1493 %code top {CODE}
1494
1495 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1496 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1497 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1498 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1499 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1500
1501 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1502 is still considered experimental.
1503
1625df5b
JD
1504** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1505
1506 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1507 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1508 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1509 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1510 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1511 specified by POSIX.
1512
1513 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1514 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1515 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1516 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1517 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1518 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1519 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1520
1521 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1522
1523 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1524 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1525 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1526 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1527 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1528 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1529 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1530 be removed altogether.
1531
1532 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1533 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1534 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1535 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1536 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1537 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1538 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1539 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1540 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1541 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1542
2755de8f
AD
1543** Internationalization.
1544
1545 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1546 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1547 host system.
1548
74553c98 1549* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1550
0ea583d2
AD
1551** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1552 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1553
0ea583d2
AD
1554** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1555
1556 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1557 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1558
1559 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1560
1561 instead of
1562
1563 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1564
e4ab1254 1565 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1566 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1567 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1568 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1569 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1570 feature.
1571
1572** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1573
402b123d 1574* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1575
402b123d 1576** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1577
1578 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1579 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1580 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1581 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1582 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1583
402b123d 1584** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1585
402b123d 1586** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1587 fixed.
1588
402b123d 1589* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1590
402b123d 1591** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1592 are now deprecated:
1593
1594 %define NAME "VALUE"
1595
e4ab1254 1596** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1597
1598 %define api.pure
1599
1600 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1601 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1602
402b123d 1603** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1604
1605 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1606 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1607 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1608 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1609 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1610
1611 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1612 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1613
e4ab1254 1614 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1615
59da312b
JD
1616 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1617 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1618
402b123d 1619** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1620 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1621 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1622
402b123d 1623** Java
59da312b
JD
1624
1625 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1626 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1627 %skeleton to select it.
1628
e4ab1254 1629 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1630
1631 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1632 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1633 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1634
402b123d 1635** %language
59da312b
JD
1636
1637 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1638 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1639 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1640 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1641
402b123d 1642** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1643
1644 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1645 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1646 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1647 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1648
402b123d 1649** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1650 %defines. For example:
1651
1652 %defines "parser.h"
1653
402b123d 1654** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1655 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1656 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1657 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1658
402b123d 1659** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1660
1661 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1662 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1663 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1664
1665 1. Removes unreachable states.
1666
1667 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1668 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1669 directives in existing grammar files.
1670
1671 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1672 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1673
31984206
JD
1674 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1675
1676 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1677
e4ab1254 1678 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1679 for further discussion.
1680
e4ab1254 1681** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1682
e4ab1254
AD
1683 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1684 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1685 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1686 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1687 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1688 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1689 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1690 code.
1691
e4ab1254 1692** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1693 name.
1bb2bd75 1694
e4ab1254 1695** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1696 deprecated:
1697
1698 %file-prefix "parser"
1699 %name-prefix "c_"
1700 %output "parser.c"
1701
e4ab1254 1702** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1703
1704 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1705 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1706 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1707 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1708 it:
1709
e4ab1254
AD
1710 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1711 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1712 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1713 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1714
e4ab1254
AD
1715 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1716 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1717 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1718 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1719
1720 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1721 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1722
402b123d 1723** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1724
1725 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1726 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1727 about unused $2 in:
1728
1729 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1730
1731 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1732 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1733
1734 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1735
1736 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1737 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1738 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1739
e4ab1254
AD
1740 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1741 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1742
e4ab1254 1743** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1744
1745 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1746 %printer's:
1747
e4ab1254 1748 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1749 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1750 declared semantic type tags.
1751
e4ab1254 1752 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1753 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1754 type tags.
1755
e4ab1254
AD
1756 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1757 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1758 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1759 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1760
85894313
JD
1761 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1762 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1763 features.
1764
e4ab1254 1765 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1766 details.
1767
402b123d 1768** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1769 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1770 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1771
402b123d 1772** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1773 completely removed from Bison.
1774
402b123d 1775* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1776
402b123d 1777** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1778 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1779 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1780 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1781 and is required by POSIX.
1782
402b123d 1783** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1784 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1785
402b123d 1786** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1787
1788 For example:
1789
b2a0b7ca
JD
1790 %union { char *string; }
1791 %token <string> STRING1
1792 %token <string> STRING2
1793 %type <string> string1
1794 %type <string> string2
1795 %union { char character; }
1796 %token <character> CHR
1797 %type <character> chr
1798 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1799 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1800 %destructor { } <character>
1801
1802 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1803 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1804 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1805 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1806 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1807
85894313
JD
1808 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1809 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1810 future versions.]
1811
e4ab1254
AD
1812** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1813 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1814 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1815 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1816 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1817
402b123d 1818** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1819 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1820
1821 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1822 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1823 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1824 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1825 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1826
34f98f46 1827 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1828 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1829 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1830 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1831 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1832 after the token definitions.
1833
1834 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1835 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1836
402b123d 1837** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1838 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1839 %after-header.
1840
1841 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1842 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1843 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1844 convenient for you:
1845
1846 %before-header {
1847 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1848 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1849 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1850 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1851 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1852 }
1853 %start-header {
1854 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1855 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1856 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1857 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1858 }
1859 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1860 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1861 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1862 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1863 }
34f98f46
JD
1864 %end-header {
1865 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1866 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1867 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1868 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1869 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1870 }
34f98f46
JD
1871 %after-header {
1872 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1873 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1874 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1875 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1876 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1877 }
1878
1879 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1880 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1881
85894313
JD
1882 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1883 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1884
e4ab1254 1885** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1886 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1887 in a future release.
742e4900 1888
402b123d 1889* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1890
e4ab1254 1891** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1892 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1893
402b123d 1894** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1895 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1896
402b123d 1897* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1898
402b123d 1899** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1900 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1901 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1902
402b123d 1903** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1904
402b123d 1905** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1906
402b123d 1907** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1908 their contents together.
1909
402b123d 1910** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1911 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1912 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1913
8f3596a6 1914 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1915 | exp "+" exp
1916 ;
affac613 1917
8f3596a6
AD
1918 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1919 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1920 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1921
4e26c69e 1922 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1923 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1924 | exp "+" exp
1925 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1926 ;
affac613 1927
4e26c69e
PE
1928 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1929 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1930 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1931
8f3596a6 1932 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1933 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1934 ;
721be13c 1935
84866159
AD
1936 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1937 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1938
1939 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1940
721be13c
PE
1941 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1942 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1943
402b123d 1944** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1945 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1946 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1947 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1948
402b123d 1949** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1950 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1951 instead of warnings.
1952
402b123d 1953** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1954 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1955 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1956
e4ab1254 1957** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1958
402b123d 1959** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1960 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1961 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1962
402b123d 1963** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1964 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1965 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1966 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1967 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1968
1969 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1970 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1971 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1972 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1973
b50d2359 1974 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1975 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1976
402b123d 1977** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1978\f
402b123d 1979* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1980
402b123d 1981** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1982
402b123d 1983** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1984 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1985 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1986 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1987 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1988 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1989
402b123d 1990** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1991 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1992 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1993 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1994
402b123d 1995** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1996 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1997 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1998
402b123d 1999** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2000 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2001 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2002 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2003 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2004\f
402b123d 2005* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2006
402b123d 2007** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2008
82de6b0d
PE
2009 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2010 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2011 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2012 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2013 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2014
82de6b0d
PE
2015 - Error token location.
2016 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2017 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2018 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2019 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2020
82de6b0d
PE
2021 - Semicolon changes:
2022 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2023 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2024
82de6b0d
PE
2025 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2026 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2027 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2028 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2029
82de6b0d 2030 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2031
402b123d 2032** New features
1452af69 2033
82de6b0d 2034 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2035
82de6b0d
PE
2036 - New directive: %initial-action.
2037 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2038 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2039
82de6b0d
PE
2040 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2041 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2042
e4ab1254 2043 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2044 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2045
e4ab1254 2046 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2047 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2048
82de6b0d 2049 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2050
82de6b0d
PE
2051 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2052 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2053
402b123d 2054** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2055
82de6b0d
PE
2056 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2057 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2058 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2059 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2060 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2061 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2062
82de6b0d
PE
2063 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2064 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2065
82de6b0d 2066 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2067\f
402b123d 2068* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2069
402b123d 2070** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2071 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2072
402b123d 2073** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2074
dc546b0f
PE
2075 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2076 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2077
dc546b0f
PE
2078 - %destructor
2079 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2080 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2081
dc546b0f
PE
2082 - %error-verbose
2083 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2084
dc546b0f
PE
2085 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2086 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2087
402b123d 2088** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2089
dc546b0f
PE
2090 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2091 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2092 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2093
e4ab1254
AD
2094 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2095 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2096 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2097 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2098 be consistent.
74724a70 2099
dc546b0f
PE
2100 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2101 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2102
dc546b0f
PE
2103 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2104 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2105
dc546b0f
PE
2106 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2107 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2108
dc546b0f 2109 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2110 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2111 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2112 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2113 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2114
dc546b0f 2115 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2116
dc546b0f
PE
2117 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2118 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2119 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2120
402b123d 2121** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2122
e4ab1254
AD
2123 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2124 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2125 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2126 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2127 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2128 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2129
e4ab1254 2130 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2131 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2132
dc546b0f 2133 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2134 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2135
e4ab1254 2136 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2137 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2138 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2139
402b123d 2140** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2141
dc546b0f
PE
2142 - GLR and inline
2143 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2144 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2145
e4ab1254
AD
2146 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2147 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2148
18ad57b3
AD
2149** %parse-param and %lex-param
2150 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2151 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2152 shortcomings:
2153
2154 - a single argument only can be added,
2155 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2156 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2157 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2158
2159 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2160 For instance:
2161
2162 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2163 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2164 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2165
2166 results in the following signatures:
2167
2168 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2169 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2170
2171 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2172
2173 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2174 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2175
402b123d 2176** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2177 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2178 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2179
402b123d 2180** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2181 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2182
402b123d 2183** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2184 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2185 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2186 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2187\f
402b123d 2188* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2189
402b123d 2190** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2191
402b123d 2192** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2193
402b123d 2194** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2195 Fix spurious parse errors.
2196
402b123d 2197** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2198 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2199 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2200
402b123d 2201** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2202 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2203 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2204
e9690142 2205 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2206
2207 but the converse remains an error:
2208
e9690142 2209 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2210
402b123d 2211** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2212 The following code:
2213
e9690142 2214 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2215
2216 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2217 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2218\f
402b123d 2219* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2220
402b123d 2221** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2222 The declaration
2223 %glr-parser
2224 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2225 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2226 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2227 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2228
7933f2b5 2229 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2230 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2231
402b123d 2232** Output Directory
8c165d89 2233 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2234 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2235 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2236
402b123d 2237** Undefined token
007a50a4 2238 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2239 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2240
402b123d 2241** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2242 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2243 no longer the case.
2244
402b123d 2245** Error token
e88dbdbf 2246 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2247 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2248 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2249 will be mapped onto another number.
2250
402b123d 2251** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2252 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2253 error recovery is possible.
2254
402b123d 2255** End token
e4ab1254 2256 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2257
402b123d 2258** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2259 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2260 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2261 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2262 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2263 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2264 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2265 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2266 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2267
402b123d 2268** Traces
5504898e
AD
2269 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2270
402b123d 2271** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2272 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2273 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2274 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2275 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2276
402b123d 2277** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2278 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2279 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2280 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2281
402b123d 2282** Useless rules
643a5994 2283 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2284 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2285
402b123d 2286** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2287 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2288
402b123d 2289** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2290 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2291 reported.
2292
e4ab1254 2293** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2294 On a grammar such as
2295
e29f0771
AD
2296 %token useless useful
2297 %%
2298 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2299
2300 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2301 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2302
402b123d 2303** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2304 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2305
402b123d 2306** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2307 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2308 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2309 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2310 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2311
402b123d 2312** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2313 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2314 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2315 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2316 For instance
e29f0771 2317 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2318 or
e29f0771 2319 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2320
402b123d 2321** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2322 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2323
402b123d 2324** New translations
a861a339 2325 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2326 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2327
402b123d 2328** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2329 When given
2330 %token 'a' "A"
2331 bison used to output
2332 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2333
402b123d 2334** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2335 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2336 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2337 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2338
402b123d 2339** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2340 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2341 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2342 - itemset
2343 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2344 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2345 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2346 - solved
2347 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2348 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2349 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2350
402b123d 2351** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2352 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2353 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2354
e29f0771
AD
2355 %type <foo> bar
2356 %%
2357 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2358
2359 This is fixed.
a861a339 2360
402b123d 2361** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2362\f
402b123d 2363* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2364
402b123d 2365** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2366 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2367 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2368 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2369
2370 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2371 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2372 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2373 kludge will be disabled.
2374
2375 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2376 extended.
76551463 2377\f
402b123d 2378* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2379
402b123d 2380** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2381 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2382 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2383
e4ab1254 2384** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2385 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2386 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2387 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2388 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2389 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2390
402b123d 2391** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2392 many portability hassles.
2393
402b123d 2394** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2395
402b123d 2396** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2397\f
402b123d 2398* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2399
402b123d 2400** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2401 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2402 under some conditions.
2403
402b123d 2404** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2405 As is done with $n.
2406\f
402b123d 2407* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2408
402b123d 2409** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2410
402b123d 2411** Portability fixes
76551463 2412
402b123d 2413** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2414\f
402b123d 2415* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2416
402b123d 2417** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2418
402b123d 2419** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2420 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2421 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2422 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2423 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2424
402b123d 2425** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2426 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2427 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2428
2429 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2430 problems as on AIX.
2431
402b123d 2432** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2433
402b123d 2434** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2435 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2436
402b123d 2437** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2438 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2439 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2440 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2441
402b123d 2442** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2443 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2444 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2445
402b123d 2446** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2447 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2448
402b123d 2449** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2450 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2451
402b123d 2452** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2453 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2454
402b123d 2455** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2456 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2457 any warning.
2458
402b123d 2459** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2460
402b123d 2461** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2462
402b123d 2463** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2464
402b123d 2465** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2466 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2467 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2468 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2469
402b123d 2470** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2471 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2472 previous allocations were not freed.
2473
402b123d 2474** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2475 Some newlines were missing.
2476 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2477
402b123d 2478** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2479 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2480
402b123d 2481** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2482 Was not used.
2483 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2484
402b123d 2485** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2486
402b123d 2487** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2488
402b123d 2489** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2490
402b123d 2491** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2492 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2493
402b123d 2494** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2495
402b123d 2496** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2497 New.
2498
402b123d 2499** --output
e4ab1254 2500 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2501\f
402b123d 2502* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2503
e4ab1254
AD
2504** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2505 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2506 argument.
2507
e4ab1254 2508** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2509 experiment.
2510
402b123d 2511** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2512\f
402b123d 2513* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2514
402b123d 2515** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2516 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2517 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2518 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2519
e4ab1254 2520** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2521
402b123d 2522** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2523
402b123d 2524** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2525
402b123d 2526** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2527
402b123d 2528** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2529
402b123d 2530** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2531
e4ab1254 2532** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2533
e4ab1254 2534** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2535
e4ab1254 2536** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2537
402b123d 2538** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2539 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2540
402b123d 2541** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2542 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2543 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2544
402b123d 2545** @$
f987e9d2 2546 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2547\f
402b123d 2548* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2549
402b123d 2550** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2551
402b123d 2552** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2553
402b123d 2554** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2555
402b123d 2556** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2557\f
402b123d 2558* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2559
402b123d 2560** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2561 some systems has been fixed.
2562\f
402b123d 2563* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2564
7e508a2b 2565** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2566
402b123d 2567** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2568
402b123d 2569** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2570
402b123d 2571** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2572
402b123d 2573** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2574
402b123d 2575** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2576
402b123d 2577** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2578 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2579\f
402b123d 2580* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2581
402b123d 2582** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2583the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2584
402b123d 2585** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2586example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2587of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2588
402b123d 2589** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2590and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2591table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2592purposes.
2593
402b123d 2594** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2595directives in the parser file.
2596
402b123d 2597** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2598Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2599
402b123d 2600** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2601the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2602The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2603a switch statement body.
2604\f
402b123d 2605* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2606
4d019228
DM
2607The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2608passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2609actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2610by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2611
6780ca7a 2612Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2613\f
402b123d 2614* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2615
2616--help option added.
6780ca7a 2617\f
402b123d 2618* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2619
2620Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2621
76551463
AD
2622-----
2623
7d6bad19 2624Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2625
74553c98 2626This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2627
f16b0819 2628This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2629it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2630the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2631(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2632
f16b0819 2633This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2634but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2635MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2636GNU General Public License for more details.
2637
2638You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2639along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2640
2641 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2642 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2643 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2644 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2645 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2646 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2647 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2648 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2649 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2650 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2651 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2652 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2653 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2654 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2655 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2656 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2657 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2658 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1282c124
AD
2659 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2660 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2661 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2662 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2663 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2664 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
7e508a2b
AD
2665
2666Local Variables:
2667mode: outline
e4ab1254 2668fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2669End: