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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
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3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
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5** Bug fixes
6
7*** Redeclarations are reported in proper order
8
9 On
10
11 %token FOO "foo"
12 %printer {} "foo"
13 %printer {} FOO
14
15 bison used to report:
16
17 /tmp/foo.yy:2.10-11: error: %printer redeclaration for FOO
18 %printer {} "foo"
19 ^^
20 /tmp/foo.yy:3.10-11: previous declaration
21 %printer {} FOO
22 ^^
23
24 Now, the "previous" declaration is always the first one.
25
0bd5ee5f 26
a3efd13e 27* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.2 (2013-12-05) [stable]
6d94eebb 28
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29** Bug fixes
30
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31*** Generated source files when errors are reported
32
33 When warnings are issued and -Werror is set, bison would still generate
34 the source files (*.c, *.h...). As a consequence, some runs of "make"
35 could fail the first time, but not the second (as the files were generated
36 anyway).
37
38 This is fixed: bison no longer generates this source files, but, of
39 course, still produces the various reports (*.output, *.xml, etc.).
40
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41*** %empty is used in reports
42
43 Empty right-hand sides are denoted by '%empty' in all the reports (text,
44 dot, XML and formats derived from it).
45
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46*** YYERROR and variants
47
48 When C++ variant support is enabled, an error triggered via YYERROR, but
49 not caught via error recovery, resulted in a double deletion.
6d94eebb 50
c2ecada3 51* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.1 (2013-11-12) [stable]
e386b50f 52
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53** Bug fixes
54
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55*** Errors in caret diagnostics
56
57 On some platforms, some errors could result in endless diagnostics.
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58
59*** Fixes of the -Werror option
60
61 Options such as "-Werror -Wno-error=foo" were still turning "foo"
62 diagnostics into errors instead of warnings. This is fixed.
63
64 Actually, for consistency with GCC, "-Wno-error=foo -Werror" now also
65 leaves "foo" diagnostics as warnings. Similarly, with "-Werror=foo
66 -Wno-error", "foo" diagnostics are now errors.
e386b50f 67
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68*** GLR Predicates
69
70 As demonstrated in the documentation, one can now leave spaces between
71 "%?" and its "{".
72
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73*** Installation
74
75 The yacc.1 man page is no longer installed if --disable-yacc was
76 specified.
77
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78*** Fixes in the test suite
79
80 Bugs and portability issues.
81
534497f5 82* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0 (2013-07-25) [stable]
facb910c 83
8458a411 84** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 85
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86 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
87 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
88 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
89
8458a411 90** Backward incompatible changes
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91
92*** Obsolete features
93
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94 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
95
96 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
97 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
98
99 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
100 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 101
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102 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
103 in the release 2.5).
104
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105*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
106
107 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
108 Bison extensions.
109
110 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
111 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
112 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
113
114 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
115 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
116 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
117 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
118 warnings for Bison extensions.
119
120 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
121 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
122 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
123 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
124
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125** Bug fixes
126
c21e515e 127*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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128
129 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
130 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
131 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
132 preprocessor expansion:
133
134 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
135
6c7022f7 136 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
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137 identifiers for user-provided variables.
138
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139*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
140
141 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
142 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
143
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144*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
145
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146** Diagnostics reported by Bison
147
148 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
149 Santet.
73370a9d 150
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151*** Carets
152
153 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
154 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
155 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
156
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157 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
158 the caret information only. For instance on:
159
160 %%
161 exp: 'a' | 'a';
162
163 Bison 2.7 reports:
164
165 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
166 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
167
168 Now bison reports:
169
170 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
171 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
172 exp: 'a' | 'a';
173 ^^^
174
175 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
176
177 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
178 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
179
1048a1c9 180*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 181
1048a1c9 182 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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183 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
184 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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185
186 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 187 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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188 errors (and only those):
189
190 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
191
192 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
193 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
194
195 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
196
197 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
198
199 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
200 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
201
202 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
203 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
204 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 205
46bdb8ec 206*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 207
46bdb8ec 208 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 209
46bdb8ec 210 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 211
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212 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
213 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 214 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 215
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216 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
217 with failure):
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218
219 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 220 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 221
46bdb8ec 222 it now reports:
1048a1c9 223
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224 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
225
226*** Deprecated constructs
227
228 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
229 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
230 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
231
73370a9d 232*** Useless semantic types
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233
234 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
235 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
236 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
237 types that trigger the warning:
238
239 %token <type1> term
240 %type <type2> nterm
241 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
242 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
243 %%
244 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
245
246 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
247 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
248
31557b9e 249*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 250
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251 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
252 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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253
254 %printer {} symbol1
255 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 256 %type <type> symbol3
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257 %%
258 exp: "a";
259
73370a9d 260*** Useless destructors or printers
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261
262 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
263 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
264 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
265 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
266
267 %token <type1> token1
268 <type2> token2
269 <type3> token3
270 <type4> token4
271 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
272 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
273
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274*** Conflicts
275
276 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
277 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
278
279 %glr-parser
280 %%
281 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
282
283 compare the previous version of bison:
284
285 $ bison foo.y
286 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
287 $ bison -Werror foo.y
288 bison: warnings being treated as errors
289 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
290
291 with the new behavior:
292
293 $ bison foo.y
294 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
295 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
296 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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297 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
298 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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299
300 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
301
302 %expect 0
303 %glr-parser
304 %%
305 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
306
307 Former behavior:
308
309 $ bison bar.y
310 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
311 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
312 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
313
314 New one:
315
316 $ bison bar.y
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317 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
318 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 319
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320** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
321
322 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
323 with '-Wyacc'.
324
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325** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
326
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327 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
328 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
329 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 330
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331 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
332 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
333 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
334 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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335
336 one may now declare
337
e436fa67 338 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 339
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340** Types of values for %define variables
341
342 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
343 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
344 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
345 foo {bar}'.
346
347 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
348
349 %define lr.type lalr
350
351 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
352
353 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
354
355 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
356
2a6b66c5 357** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 358
2a6b66c5 359 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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360 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
361 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
362
e436fa67 363 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 364 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
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365 %%
366 start: FILE for ERROR;
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367
368 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
369 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
370 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
371 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
372
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373** Variable api.value.type
374
375 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
376 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
377 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
378
379 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
380
381 %union
382 {
383 int ival;
384 char *sval;
385 }
386 %token <ival> INT "integer"
387 %token <sval> STRING "string"
388 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
389 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
390
391 /* In yylex(). */
392 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
393 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
394
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395 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
396
397 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 398 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 399 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 400
435575cb 401 %define api.value.type union
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402 %token <int> INT "integer"
403 %token <char *> STRING "string"
404 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
405 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
406
407 /* In yylex(). */
408 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
409 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
410
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411 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
412 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 413
435575cb 414 %define api.value.type variant
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415 %token <int> INT "integer"
416 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
417
630a0218 418 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 419 used to be used.
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420
421 %code requires
422 {
423 struct my_value
424 {
425 enum
426 {
427 is_int, is_string
428 } kind;
429 union
430 {
431 int ival;
432 char *sval;
433 } u;
434 };
435 }
435575cb 436 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
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437 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
438 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
439 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
440 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
441
442 /* In yylex(). */
443 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
444 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
445
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446** Variable parse.error
447
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448 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
449 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
450 verbose".
31b850d2 451
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452** Renamed %define variables
453
454 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
455 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
456
457 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
458 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
459 namespace -> api.namespace
460 stype -> api.value.type
461
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462** Semantic predicates
463
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464 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
465
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466 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
467 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 468 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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469 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
470 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
471 expressions.
ca2a6d15 472
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473** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
474
475 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
476 reduce/reduce conflicts.
477
5202b6ac 478** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 479
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480 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
481
482 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
483 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
484 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
485 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
486
487 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
488 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
489 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
490
491 %right A B 'c' 'd'
492
493 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
494 input order is now preserved.
495
496 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
497 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
498 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 499
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500** Useless precedence and associativity
501
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502 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
503
1282c124 504 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
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505 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
506 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
507 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
508 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
509 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
510 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
511
512*** Precedence warning category
513
514 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
515 useless precedence and associativity directives.
516
517*** Useless associativity
518
519 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
520 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
521 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
522 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
523 For example:
524
525 %left '+'
526 %left '*'
527 %%
528 exp:
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529 "number"
530 | exp '+' "number"
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531 | exp '*' exp
532 ;
533
534 will produce a
535
536 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
537 %left '+'
538 ^^^
539
540*** Useless precedence
541
542 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
543 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
544 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
545 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
546
547 %precedence '='
548 %%
1282c124 549 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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550
551 will produce a
552
553 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
554 %precedence '='
555 ^^^
556
557*** Useless precedence and associativity
558
559 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
560 as follows:
561
562 %nonassoc '='
563 %%
1282c124 564 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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565
566 The warning is:
567
568 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
569 %nonassoc '='
570 ^^^
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571
572** Empty rules
573
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574 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
575
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576 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
577 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
578 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
579 %empty. On the following grammar:
580
581 %%
582 s: a b c;
583 a: ;
584 b: %empty;
585 c: 'a' %empty;
586
587 bison reports:
588
589 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
590 a: {}
591 ^^
592 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
593 c: 'a' %empty {};
594 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 595
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596** Java skeleton improvements
597
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598 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
599 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
600 and "%define init_throws".
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601 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
602
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603 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
604 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
605
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606** C++ skeletons improvements
607
608*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
609
610 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
611 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
612 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
613
614*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
615
616 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
617
618*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
619
620 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
621 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
622 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
623 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
624 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
625 factory invoked by the user actions).
626
627*** %define api.value.type variant
628
629 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
630 from Théophile Ranquet.
631
632 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
633 instance:
634
635 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
636 %token <int> NUMBER;
637 %token SEMICOLON ";"
638 %type <::std::string> item;
639 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
640 %%
641 result:
642 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
643 ;
644
645 list:
6240346a 646 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
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647 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
648 ;
649
650 item:
651 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
652 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
653 ;
654
655*** %define api.token.constructor
656
657 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
658 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
659 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
660
661 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
662 {
663 parser::location_type loc = ...;
664 ...
665 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
666 ...
667 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
668 ...
669 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
670 ...
671 }
672
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673*** C++ locations
674
675 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
676 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
677
1f5542fe 678* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
cc8962bd 679
80a2826e
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680** Bug fixes
681
682*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
683
684 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 685
e83be476
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686*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
687
c13bb348 688* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 689
edf9a06f 690** Bug fixes
7bada535 691
edf9a06f 692 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 693
1127a75a
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694 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
695
d4fe9e88 696** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 697
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698 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
699
d4fe9e88 700*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 701
d4fe9e88 702 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 703
d4fe9e88
AD
704 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
705 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 706
d4fe9e88 707 It is now:
1f1bd572 708
d4fe9e88
AD
709 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
710 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 711
d4fe9e88 712*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 713
d4fe9e88 714 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 715
d4fe9e88
AD
716 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
717 %type <sval> exp
718 ^^^^^^
719 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
720 %type <ival> exp
721 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 722
d4fe9e88 723 or
cbaea010 724
7bada535 725 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 726 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 727 ^^^^
fb6040f0
TR
728 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
729 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
730 ^^^
731 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
732 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
733 ^^^
734 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
735 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
736 ^^^
7bada535 737
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738 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
739 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
AD
740 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
741 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 742
1f1bd572 743** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 744
1f1bd572 745 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
AD
746 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
747 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
748 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
749 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
750 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
751
752 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
753 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 754
7287be84 755** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
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756
757 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
758 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
759 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
760 then responsible to define her type.
761
762 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
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763 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
764 them.
db8ab2be
AD
765
766 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
767 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
768 compatibility).
769
7287be84
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770 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
771 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
772 api.position.type.
773
d4fe9e88
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774** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
775
776 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
777 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
778 before re-throwing the exception.
779
780 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
781 appreciated.
782
9c16d399 783** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 784
8458a411
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785 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
786
fc4fdd62
TR
787 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
788 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
789 numbered and left-justified.
790
791 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
792 diamond shaped nodes.
793
9c16d399
TR
794 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
795 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
796
d4fe9e88 797** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 798
d4fe9e88
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799 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
800 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 801
53e2cd1e
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802** Documentation
803
804 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
805 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 806
d4fe9e88
AD
807 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
808 were not properly documented.
809
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810 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
811
9d3f7eaf 812* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 813
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814 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
815 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
816 reporting them to us.
817
818** Bug fixes
819
820 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
821 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
822 3.2.
823
824 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 825
1282c124 826 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 827
a1d1ab50
AD
828 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
829 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
830
0ac15849 831* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 832
468455e1 833 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 834
6eb8f74f 835* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 836
6b4cb804
AD
837** Bug fixes
838
a1a77e1f 839 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
AD
840
841 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
842 users to the appropriate place to report them.
843
844 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
845
846 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
847 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 848
a2b3f101
TR
849 All the generated headers are self-contained.
850
c9d5bcc9
AD
851** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
852
853 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
854 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
855 For instance the header generated from
856
857 %define api.prefix "calc"
858 %defines "lib/parse.h"
859
860 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
861
c12c4c50 862** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
321d3e35
AD
863
864 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
865 warnings such as:
866
867 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
868 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
869 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
870 *++yyvsp = yylval;
871 ^
872
873 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
874
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875 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
876 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
877 addressed.
878
e1eeecd3 879* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 880
43ca8040
AD
881** Bug fixes
882
883 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
884 suite have been fixed.
885
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AD
886** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
887
888 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
889 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 890
dcd5344d
AD
891** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
892
893 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
894
77b214ef 895* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 896
8617d87e
AD
897 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
898
e20e6a50
AD
899** Future Changes
900
901 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
902 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
903 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
904
905 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
906
907 write:
908
909 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
910
8617d87e
AD
911** Bug fixes
912
0e164d43
AD
913*** Type names are now properly escaped.
914
915*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 916
26313726
AD
917*** Stray @ or $ in actions
918
919 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
920 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
921 now does.
922
cd735a8c 923** Type names in actions
4982f078
AD
924
925 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 926 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
AD
927
928 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
929
930 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 931 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 932
1505e8bb 933* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 934
d0a30438 935** Future changes
9553083c 936
55d1006f
AD
937 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
938 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 939
aaf61036 940*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
AD
941
942 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 943 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
AD
944 compilers.
945
258cddbc 946*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 947
258cddbc
AD
948 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
949 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 950
258cddbc
AD
951 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
952 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
953
954 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
955 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
956
957*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
958
959 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
960 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
961 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
962 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
963 it.
0f11eec2 964
c2425191 965** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 966
258cddbc 967*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
968
969 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 970 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 971
e29f0771
AD
972 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
973 # define YY_FOO_H
974 ...
975 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 976
258cddbc 977*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
978
979 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
980 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
981
e29f0771 982 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
983
984 rather than
985
e29f0771
AD
986 #define yyparse bar_parse
987 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
988
989 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
990 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 991
258cddbc
AD
992*** Exported symbols in C++
993
994 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
995 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
996 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
997
694af10c
AD
998*** YYLSP_NEEDED
999
1000 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
1001 longer defined.
1002
4b3847c3
AD
1003** New %define variable: api.prefix
1004
1005 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
1006 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
1007 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
1008 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
1009 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
1010 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
1011 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
1012
1013 The following examples compares both:
1014
1015 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
1016 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
1017 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
1018 %% %%
1019 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
1020
1021 bison generates:
1022
1023 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
1024 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
1025
1026 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
1027 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
1028 > # if defined YYDEBUG
1029 > # if YYDEBUG
1030 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
1031 > # else
1032 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1033 > # endif
1034 > # else
1035 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1036 > # endif
1037 # endif | # endif
1038
1039 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
1040 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
1041 # endif # endif
1042
1043 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
1044 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
1045 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
1046 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
1047 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
1048 }; };
1049 # endif # endif
1050
1051 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
1052 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
1053 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
1054 { {
1055 int ival; int ival;
1056 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
1057 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
1058 #endif #endif
1059
1060 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
1061
1062 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
1063
1064 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
1065
dfaac272 1066* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 1067
debe2c03 1068** Future changes:
765e1bd4 1069
e4ab1254 1070 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 1071
466b4cf2 1072** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 1073
d834eca0 1074** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 1075
d834eca0 1076*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 1077
e4ab1254
AD
1078 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1079 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 1080
d834eca0 1081*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 1082
e4ab1254
AD
1083 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1084 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1085
466b4cf2 1086** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1087
e4ab1254
AD
1088 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1089 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1090
22172d47 1091** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1092
22172d47 1093*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1094
e4ab1254
AD
1095 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1096 or higher.
936c88d1 1097
22172d47
AD
1098*** Header guards
1099
1100 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1101 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1102
e29f0771
AD
1103 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1104 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1105 ...
1106 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1107
1108 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1109 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1110 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1111
1112 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1113
e29f0771
AD
1114 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1115 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1116 ...
1117 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1118
1119*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1120
e4ab1254
AD
1121 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1122 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1123 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1124
466b4cf2
AD
1125** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1126
7e508a2b
AD
1127** Changes in the manual:
1128
1129*** %printer is documented
1130
e4ab1254
AD
1131 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1132 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1133
e4ab1254
AD
1134 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1135 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1136
1137*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1138
e4ab1254
AD
1139 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1140 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1141 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1142 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1143
86b08b49
AD
1144** Building bison:
1145
1146*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1147
e4ab1254
AD
1148 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1149 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1150
8ef26c2a
AD
1151*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1152
1153*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1154
e4ab1254
AD
1155 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1156 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1157
91aadcc7 1158*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1159
e4ab1254
AD
1160 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1161 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1162
28801043 1163* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1164
82f3355e
JD
1165** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1166
1167 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1168 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1169 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1170 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1171 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1172
f1b238df 1173** Named references:
66381412
AR
1174
1175 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1176 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1177 actions code.
1178
1179 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1180 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1181 as named references:
1182
4b568fc0 1183 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1184 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1185
1186 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1187
4b568fc0 1188 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1189 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1190
5b1ff423 1191 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1192 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1193 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1194
5b1ff423 1195 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1196 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1197 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1198
f1b238df 1199** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1200
1201 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1202 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1203 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1204 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1205 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
1206 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1207 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1208 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1209 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1210
1211 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1212 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1213 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1214 file with these directives:
1215
cf499cff
JD
1216 %define lr.type lalr
1217 %define lr.type ielr
1218 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1219
7fceb615 1220 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
1221 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1222 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1223 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1224
1225 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1226 stabilize them.
1227
8458a411
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1228** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1229
1230 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1231
1232 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1233 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1234 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1235 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1236 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1237 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1238 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1239 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1240 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
1241 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1242 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
1243
1244 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1245 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1246 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1247 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1248 inconsistent states.
1249
7fceb615
JD
1250 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1251 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1252 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1253 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1254 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1255 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1256 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1257 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1258 power.
1259
1260 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1261 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1262
1263 %define parse.lac full
1264
e4ab1254 1265 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1266 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1267
1268 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1269 stabilize it.
1270
d397d9f0 1271** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1272
f1b238df 1273*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1274
de5ab940 1275 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1276
de5ab940
JD
1277 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1278 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1279
1280 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1281 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1282
1283 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1284
de5ab940 1285 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1286
de5ab940
JD
1287 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1288 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1289 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1290 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1291
f1b238df 1292*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1293
1294 The following %define variables
1295
1296 api.push_pull
1297 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1298
1299 have been renamed to
1300
1301 api.push-pull
1302 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1303
1304 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1305 for backward compatibility.
1306
7262f54f 1307*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1308
1309 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1310 within quotations marks. For example,
1311
1312 %define api.push-pull "push"
1313
1314 can be rewritten as
1315
1316 %define api.push-pull push
1317
d397d9f0 1318*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1319
d397d9f0
JD
1320*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1321
1322** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1323
1324** Character literals not of length one:
1325
1326 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1327 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1328 the following grammar to be the same token:
1329
1330 exp: exp '++'
1331 | exp '+' exp
1332 ;
1333
1334 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1335 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1336
1337** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1338
1339 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1340 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1341 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1342 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1343
1344** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1345
1346 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1347 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
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1348 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1349 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1350
e29f0771
AD
1351 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1352 do \
1353 if (N) \
1354 { \
1355 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1356 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1357 } \
1358 else \
1359 { \
1360 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1361 } \
1362 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1363
1364 use:
1365
e29f0771
AD
1366 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1367 do \
1368 if (N) \
1369 { \
1370 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1371 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1372 } \
1373 else \
1374 { \
1375 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1376 } \
1377 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1378
1379** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1380
1381 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1382 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1383 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1384 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1385
f1b238df 1386** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1387
1388 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1389 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1390 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1391 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1392 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1393 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1394 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1395 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1396
f1b238df 1397** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1398
1399 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1400 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1401 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1402 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1403
1404 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1405
1406 instead of
1407
1408 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1409
1410 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1411 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1412 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1413 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1414 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1415 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1416 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1417
d2060f06
JD
1418** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1419
e4ab1254 1420 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1421 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1422 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1423 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1424 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1425
1426*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1427 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1428 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1429 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1430 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1431 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1432 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1433 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1434 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1435 shifted or discarded.
1436
1437*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1438 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1439 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1440 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1441
1442*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1443 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1444 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1445 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1446 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1447 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1448 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1449 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1450 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1451 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1452 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1453 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1454 by default.
53f036ce 1455
1a33f4f6
JD
1456** Java skeleton fixes:
1457
1458*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1459
1460*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1461 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1462
02803d55
JD
1463*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1464
86408959
JD
1465** -W/--warnings fixes:
1466
e4ab1254 1467*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1468
1469 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1470 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1471
1472 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1473
786743d5
JD
1474*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1475
1476 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1477 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1478 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1479 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1480 example:
1481
1482 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1483 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1484 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1485 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1486
1487 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1488 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1489 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1490 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1491
e4ab1254 1492*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1493
1494 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1495 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1496
1497 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1498
e4ab1254 1499*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1500
e4ab1254 1501 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1502 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1503 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1504 suppress all warnings:
1505
1506 bison -Wnone gram.y
1507
1f36f544
JD
1508** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1509
1510 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1511 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1512 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1513
1514 %left END 0
1515
1516 This bug has been fixed.
1517
64877e5e 1518* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1519
2bfcac9a
JD
1520** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1521 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1522
8b9e021f
JD
1523** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1524 been fixed.
1525
4ad3921d
JD
1526** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1527
06cb07d5
JD
1528** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1529 been fixed.
1530
9b5049bd
JD
1531** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1532 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1533 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1534 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1535
93d7dde9
JD
1536** Minor documentation fixes.
1537
e19a049c 1538* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1539
f39ab286
JD
1540** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1541 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1542 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1543 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1544 affected platforms.
1545
e4ab1254 1546** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1547
1548 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1549 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1550 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1551 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1552 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1553 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1554 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1555 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1556 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1557
d8911864
EB
1558** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1559
a603c6e0
JD
1560** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1561 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1562 avoided.
c938d650 1563
98a345a2
JD
1564** %code is now a permanent feature.
1565
1566 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1567
1568 %{CODE%}
1569
1570 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1571 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1572
1573 %code {CODE}
1574 %code requires {CODE}
1575 %code provides {CODE}
1576 %code top {CODE}
1577
1578 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1579 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1580 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1581 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1582 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1583
1584 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1585 is still considered experimental.
1586
1625df5b
JD
1587** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1588
1589 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1590 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1591 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1592 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1593 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1594 specified by POSIX.
1595
1596 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1597 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1598 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1599 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1600 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1601 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1602 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1603
1604 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1605
1606 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1607 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1608 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1609 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1610 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1611 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1612 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1613 be removed altogether.
1614
1615 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1616 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1617 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1618 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1619 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1620 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1621 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1622 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1623 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1624 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1625
2755de8f
AD
1626** Internationalization.
1627
1628 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1629 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1630 host system.
1631
74553c98 1632* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1633
0ea583d2
AD
1634** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1635 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1636
0ea583d2
AD
1637** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1638
1639 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1640 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1641
1642 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1643
1644 instead of
1645
1646 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1647
e4ab1254 1648 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1649 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1650 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1651 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1652 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1653 feature.
1654
1655** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1656
402b123d 1657* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1658
402b123d 1659** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1660
1661 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1662 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1663 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1664 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1665 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1666
402b123d 1667** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1668
402b123d 1669** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1670 fixed.
1671
402b123d 1672* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1673
402b123d 1674** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1675 are now deprecated:
1676
1677 %define NAME "VALUE"
1678
e4ab1254 1679** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1680
1681 %define api.pure
1682
1683 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1684 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1685
402b123d 1686** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1687
1688 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1689 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1690 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1691 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1692 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1693
1694 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1695 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1696
e4ab1254 1697 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1698
59da312b
JD
1699 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1700 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1701
402b123d 1702** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1703 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1704 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1705
402b123d 1706** Java
59da312b
JD
1707
1708 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1709 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1710 %skeleton to select it.
1711
e4ab1254 1712 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1713
1714 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1715 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1716 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1717
402b123d 1718** %language
59da312b
JD
1719
1720 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1721 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1722 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1723 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1724
402b123d 1725** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1726
1727 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1728 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1729 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1730 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1731
402b123d 1732** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1733 %defines. For example:
1734
1735 %defines "parser.h"
1736
402b123d 1737** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1738 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1739 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1740 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1741
402b123d 1742** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1743
1744 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1745 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1746 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1747
1748 1. Removes unreachable states.
1749
1750 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1751 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1752 directives in existing grammar files.
1753
1754 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1755 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1756
31984206
JD
1757 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1758
1759 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1760
e4ab1254 1761 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1762 for further discussion.
1763
e4ab1254 1764** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1765
e4ab1254
AD
1766 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1767 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1768 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1769 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1770 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1771 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1772 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1773 code.
1774
e4ab1254 1775** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1776 name.
1bb2bd75 1777
e4ab1254 1778** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1779 deprecated:
1780
1781 %file-prefix "parser"
1782 %name-prefix "c_"
1783 %output "parser.c"
1784
e4ab1254 1785** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1786
1787 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1788 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1789 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1790 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1791 it:
1792
e4ab1254
AD
1793 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1794 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1795 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1796 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1797
e4ab1254
AD
1798 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1799 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1800 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1801 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1802
1803 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1804 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1805
402b123d 1806** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1807
1808 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1809 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1810 about unused $2 in:
1811
1812 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1813
1814 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1815 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1816
1817 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1818
1819 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1820 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1821 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1822
e4ab1254
AD
1823 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1824 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1825
e4ab1254 1826** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1827
1828 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1829 %printer's:
1830
e4ab1254 1831 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1832 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1833 declared semantic type tags.
1834
e4ab1254 1835 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1836 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1837 type tags.
1838
e4ab1254
AD
1839 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1840 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1841 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1842 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1843
85894313
JD
1844 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1845 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1846 features.
1847
e4ab1254 1848 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1849 details.
1850
402b123d 1851** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1852 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1853 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1854
402b123d 1855** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1856 completely removed from Bison.
1857
402b123d 1858* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1859
402b123d 1860** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1861 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1862 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1863 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1864 and is required by POSIX.
1865
402b123d 1866** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1867 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1868
402b123d 1869** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1870
1871 For example:
1872
b2a0b7ca
JD
1873 %union { char *string; }
1874 %token <string> STRING1
1875 %token <string> STRING2
1876 %type <string> string1
1877 %type <string> string2
1878 %union { char character; }
1879 %token <character> CHR
1880 %type <character> chr
1881 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1882 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1883 %destructor { } <character>
1884
1885 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1886 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1887 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1888 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1889 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1890
85894313
JD
1891 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1892 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1893 future versions.]
1894
e4ab1254
AD
1895** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1896 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1897 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1898 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1899 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1900
402b123d 1901** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1902 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1903
1904 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1905 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1906 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1907 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1908 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1909
34f98f46 1910 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1911 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1912 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1913 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1914 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1915 after the token definitions.
1916
1917 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1918 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1919
402b123d 1920** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1921 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1922 %after-header.
1923
1924 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1925 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1926 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1927 convenient for you:
1928
1929 %before-header {
1930 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1931 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1932 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1933 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1934 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1935 }
1936 %start-header {
1937 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1938 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1939 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1940 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1941 }
1942 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1943 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1944 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1945 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1946 }
34f98f46
JD
1947 %end-header {
1948 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1949 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1950 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1951 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1952 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1953 }
34f98f46
JD
1954 %after-header {
1955 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1956 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1957 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1958 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1959 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1960 }
1961
1962 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1963 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1964
85894313
JD
1965 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1966 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1967
e4ab1254 1968** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1969 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1970 in a future release.
742e4900 1971
402b123d 1972* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1973
e4ab1254 1974** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1975 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1976
402b123d 1977** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1978 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1979
402b123d 1980* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1981
402b123d 1982** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1983 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1984 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1985
402b123d 1986** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1987
402b123d 1988** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1989
402b123d 1990** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1991 their contents together.
1992
402b123d 1993** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1994 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1995 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1996
8f3596a6 1997 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1998 | exp "+" exp
1999 ;
affac613 2000
8f3596a6
AD
2001 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
2002 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 2003 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 2004
4e26c69e 2005 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
2006 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
2007 | exp "+" exp
2008 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
2009 ;
affac613 2010
4e26c69e
PE
2011 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
2012 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
2013 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 2014
8f3596a6 2015 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
2016 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
2017 ;
721be13c 2018
84866159
AD
2019 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
2020 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
2021
2022 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
2023
721be13c
PE
2024 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
2025 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 2026
402b123d 2027** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
2028 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
2029 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
2030 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 2031
402b123d 2032** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
2033 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
2034 instead of warnings.
2035
402b123d 2036** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
2037 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
2038 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 2039
e4ab1254 2040** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 2041
402b123d 2042** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
2043 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
2044 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 2045
402b123d 2046** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
2047 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
2048 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
2049 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
2050 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
2051
2052 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 2053 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
2054 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
2055 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 2056
b50d2359 2057 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 2058 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 2059
402b123d 2060** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 2061\f
402b123d 2062* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 2063
402b123d 2064** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 2065
402b123d 2066** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
2067 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
2068 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
2069 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
2070 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
2071 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 2072
402b123d 2073** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
2074 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
2075 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2076 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2077
402b123d 2078** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
2079 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2080 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2081
402b123d 2082** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2083 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2084 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2085 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2086 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2087\f
402b123d 2088* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2089
402b123d 2090** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2091
82de6b0d
PE
2092 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2093 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2094 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2095 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2096 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2097
82de6b0d
PE
2098 - Error token location.
2099 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2100 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2101 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2102 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2103
82de6b0d
PE
2104 - Semicolon changes:
2105 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2106 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2107
82de6b0d
PE
2108 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2109 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2110 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2111 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2112
82de6b0d 2113 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2114
402b123d 2115** New features
1452af69 2116
82de6b0d 2117 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2118
82de6b0d
PE
2119 - New directive: %initial-action.
2120 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2121 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2122
82de6b0d
PE
2123 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2124 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2125
e4ab1254 2126 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2127 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2128
e4ab1254 2129 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2130 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2131
82de6b0d 2132 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2133
82de6b0d
PE
2134 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2135 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2136
402b123d 2137** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2138
82de6b0d
PE
2139 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2140 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2141 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2142 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2143 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2144 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2145
82de6b0d
PE
2146 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2147 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2148
82de6b0d 2149 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2150\f
402b123d 2151* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2152
402b123d 2153** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2154 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2155
402b123d 2156** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2157
dc546b0f
PE
2158 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2159 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2160
dc546b0f
PE
2161 - %destructor
2162 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2163 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2164
dc546b0f
PE
2165 - %error-verbose
2166 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2167
dc546b0f
PE
2168 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2169 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2170
402b123d 2171** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2172
dc546b0f
PE
2173 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2174 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2175 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2176
e4ab1254
AD
2177 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2178 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2179 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2180 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2181 be consistent.
74724a70 2182
dc546b0f
PE
2183 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2184 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2185
dc546b0f
PE
2186 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2187 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2188
dc546b0f
PE
2189 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2190 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2191
dc546b0f 2192 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2193 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2194 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2195 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2196 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2197
dc546b0f 2198 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2199
dc546b0f
PE
2200 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2201 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2202 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2203
402b123d 2204** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2205
e4ab1254
AD
2206 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2207 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2208 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2209 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2210 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2211 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2212
e4ab1254 2213 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2214 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2215
dc546b0f 2216 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2217 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2218
e4ab1254 2219 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2220 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2221 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2222
402b123d 2223** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2224
dc546b0f
PE
2225 - GLR and inline
2226 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2227 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2228
e4ab1254
AD
2229 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2230 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2231
18ad57b3
AD
2232** %parse-param and %lex-param
2233 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2234 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2235 shortcomings:
2236
2237 - a single argument only can be added,
2238 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2239 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2240 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2241
2242 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2243 For instance:
2244
2245 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2246 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2247 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2248
2249 results in the following signatures:
2250
2251 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2252 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2253
2254 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2255
2256 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2257 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2258
402b123d 2259** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2260 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2261 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2262
402b123d 2263** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2264 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2265
402b123d 2266** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2267 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2268 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2269 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2270\f
402b123d 2271* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2272
402b123d 2273** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2274
402b123d 2275** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2276
402b123d 2277** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2278 Fix spurious parse errors.
2279
402b123d 2280** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2281 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2282 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2283
402b123d 2284** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2285 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2286 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2287
e9690142 2288 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2289
2290 but the converse remains an error:
2291
e9690142 2292 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2293
402b123d 2294** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2295 The following code:
2296
e9690142 2297 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2298
2299 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2300 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2301\f
402b123d 2302* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2303
402b123d 2304** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2305 The declaration
2306 %glr-parser
2307 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2308 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2309 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2310 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2311
7933f2b5 2312 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2313 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2314
402b123d 2315** Output Directory
8c165d89 2316 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2317 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2318 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2319
402b123d 2320** Undefined token
007a50a4 2321 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2322 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2323
402b123d 2324** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2325 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2326 no longer the case.
2327
402b123d 2328** Error token
e88dbdbf 2329 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2330 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2331 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2332 will be mapped onto another number.
2333
402b123d 2334** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2335 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2336 error recovery is possible.
2337
402b123d 2338** End token
e4ab1254 2339 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2340
402b123d 2341** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2342 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2343 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2344 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2345 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2346 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2347 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2348 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2349 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2350
402b123d 2351** Traces
5504898e
AD
2352 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2353
402b123d 2354** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2355 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2356 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2357 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2358 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2359
402b123d 2360** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2361 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2362 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2363 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2364
402b123d 2365** Useless rules
643a5994 2366 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2367 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2368
402b123d 2369** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2370 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2371
402b123d 2372** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2373 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2374 reported.
2375
e4ab1254 2376** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2377 On a grammar such as
2378
e29f0771
AD
2379 %token useless useful
2380 %%
2381 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2382
2383 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2384 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2385
402b123d 2386** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2387 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2388
402b123d 2389** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2390 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2391 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2392 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2393 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2394
402b123d 2395** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2396 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2397 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2398 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2399 For instance
e29f0771 2400 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2401 or
e29f0771 2402 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2403
402b123d 2404** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2405 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2406
402b123d 2407** New translations
a861a339 2408 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2409 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2410
402b123d 2411** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2412 When given
2413 %token 'a' "A"
2414 bison used to output
2415 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2416
402b123d 2417** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2418 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2419 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2420 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2421
402b123d 2422** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2423 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2424 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2425 - itemset
2426 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2427 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2428 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2429 - solved
2430 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2431 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2432 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2433
402b123d 2434** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2435 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2436 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2437
e29f0771
AD
2438 %type <foo> bar
2439 %%
2440 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2441
2442 This is fixed.
a861a339 2443
402b123d 2444** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2445\f
402b123d 2446* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2447
402b123d 2448** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2449 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2450 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2451 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2452
2453 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2454 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2455 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2456 kludge will be disabled.
2457
2458 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2459 extended.
76551463 2460\f
402b123d 2461* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2462
402b123d 2463** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2464 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2465 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2466
e4ab1254 2467** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2468 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2469 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2470 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2471 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2472 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2473
402b123d 2474** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2475 many portability hassles.
2476
402b123d 2477** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2478
402b123d 2479** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2480\f
402b123d 2481* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2482
402b123d 2483** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2484 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2485 under some conditions.
2486
402b123d 2487** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2488 As is done with $n.
2489\f
402b123d 2490* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2491
402b123d 2492** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2493
402b123d 2494** Portability fixes
76551463 2495
402b123d 2496** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2497\f
402b123d 2498* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2499
402b123d 2500** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2501
402b123d 2502** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2503 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2504 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2505 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2506 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2507
402b123d 2508** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2509 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2510 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2511
2512 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2513 problems as on AIX.
2514
402b123d 2515** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2516
402b123d 2517** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2518 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2519
402b123d 2520** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2521 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2522 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2523 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2524
402b123d 2525** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2526 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2527 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2528
402b123d 2529** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2530 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2531
402b123d 2532** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2533 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2534
402b123d 2535** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2536 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2537
402b123d 2538** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2539 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2540 any warning.
2541
402b123d 2542** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2543
402b123d 2544** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2545
402b123d 2546** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2547
402b123d 2548** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2549 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2550 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2551 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2552
402b123d 2553** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2554 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2555 previous allocations were not freed.
2556
402b123d 2557** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2558 Some newlines were missing.
2559 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2560
402b123d 2561** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2562 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2563
402b123d 2564** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2565 Was not used.
2566 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2567
402b123d 2568** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2569
402b123d 2570** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2571
402b123d 2572** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2573
402b123d 2574** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2575 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2576
402b123d 2577** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2578
402b123d 2579** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2580 New.
2581
402b123d 2582** --output
e4ab1254 2583 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2584\f
402b123d 2585* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2586
e4ab1254
AD
2587** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2588 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2589 argument.
2590
e4ab1254 2591** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2592 experiment.
2593
402b123d 2594** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2595\f
402b123d 2596* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2597
402b123d 2598** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2599 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2600 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2601 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2602
e4ab1254 2603** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2604
402b123d 2605** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2606
402b123d 2607** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2608
402b123d 2609** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2610
402b123d 2611** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2612
402b123d 2613** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2614
e4ab1254 2615** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2616
e4ab1254 2617** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2618
e4ab1254 2619** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2620
402b123d 2621** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2622 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2623
402b123d 2624** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2625 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2626 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2627
402b123d 2628** @$
f987e9d2 2629 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2630\f
402b123d 2631* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2632
402b123d 2633** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2634
402b123d 2635** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2636
402b123d 2637** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2638
402b123d 2639** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2640\f
402b123d 2641* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2642
402b123d 2643** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2644 some systems has been fixed.
2645\f
402b123d 2646* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2647
7e508a2b 2648** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2649
402b123d 2650** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2651
402b123d 2652** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2653
402b123d 2654** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2655
402b123d 2656** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2657
402b123d 2658** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2659
402b123d 2660** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2661 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2662\f
402b123d 2663* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2664
402b123d 2665** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2666the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2667
402b123d 2668** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2669example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2670of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2671
402b123d 2672** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2673and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2674table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2675purposes.
2676
402b123d 2677** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2678directives in the parser file.
2679
402b123d 2680** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2681Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2682
402b123d 2683** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2684the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2685The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2686a switch statement body.
2687\f
402b123d 2688* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2689
4d019228
DM
2690The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2691passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2692actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2693by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2694
6780ca7a 2695Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2696\f
402b123d 2697* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2698
2699--help option added.
6780ca7a 2700\f
402b123d 2701* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2702
2703Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2704
76551463
AD
2705-----
2706
7d6bad19 2707Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2708
74553c98 2709This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2710
f16b0819 2711This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2712it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2713the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2714(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2715
f16b0819 2716This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2717but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2718MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2719GNU General Public License for more details.
2720
2721You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2722along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2723
2724 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2725 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2726 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2727 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2728 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2729 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2730 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2731 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2732 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2733 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2734 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2735 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2736 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2737 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2738 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2739 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2740 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2741 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1282c124
AD
2742 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2743 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2744 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2745 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2746 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2747 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
7e508a2b
AD
2748
2749Local Variables:
2750mode: outline
e4ab1254 2751fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2752End: