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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
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3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
5
c2ecada3 6* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.1 (2013-11-12) [stable]
e386b50f 7
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8** Bug fixes
9
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10*** Errors in caret diagnostics
11
12 On some platforms, some errors could result in endless diagnostics.
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13
14*** Fixes of the -Werror option
15
16 Options such as "-Werror -Wno-error=foo" were still turning "foo"
17 diagnostics into errors instead of warnings. This is fixed.
18
19 Actually, for consistency with GCC, "-Wno-error=foo -Werror" now also
20 leaves "foo" diagnostics as warnings. Similarly, with "-Werror=foo
21 -Wno-error", "foo" diagnostics are now errors.
e386b50f 22
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23*** GLR Predicates
24
25 As demonstrated in the documentation, one can now leave spaces between
26 "%?" and its "{".
27
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28*** Installation
29
30 The yacc.1 man page is no longer installed if --disable-yacc was
31 specified.
32
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33*** Fixes in the test suite
34
35 Bugs and portability issues.
36
534497f5 37* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0 (2013-07-25) [stable]
facb910c 38
8458a411 39** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 40
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41 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
42 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
43 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
44
8458a411 45** Backward incompatible changes
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46
47*** Obsolete features
48
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49 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
50
51 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
52 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
53
54 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
55 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 56
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57 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
58 in the release 2.5).
59
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60*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
61
62 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
63 Bison extensions.
64
65 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
66 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
67 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
68
69 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
70 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
71 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
72 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
73 warnings for Bison extensions.
74
75 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
76 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
77 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
78 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
79
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80** Bug fixes
81
c21e515e 82*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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83
84 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
85 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
86 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
87 preprocessor expansion:
88
89 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
90
6c7022f7 91 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
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92 identifiers for user-provided variables.
93
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94*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
95
96 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
97 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
98
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99*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
100
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101** Diagnostics reported by Bison
102
103 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
104 Santet.
73370a9d 105
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106*** Carets
107
108 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
109 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
110 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
111
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112 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
113 the caret information only. For instance on:
114
115 %%
116 exp: 'a' | 'a';
117
118 Bison 2.7 reports:
119
120 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
121 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
122
123 Now bison reports:
124
125 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
126 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
127 exp: 'a' | 'a';
128 ^^^
129
130 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
131
132 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
133 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
134
1048a1c9 135*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 136
1048a1c9 137 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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138 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
139 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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140
141 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 142 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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143 errors (and only those):
144
145 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
146
147 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
148 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
149
150 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
151
152 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
153
154 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
155 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
156
157 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
158 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
159 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 160
46bdb8ec 161*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 162
46bdb8ec 163 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 164
46bdb8ec 165 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 166
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167 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
168 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 169 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 170
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171 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
172 with failure):
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173
174 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 175 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 176
46bdb8ec 177 it now reports:
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179 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
180
181*** Deprecated constructs
182
183 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
184 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
185 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
186
73370a9d 187*** Useless semantic types
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188
189 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
190 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
191 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
192 types that trigger the warning:
193
194 %token <type1> term
195 %type <type2> nterm
196 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
197 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
198 %%
199 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
200
201 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
202 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
203
31557b9e 204*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 205
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206 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
207 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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208
209 %printer {} symbol1
210 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 211 %type <type> symbol3
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212 %%
213 exp: "a";
214
73370a9d 215*** Useless destructors or printers
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216
217 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
218 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
219 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
220 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
221
222 %token <type1> token1
223 <type2> token2
224 <type3> token3
225 <type4> token4
226 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
227 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
228
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229*** Conflicts
230
231 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
232 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
233
234 %glr-parser
235 %%
236 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
237
238 compare the previous version of bison:
239
240 $ bison foo.y
241 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
242 $ bison -Werror foo.y
243 bison: warnings being treated as errors
244 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
245
246 with the new behavior:
247
248 $ bison foo.y
249 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
250 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
251 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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252 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
253 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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254
255 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
256
257 %expect 0
258 %glr-parser
259 %%
260 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
261
262 Former behavior:
263
264 $ bison bar.y
265 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
266 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
267 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
268
269 New one:
270
271 $ bison bar.y
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272 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
273 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 274
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275** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
276
277 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
278 with '-Wyacc'.
279
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280** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
281
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282 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
283 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
284 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 285
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286 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
287 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
288 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
289 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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290
291 one may now declare
292
e436fa67 293 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 294
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295** Types of values for %define variables
296
297 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
298 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
299 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
300 foo {bar}'.
301
302 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
303
304 %define lr.type lalr
305
306 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
307
308 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
309
310 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
311
2a6b66c5 312** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 313
2a6b66c5 314 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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315 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
316 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
317
e436fa67 318 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 319 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
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320 %%
321 start: FILE for ERROR;
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322
323 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
324 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
325 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
326 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
327
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328** Variable api.value.type
329
330 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
331 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
332 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
333
334 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
335
336 %union
337 {
338 int ival;
339 char *sval;
340 }
341 %token <ival> INT "integer"
342 %token <sval> STRING "string"
343 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
344 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
345
346 /* In yylex(). */
347 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
348 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
349
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350 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
351
352 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 353 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 354 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 355
435575cb 356 %define api.value.type union
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357 %token <int> INT "integer"
358 %token <char *> STRING "string"
359 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
360 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
361
362 /* In yylex(). */
363 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
364 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
365
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366 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
367 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 368
435575cb 369 %define api.value.type variant
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370 %token <int> INT "integer"
371 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
372
630a0218 373 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 374 used to be used.
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375
376 %code requires
377 {
378 struct my_value
379 {
380 enum
381 {
382 is_int, is_string
383 } kind;
384 union
385 {
386 int ival;
387 char *sval;
388 } u;
389 };
390 }
435575cb 391 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
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392 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
393 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
394 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
395 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
396
397 /* In yylex(). */
398 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
399 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
400
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401** Variable parse.error
402
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403 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
404 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
405 verbose".
31b850d2 406
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407** Renamed %define variables
408
409 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
410 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
411
412 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
413 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
414 namespace -> api.namespace
415 stype -> api.value.type
416
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417** Semantic predicates
418
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419 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
420
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421 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
422 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 423 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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424 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
425 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
426 expressions.
ca2a6d15 427
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428** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
429
430 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
431 reduce/reduce conflicts.
432
5202b6ac 433** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 434
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435 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
436
437 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
438 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
439 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
440 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
441
442 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
443 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
444 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
445
446 %right A B 'c' 'd'
447
448 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
449 input order is now preserved.
450
451 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
452 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
453 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 454
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455** Useless precedence and associativity
456
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457 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
458
1282c124 459 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
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460 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
461 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
462 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
463 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
464 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
465 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
466
467*** Precedence warning category
468
469 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
470 useless precedence and associativity directives.
471
472*** Useless associativity
473
474 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
475 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
476 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
477 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
478 For example:
479
480 %left '+'
481 %left '*'
482 %%
483 exp:
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484 "number"
485 | exp '+' "number"
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486 | exp '*' exp
487 ;
488
489 will produce a
490
491 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
492 %left '+'
493 ^^^
494
495*** Useless precedence
496
497 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
498 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
499 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
500 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
501
502 %precedence '='
503 %%
1282c124 504 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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505
506 will produce a
507
508 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
509 %precedence '='
510 ^^^
511
512*** Useless precedence and associativity
513
514 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
515 as follows:
516
517 %nonassoc '='
518 %%
1282c124 519 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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520
521 The warning is:
522
523 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
524 %nonassoc '='
525 ^^^
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526
527** Empty rules
528
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529 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
530
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531 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
532 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
533 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
534 %empty. On the following grammar:
535
536 %%
537 s: a b c;
538 a: ;
539 b: %empty;
540 c: 'a' %empty;
541
542 bison reports:
543
544 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
545 a: {}
546 ^^
547 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
548 c: 'a' %empty {};
549 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 550
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551** Java skeleton improvements
552
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553 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
554 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
555 and "%define init_throws".
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556 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
557
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558 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
559 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
560
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561** C++ skeletons improvements
562
563*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
564
565 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
566 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
567 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
568
569*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
570
571 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
572
573*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
574
575 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
576 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
577 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
578 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
579 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
580 factory invoked by the user actions).
581
582*** %define api.value.type variant
583
584 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
585 from Théophile Ranquet.
586
587 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
588 instance:
589
590 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
591 %token <int> NUMBER;
592 %token SEMICOLON ";"
593 %type <::std::string> item;
594 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
595 %%
596 result:
597 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
598 ;
599
600 list:
6240346a 601 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
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602 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
603 ;
604
605 item:
606 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
607 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
608 ;
609
610*** %define api.token.constructor
611
612 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
613 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
614 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
615
616 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
617 {
618 parser::location_type loc = ...;
619 ...
620 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
621 ...
622 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
623 ...
624 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
625 ...
626 }
627
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628*** C++ locations
629
630 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
631 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
632
1f5542fe 633* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
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635** Bug fixes
636
637*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
638
639 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 640
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641*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
642
c13bb348 643* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 644
edf9a06f 645** Bug fixes
7bada535 646
edf9a06f 647 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 648
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649 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
650
d4fe9e88 651** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 652
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653 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
654
d4fe9e88 655*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 656
d4fe9e88 657 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 658
d4fe9e88
AD
659 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
660 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 661
d4fe9e88 662 It is now:
1f1bd572 663
d4fe9e88
AD
664 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
665 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 666
d4fe9e88 667*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 668
d4fe9e88 669 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 670
d4fe9e88
AD
671 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
672 %type <sval> exp
673 ^^^^^^
674 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
675 %type <ival> exp
676 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 677
d4fe9e88 678 or
cbaea010 679
7bada535 680 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 681 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 682 ^^^^
fb6040f0
TR
683 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
684 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
685 ^^^
686 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
687 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
688 ^^^
689 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
690 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
691 ^^^
7bada535 692
1282c124
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693 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
694 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
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695 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
696 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 697
1f1bd572 698** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 699
1f1bd572 700 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
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701 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
702 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
703 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
704 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
705 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
706
707 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
708 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 709
7287be84 710** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
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711
712 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
713 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
714 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
715 then responsible to define her type.
716
717 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
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718 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
719 them.
db8ab2be
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720
721 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
722 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
723 compatibility).
724
7287be84
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725 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
726 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
727 api.position.type.
728
d4fe9e88
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729** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
730
731 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
732 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
733 before re-throwing the exception.
734
735 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
736 appreciated.
737
9c16d399 738** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 739
8458a411
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740 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
741
fc4fdd62
TR
742 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
743 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
744 numbered and left-justified.
745
746 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
747 diamond shaped nodes.
748
9c16d399
TR
749 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
750 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
751
d4fe9e88 752** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 753
d4fe9e88
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754 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
755 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 756
53e2cd1e
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757** Documentation
758
759 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
760 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 761
d4fe9e88
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762 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
763 were not properly documented.
764
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765 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
766
9d3f7eaf 767* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 768
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769 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
770 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
771 reporting them to us.
772
773** Bug fixes
774
775 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
776 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
777 3.2.
778
779 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 780
1282c124 781 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 782
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783 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
784 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
785
0ac15849 786* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 787
468455e1 788 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 789
6eb8f74f 790* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 791
6b4cb804
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792** Bug fixes
793
a1a77e1f 794 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
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795
796 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
797 users to the appropriate place to report them.
798
799 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
800
801 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
802 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 803
a2b3f101
TR
804 All the generated headers are self-contained.
805
c9d5bcc9
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806** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
807
808 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
809 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
810 For instance the header generated from
811
812 %define api.prefix "calc"
813 %defines "lib/parse.h"
814
815 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
816
c12c4c50 817** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
321d3e35
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818
819 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
820 warnings such as:
821
822 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
823 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
824 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
825 *++yyvsp = yylval;
826 ^
827
828 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
829
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830 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
831 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
832 addressed.
833
e1eeecd3 834* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 835
43ca8040
AD
836** Bug fixes
837
838 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
839 suite have been fixed.
840
c9d546b2
AD
841** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
842
843 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
844 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 845
dcd5344d
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846** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
847
848 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
849
77b214ef 850* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 851
8617d87e
AD
852 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
853
e20e6a50
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854** Future Changes
855
856 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
857 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
858 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
859
860 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
861
862 write:
863
864 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
865
8617d87e
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866** Bug fixes
867
0e164d43
AD
868*** Type names are now properly escaped.
869
870*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 871
26313726
AD
872*** Stray @ or $ in actions
873
874 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
875 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
876 now does.
877
cd735a8c 878** Type names in actions
4982f078
AD
879
880 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 881 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
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882
883 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
884
885 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 886 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 887
1505e8bb 888* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 889
d0a30438 890** Future changes
9553083c 891
55d1006f
AD
892 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
893 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 894
aaf61036 895*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
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896
897 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 898 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
AD
899 compilers.
900
258cddbc 901*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 902
258cddbc
AD
903 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
904 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 905
258cddbc
AD
906 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
907 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
908
909 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
910 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
911
912*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
913
914 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
915 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
916 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
917 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
918 it.
0f11eec2 919
c2425191 920** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 921
258cddbc 922*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
923
924 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 925 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 926
e29f0771
AD
927 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
928 # define YY_FOO_H
929 ...
930 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 931
258cddbc 932*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
933
934 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
935 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
936
e29f0771 937 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
938
939 rather than
940
e29f0771
AD
941 #define yyparse bar_parse
942 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
943
944 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
945 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 946
258cddbc
AD
947*** Exported symbols in C++
948
949 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
950 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
951 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
952
694af10c
AD
953*** YYLSP_NEEDED
954
955 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
956 longer defined.
957
4b3847c3
AD
958** New %define variable: api.prefix
959
960 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
961 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
962 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
963 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
964 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
965 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
966 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
967
968 The following examples compares both:
969
970 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
971 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
972 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
973 %% %%
974 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
975
976 bison generates:
977
978 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
979 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
980
981 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
982 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
983 > # if defined YYDEBUG
984 > # if YYDEBUG
985 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
986 > # else
987 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
988 > # endif
989 > # else
990 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
991 > # endif
992 # endif | # endif
993
994 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
995 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
996 # endif # endif
997
998 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
999 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
1000 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
1001 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
1002 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
1003 }; };
1004 # endif # endif
1005
1006 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
1007 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
1008 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
1009 { {
1010 int ival; int ival;
1011 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
1012 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
1013 #endif #endif
1014
1015 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
1016
1017 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
1018
1019 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
1020
dfaac272 1021* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 1022
debe2c03 1023** Future changes:
765e1bd4 1024
e4ab1254 1025 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 1026
466b4cf2 1027** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 1028
d834eca0 1029** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 1030
d834eca0 1031*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 1032
e4ab1254
AD
1033 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1034 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 1035
d834eca0 1036*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 1037
e4ab1254
AD
1038 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1039 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1040
466b4cf2 1041** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1042
e4ab1254
AD
1043 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1044 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1045
22172d47 1046** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1047
22172d47 1048*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1049
e4ab1254
AD
1050 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1051 or higher.
936c88d1 1052
22172d47
AD
1053*** Header guards
1054
1055 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1056 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1057
e29f0771
AD
1058 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1059 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1060 ...
1061 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1062
1063 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1064 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1065 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1066
1067 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1068
e29f0771
AD
1069 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1070 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1071 ...
1072 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1073
1074*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1075
e4ab1254
AD
1076 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1077 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1078 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1079
466b4cf2
AD
1080** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1081
7e508a2b
AD
1082** Changes in the manual:
1083
1084*** %printer is documented
1085
e4ab1254
AD
1086 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1087 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1088
e4ab1254
AD
1089 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1090 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1091
1092*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1093
e4ab1254
AD
1094 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1095 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1096 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1097 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1098
86b08b49
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1099** Building bison:
1100
1101*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1102
e4ab1254
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1103 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1104 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1105
8ef26c2a
AD
1106*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1107
1108*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1109
e4ab1254
AD
1110 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1111 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1112
91aadcc7 1113*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1114
e4ab1254
AD
1115 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1116 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1117
28801043 1118* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1119
82f3355e
JD
1120** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1121
1122 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1123 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1124 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1125 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1126 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1127
f1b238df 1128** Named references:
66381412
AR
1129
1130 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1131 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1132 actions code.
1133
1134 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1135 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1136 as named references:
1137
4b568fc0 1138 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1139 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1140
1141 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1142
4b568fc0 1143 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1144 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1145
5b1ff423 1146 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1147 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1148 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1149
5b1ff423 1150 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1151 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1152 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1153
f1b238df 1154** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1155
1156 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1157 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1158 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1159 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1160 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
1161 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1162 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1163 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1164 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1165
1166 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1167 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1168 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1169 file with these directives:
1170
cf499cff
JD
1171 %define lr.type lalr
1172 %define lr.type ielr
1173 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1174
7fceb615 1175 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
1176 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1177 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1178 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1179
1180 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1181 stabilize them.
1182
8458a411
AD
1183** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1184
1185 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1186
1187 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1188 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1189 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1190 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1191 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1192 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1193 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1194 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1195 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
1196 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1197 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
1198
1199 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1200 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1201 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1202 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1203 inconsistent states.
1204
7fceb615
JD
1205 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1206 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1207 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1208 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1209 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1210 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1211 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1212 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1213 power.
1214
1215 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1216 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1217
1218 %define parse.lac full
1219
e4ab1254 1220 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1221 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1222
1223 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1224 stabilize it.
1225
d397d9f0 1226** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1227
f1b238df 1228*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1229
de5ab940 1230 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1231
de5ab940
JD
1232 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1233 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1234
1235 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1236 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1237
1238 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1239
de5ab940 1240 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1241
de5ab940
JD
1242 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1243 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1244 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1245 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1246
f1b238df 1247*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1248
1249 The following %define variables
1250
1251 api.push_pull
1252 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1253
1254 have been renamed to
1255
1256 api.push-pull
1257 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1258
1259 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1260 for backward compatibility.
1261
7262f54f 1262*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1263
1264 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1265 within quotations marks. For example,
1266
1267 %define api.push-pull "push"
1268
1269 can be rewritten as
1270
1271 %define api.push-pull push
1272
d397d9f0 1273*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1274
d397d9f0
JD
1275*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1276
1277** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1278
1279** Character literals not of length one:
1280
1281 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1282 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1283 the following grammar to be the same token:
1284
1285 exp: exp '++'
1286 | exp '+' exp
1287 ;
1288
1289 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1290 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1291
1292** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1293
1294 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1295 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1296 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1297 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1298
1299** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1300
1301 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1302 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
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1303 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1304 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1305
e29f0771
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1306 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1307 do \
1308 if (N) \
1309 { \
1310 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1311 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1312 } \
1313 else \
1314 { \
1315 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1316 } \
1317 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1318
1319 use:
1320
e29f0771
AD
1321 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1322 do \
1323 if (N) \
1324 { \
1325 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1326 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1327 } \
1328 else \
1329 { \
1330 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1331 } \
1332 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1333
1334** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1335
1336 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1337 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1338 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1339 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1340
f1b238df 1341** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1342
1343 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1344 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1345 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1346 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1347 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1348 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1349 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1350 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1351
f1b238df 1352** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1353
1354 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1355 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1356 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1357 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1358
1359 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1360
1361 instead of
1362
1363 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1364
1365 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1366 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1367 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1368 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1369 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1370 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1371 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1372
d2060f06
JD
1373** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1374
e4ab1254 1375 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1376 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1377 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1378 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1379 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1380
1381*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1382 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1383 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1384 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1385 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1386 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1387 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1388 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1389 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1390 shifted or discarded.
1391
1392*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1393 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1394 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1395 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1396
1397*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1398 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1399 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1400 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1401 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1402 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1403 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1404 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1405 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1406 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1407 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1408 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1409 by default.
53f036ce 1410
1a33f4f6
JD
1411** Java skeleton fixes:
1412
1413*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1414
1415*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1416 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1417
02803d55
JD
1418*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1419
86408959
JD
1420** -W/--warnings fixes:
1421
e4ab1254 1422*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1423
1424 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1425 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1426
1427 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1428
786743d5
JD
1429*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1430
1431 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1432 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1433 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1434 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1435 example:
1436
1437 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1438 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1439 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1440 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1441
1442 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1443 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1444 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1445 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1446
e4ab1254 1447*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1448
1449 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1450 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1451
1452 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1453
e4ab1254 1454*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1455
e4ab1254 1456 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1457 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1458 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1459 suppress all warnings:
1460
1461 bison -Wnone gram.y
1462
1f36f544
JD
1463** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1464
1465 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1466 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1467 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1468
1469 %left END 0
1470
1471 This bug has been fixed.
1472
64877e5e 1473* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1474
2bfcac9a
JD
1475** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1476 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1477
8b9e021f
JD
1478** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1479 been fixed.
1480
4ad3921d
JD
1481** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1482
06cb07d5
JD
1483** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1484 been fixed.
1485
9b5049bd
JD
1486** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1487 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1488 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1489 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1490
93d7dde9
JD
1491** Minor documentation fixes.
1492
e19a049c 1493* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1494
f39ab286
JD
1495** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1496 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1497 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1498 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1499 affected platforms.
1500
e4ab1254 1501** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1502
1503 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1504 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1505 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1506 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1507 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1508 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1509 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1510 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1511 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1512
d8911864
EB
1513** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1514
a603c6e0
JD
1515** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1516 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1517 avoided.
c938d650 1518
98a345a2
JD
1519** %code is now a permanent feature.
1520
1521 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1522
1523 %{CODE%}
1524
1525 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1526 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1527
1528 %code {CODE}
1529 %code requires {CODE}
1530 %code provides {CODE}
1531 %code top {CODE}
1532
1533 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1534 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1535 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1536 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1537 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1538
1539 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1540 is still considered experimental.
1541
1625df5b
JD
1542** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1543
1544 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1545 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1546 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1547 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1548 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1549 specified by POSIX.
1550
1551 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1552 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1553 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1554 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1555 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1556 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1557 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1558
1559 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1560
1561 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1562 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1563 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1564 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1565 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1566 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1567 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1568 be removed altogether.
1569
1570 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1571 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1572 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1573 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1574 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1575 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1576 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1577 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1578 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1579 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1580
2755de8f
AD
1581** Internationalization.
1582
1583 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1584 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1585 host system.
1586
74553c98 1587* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1588
0ea583d2
AD
1589** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1590 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1591
0ea583d2
AD
1592** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1593
1594 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1595 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1596
1597 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1598
1599 instead of
1600
1601 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1602
e4ab1254 1603 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1604 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1605 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1606 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1607 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1608 feature.
1609
1610** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1611
402b123d 1612* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1613
402b123d 1614** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1615
1616 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1617 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1618 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1619 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1620 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1621
402b123d 1622** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1623
402b123d 1624** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1625 fixed.
1626
402b123d 1627* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1628
402b123d 1629** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1630 are now deprecated:
1631
1632 %define NAME "VALUE"
1633
e4ab1254 1634** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1635
1636 %define api.pure
1637
1638 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1639 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1640
402b123d 1641** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1642
1643 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1644 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1645 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1646 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1647 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1648
1649 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1650 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1651
e4ab1254 1652 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1653
59da312b
JD
1654 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1655 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1656
402b123d 1657** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1658 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1659 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1660
402b123d 1661** Java
59da312b
JD
1662
1663 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1664 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1665 %skeleton to select it.
1666
e4ab1254 1667 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1668
1669 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1670 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1671 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1672
402b123d 1673** %language
59da312b
JD
1674
1675 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1676 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1677 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1678 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1679
402b123d 1680** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1681
1682 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1683 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1684 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1685 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1686
402b123d 1687** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1688 %defines. For example:
1689
1690 %defines "parser.h"
1691
402b123d 1692** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1693 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1694 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1695 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1696
402b123d 1697** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1698
1699 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1700 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1701 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1702
1703 1. Removes unreachable states.
1704
1705 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1706 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1707 directives in existing grammar files.
1708
1709 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1710 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1711
31984206
JD
1712 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1713
1714 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1715
e4ab1254 1716 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1717 for further discussion.
1718
e4ab1254 1719** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1720
e4ab1254
AD
1721 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1722 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1723 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1724 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1725 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1726 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1727 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1728 code.
1729
e4ab1254 1730** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1731 name.
1bb2bd75 1732
e4ab1254 1733** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1734 deprecated:
1735
1736 %file-prefix "parser"
1737 %name-prefix "c_"
1738 %output "parser.c"
1739
e4ab1254 1740** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1741
1742 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1743 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1744 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1745 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1746 it:
1747
e4ab1254
AD
1748 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1749 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1750 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1751 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1752
e4ab1254
AD
1753 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1754 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1755 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1756 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1757
1758 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1759 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1760
402b123d 1761** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1762
1763 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1764 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1765 about unused $2 in:
1766
1767 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1768
1769 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1770 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1771
1772 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1773
1774 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1775 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1776 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1777
e4ab1254
AD
1778 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1779 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1780
e4ab1254 1781** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1782
1783 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1784 %printer's:
1785
e4ab1254 1786 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1787 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1788 declared semantic type tags.
1789
e4ab1254 1790 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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1791 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1792 type tags.
1793
e4ab1254
AD
1794 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1795 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
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1796 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1797 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1798
85894313
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1799 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1800 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1801 features.
1802
e4ab1254 1803 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
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1804 details.
1805
402b123d 1806** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1807 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1808 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1809
402b123d 1810** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1811 completely removed from Bison.
1812
402b123d 1813* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1814
402b123d 1815** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1816 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1817 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1818 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1819 and is required by POSIX.
1820
402b123d 1821** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1822 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1823
402b123d 1824** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1825
1826 For example:
1827
b2a0b7ca
JD
1828 %union { char *string; }
1829 %token <string> STRING1
1830 %token <string> STRING2
1831 %type <string> string1
1832 %type <string> string2
1833 %union { char character; }
1834 %token <character> CHR
1835 %type <character> chr
1836 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1837 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1838 %destructor { } <character>
1839
1840 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1841 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1842 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1843 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1844 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1845
85894313
JD
1846 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1847 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1848 future versions.]
1849
e4ab1254
AD
1850** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1851 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1852 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1853 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1854 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1855
402b123d 1856** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1857 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1858
1859 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1860 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1861 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1862 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1863 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1864
34f98f46 1865 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1866 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1867 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1868 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1869 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1870 after the token definitions.
1871
1872 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1873 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1874
402b123d 1875** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1876 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1877 %after-header.
1878
1879 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1880 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1881 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1882 convenient for you:
1883
1884 %before-header {
1885 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1886 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1887 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1888 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1889 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1890 }
1891 %start-header {
1892 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1893 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1894 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1895 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1896 }
1897 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1898 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1899 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1900 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1901 }
34f98f46
JD
1902 %end-header {
1903 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1904 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1905 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1906 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1907 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1908 }
34f98f46
JD
1909 %after-header {
1910 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1911 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1912 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1913 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1914 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1915 }
1916
1917 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1918 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1919
85894313
JD
1920 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1921 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1922
e4ab1254 1923** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1924 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1925 in a future release.
742e4900 1926
402b123d 1927* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1928
e4ab1254 1929** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1930 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1931
402b123d 1932** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1933 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1934
402b123d 1935* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1936
402b123d 1937** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1938 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1939 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1940
402b123d 1941** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1942
402b123d 1943** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1944
402b123d 1945** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1946 their contents together.
1947
402b123d 1948** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1949 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1950 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1951
8f3596a6 1952 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1953 | exp "+" exp
1954 ;
affac613 1955
8f3596a6
AD
1956 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1957 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1958 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1959
4e26c69e 1960 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1961 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1962 | exp "+" exp
1963 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1964 ;
affac613 1965
4e26c69e
PE
1966 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1967 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1968 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1969
8f3596a6 1970 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1971 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1972 ;
721be13c 1973
84866159
AD
1974 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1975 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1976
1977 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1978
721be13c
PE
1979 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1980 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1981
402b123d 1982** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1983 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1984 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1985 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1986
402b123d 1987** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1988 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1989 instead of warnings.
1990
402b123d 1991** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1992 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1993 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1994
e4ab1254 1995** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1996
402b123d 1997** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1998 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1999 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 2000
402b123d 2001** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
2002 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
2003 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
2004 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
2005 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
2006
2007 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 2008 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
2009 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
2010 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 2011
b50d2359 2012 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 2013 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 2014
402b123d 2015** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 2016\f
402b123d 2017* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 2018
402b123d 2019** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 2020
402b123d 2021** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
2022 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
2023 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
2024 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
2025 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
2026 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 2027
402b123d 2028** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
2029 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
2030 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2031 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2032
402b123d 2033** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
2034 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2035 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2036
402b123d 2037** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2038 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2039 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2040 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2041 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2042\f
402b123d 2043* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2044
402b123d 2045** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2046
82de6b0d
PE
2047 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2048 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2049 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2050 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2051 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2052
82de6b0d
PE
2053 - Error token location.
2054 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2055 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2056 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2057 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2058
82de6b0d
PE
2059 - Semicolon changes:
2060 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2061 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2062
82de6b0d
PE
2063 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2064 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2065 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2066 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2067
82de6b0d 2068 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2069
402b123d 2070** New features
1452af69 2071
82de6b0d 2072 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2073
82de6b0d
PE
2074 - New directive: %initial-action.
2075 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2076 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2077
82de6b0d
PE
2078 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2079 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2080
e4ab1254 2081 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2082 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2083
e4ab1254 2084 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2085 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2086
82de6b0d 2087 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2088
82de6b0d
PE
2089 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2090 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2091
402b123d 2092** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2093
82de6b0d
PE
2094 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2095 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2096 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2097 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2098 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2099 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2100
82de6b0d
PE
2101 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2102 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2103
82de6b0d 2104 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2105\f
402b123d 2106* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2107
402b123d 2108** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2109 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2110
402b123d 2111** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2112
dc546b0f
PE
2113 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2114 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2115
dc546b0f
PE
2116 - %destructor
2117 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2118 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2119
dc546b0f
PE
2120 - %error-verbose
2121 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2122
dc546b0f
PE
2123 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2124 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2125
402b123d 2126** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2127
dc546b0f
PE
2128 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2129 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2130 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2131
e4ab1254
AD
2132 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2133 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2134 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2135 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2136 be consistent.
74724a70 2137
dc546b0f
PE
2138 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2139 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2140
dc546b0f
PE
2141 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2142 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2143
dc546b0f
PE
2144 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2145 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2146
dc546b0f 2147 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2148 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2149 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2150 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2151 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2152
dc546b0f 2153 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2154
dc546b0f
PE
2155 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2156 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2157 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2158
402b123d 2159** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2160
e4ab1254
AD
2161 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2162 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2163 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2164 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2165 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2166 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2167
e4ab1254 2168 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2169 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2170
dc546b0f 2171 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2172 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2173
e4ab1254 2174 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2175 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2176 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2177
402b123d 2178** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2179
dc546b0f
PE
2180 - GLR and inline
2181 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2182 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2183
e4ab1254
AD
2184 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2185 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2186
18ad57b3
AD
2187** %parse-param and %lex-param
2188 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2189 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2190 shortcomings:
2191
2192 - a single argument only can be added,
2193 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2194 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2195 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2196
2197 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2198 For instance:
2199
2200 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2201 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2202 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2203
2204 results in the following signatures:
2205
2206 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2207 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2208
2209 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2210
2211 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2212 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2213
402b123d 2214** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2215 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2216 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2217
402b123d 2218** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2219 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2220
402b123d 2221** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2222 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2223 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2224 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2225\f
402b123d 2226* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2227
402b123d 2228** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2229
402b123d 2230** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2231
402b123d 2232** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2233 Fix spurious parse errors.
2234
402b123d 2235** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2236 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2237 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2238
402b123d 2239** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2240 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2241 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2242
e9690142 2243 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2244
2245 but the converse remains an error:
2246
e9690142 2247 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2248
402b123d 2249** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2250 The following code:
2251
e9690142 2252 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2253
2254 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2255 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2256\f
402b123d 2257* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2258
402b123d 2259** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2260 The declaration
2261 %glr-parser
2262 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2263 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2264 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2265 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2266
7933f2b5 2267 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2268 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2269
402b123d 2270** Output Directory
8c165d89 2271 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2272 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2273 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2274
402b123d 2275** Undefined token
007a50a4 2276 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2277 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2278
402b123d 2279** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2280 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2281 no longer the case.
2282
402b123d 2283** Error token
e88dbdbf 2284 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2285 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2286 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2287 will be mapped onto another number.
2288
402b123d 2289** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2290 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2291 error recovery is possible.
2292
402b123d 2293** End token
e4ab1254 2294 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2295
402b123d 2296** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2297 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2298 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2299 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2300 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2301 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2302 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2303 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2304 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2305
402b123d 2306** Traces
5504898e
AD
2307 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2308
402b123d 2309** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2310 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2311 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2312 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2313 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2314
402b123d 2315** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2316 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2317 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2318 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2319
402b123d 2320** Useless rules
643a5994 2321 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2322 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2323
402b123d 2324** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2325 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2326
402b123d 2327** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2328 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2329 reported.
2330
e4ab1254 2331** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2332 On a grammar such as
2333
e29f0771
AD
2334 %token useless useful
2335 %%
2336 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2337
2338 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2339 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2340
402b123d 2341** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2342 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2343
402b123d 2344** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2345 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2346 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2347 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2348 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2349
402b123d 2350** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2351 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2352 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2353 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2354 For instance
e29f0771 2355 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2356 or
e29f0771 2357 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2358
402b123d 2359** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2360 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2361
402b123d 2362** New translations
a861a339 2363 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2364 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2365
402b123d 2366** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2367 When given
2368 %token 'a' "A"
2369 bison used to output
2370 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2371
402b123d 2372** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2373 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2374 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2375 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2376
402b123d 2377** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2378 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2379 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2380 - itemset
2381 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2382 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2383 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2384 - solved
2385 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2386 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2387 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2388
402b123d 2389** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2390 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2391 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2392
e29f0771
AD
2393 %type <foo> bar
2394 %%
2395 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2396
2397 This is fixed.
a861a339 2398
402b123d 2399** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2400\f
402b123d 2401* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2402
402b123d 2403** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2404 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2405 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2406 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2407
2408 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2409 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2410 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2411 kludge will be disabled.
2412
2413 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2414 extended.
76551463 2415\f
402b123d 2416* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2417
402b123d 2418** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2419 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2420 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2421
e4ab1254 2422** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2423 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2424 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2425 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2426 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2427 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2428
402b123d 2429** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2430 many portability hassles.
2431
402b123d 2432** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2433
402b123d 2434** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2435\f
402b123d 2436* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2437
402b123d 2438** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2439 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2440 under some conditions.
2441
402b123d 2442** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2443 As is done with $n.
2444\f
402b123d 2445* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2446
402b123d 2447** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2448
402b123d 2449** Portability fixes
76551463 2450
402b123d 2451** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2452\f
402b123d 2453* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2454
402b123d 2455** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2456
402b123d 2457** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2458 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2459 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2460 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2461 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2462
402b123d 2463** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2464 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2465 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2466
2467 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2468 problems as on AIX.
2469
402b123d 2470** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2471
402b123d 2472** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2473 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2474
402b123d 2475** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2476 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2477 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2478 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2479
402b123d 2480** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2481 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2482 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2483
402b123d 2484** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2485 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2486
402b123d 2487** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2488 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2489
402b123d 2490** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2491 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2492
402b123d 2493** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2494 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2495 any warning.
2496
402b123d 2497** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2498
402b123d 2499** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2500
402b123d 2501** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2502
402b123d 2503** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2504 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2505 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2506 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2507
402b123d 2508** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2509 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2510 previous allocations were not freed.
2511
402b123d 2512** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2513 Some newlines were missing.
2514 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2515
402b123d 2516** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2517 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2518
402b123d 2519** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2520 Was not used.
2521 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2522
402b123d 2523** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2524
402b123d 2525** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2526
402b123d 2527** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2528
402b123d 2529** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2530 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2531
402b123d 2532** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2533
402b123d 2534** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2535 New.
2536
402b123d 2537** --output
e4ab1254 2538 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2539\f
402b123d 2540* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2541
e4ab1254
AD
2542** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2543 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2544 argument.
2545
e4ab1254 2546** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2547 experiment.
2548
402b123d 2549** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2550\f
402b123d 2551* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2552
402b123d 2553** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2554 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2555 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2556 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2557
e4ab1254 2558** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2559
402b123d 2560** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2561
402b123d 2562** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2563
402b123d 2564** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2565
402b123d 2566** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2567
402b123d 2568** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2569
e4ab1254 2570** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2571
e4ab1254 2572** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2573
e4ab1254 2574** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2575
402b123d 2576** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2577 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2578
402b123d 2579** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2580 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2581 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2582
402b123d 2583** @$
f987e9d2 2584 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2585\f
402b123d 2586* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2587
402b123d 2588** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2589
402b123d 2590** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2591
402b123d 2592** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2593
402b123d 2594** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2595\f
402b123d 2596* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2597
402b123d 2598** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2599 some systems has been fixed.
2600\f
402b123d 2601* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2602
7e508a2b 2603** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2604
402b123d 2605** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2606
402b123d 2607** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2608
402b123d 2609** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2610
402b123d 2611** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2612
402b123d 2613** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2614
402b123d 2615** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2616 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2617\f
402b123d 2618* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2619
402b123d 2620** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2621the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2622
402b123d 2623** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2624example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2625of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2626
402b123d 2627** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2628and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2629table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2630purposes.
2631
402b123d 2632** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2633directives in the parser file.
2634
402b123d 2635** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2636Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2637
402b123d 2638** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2639the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2640The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2641a switch statement body.
2642\f
402b123d 2643* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2644
4d019228
DM
2645The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2646passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2647actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2648by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2649
6780ca7a 2650Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2651\f
402b123d 2652* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2653
2654--help option added.
6780ca7a 2655\f
402b123d 2656* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2657
2658Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2659
76551463
AD
2660-----
2661
7d6bad19 2662Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2663
74553c98 2664This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2665
f16b0819 2666This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2667it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2668the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2669(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2670
f16b0819 2671This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2672but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2673MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2674GNU General Public License for more details.
2675
2676You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2677along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2678
2679 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2680 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2681 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2682 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2683 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2684 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2685 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2686 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2687 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2688 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2689 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2690 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2691 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2692 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2693 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2694 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2695 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2696 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1282c124
AD
2697 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2698 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2699 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2700 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2701 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2702 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
7e508a2b
AD
2703
2704Local Variables:
2705mode: outline
e4ab1254 2706fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2707End: