]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blame - NEWS
tests: fix a title
[bison.git] / NEWS
CommitLineData
ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
11d82017
AD
3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
3e82dfaa
AD
5** Bug fixes
6
7*** C++ with Variants (lalr1.cc)
8
9 Fix a compiler warning when no %destructor use $$.
11d82017 10
da6f0746 11* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.3 (2015-01-15) [stable]
0bd5ee5f 12
461f1516
AD
13** Bug fixes
14
ee028dce
AD
15*** C++ with Variants (lalr1.cc)
16
17 Problems with %destructor and '%define parse.assert' have been fixed.
18
19*** Named %union support (yacc.c, glr.c)
827bc59c
AD
20
21 Bison 3.0 introduced a regression on named %union such as
22
23 %union foo { int ival; };
24
ee028dce 25 The possibility to use a name was introduced "for Yacc compatibility".
827bc59c
AD
26 It is however not required by POSIX Yacc, and its usefulness is not clear.
27
ee028dce 28*** %define api.value.type union with %defines (yacc.c, glr.c)
8d4dc896 29
ee028dce
AD
30 The C parsers were broken when %defines was used together with "%define
31 api.value.type union".
8d4dc896 32
461f1516
AD
33*** Redeclarations are reported in proper order
34
35 On
36
37 %token FOO "foo"
38 %printer {} "foo"
39 %printer {} FOO
40
41 bison used to report:
42
43 /tmp/foo.yy:2.10-11: error: %printer redeclaration for FOO
44 %printer {} "foo"
45 ^^
46 /tmp/foo.yy:3.10-11: previous declaration
47 %printer {} FOO
48 ^^
49
50 Now, the "previous" declaration is always the first one.
51
0bd5ee5f 52
b167e7ba
AD
53** Documentation
54
55 Bison now installs various files in its docdir (which defaults to
56 '/usr/local/share/doc/bison'), including the three fully blown examples
57 extracted from the documentation:
58
59 - rpcalc
60 Reverse polish calculator, a simple introductory example.
61 - mfcalc
62 Multi-function Calc, a calculator with memory and functions and located
63 error messages.
64 - calc++
65 a calculator in C++ using variant support and token constructors.
66
a3efd13e 67* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.2 (2013-12-05) [stable]
6d94eebb 68
7b0ca050
AD
69** Bug fixes
70
184b42c8
AD
71*** Generated source files when errors are reported
72
73 When warnings are issued and -Werror is set, bison would still generate
74 the source files (*.c, *.h...). As a consequence, some runs of "make"
75 could fail the first time, but not the second (as the files were generated
76 anyway).
77
78 This is fixed: bison no longer generates this source files, but, of
79 course, still produces the various reports (*.output, *.xml, etc.).
80
be29c71d
AD
81*** %empty is used in reports
82
83 Empty right-hand sides are denoted by '%empty' in all the reports (text,
84 dot, XML and formats derived from it).
85
7b0ca050
AD
86*** YYERROR and variants
87
88 When C++ variant support is enabled, an error triggered via YYERROR, but
89 not caught via error recovery, resulted in a double deletion.
6d94eebb 90
c2ecada3 91* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.1 (2013-11-12) [stable]
e386b50f 92
0a244a22
AD
93** Bug fixes
94
39bace5d
AD
95*** Errors in caret diagnostics
96
97 On some platforms, some errors could result in endless diagnostics.
e4678430
AD
98
99*** Fixes of the -Werror option
100
101 Options such as "-Werror -Wno-error=foo" were still turning "foo"
102 diagnostics into errors instead of warnings. This is fixed.
103
104 Actually, for consistency with GCC, "-Wno-error=foo -Werror" now also
105 leaves "foo" diagnostics as warnings. Similarly, with "-Werror=foo
106 -Wno-error", "foo" diagnostics are now errors.
e386b50f 107
071863b3
AD
108*** GLR Predicates
109
110 As demonstrated in the documentation, one can now leave spaces between
111 "%?" and its "{".
112
265640d5
AD
113*** Installation
114
115 The yacc.1 man page is no longer installed if --disable-yacc was
116 specified.
117
39bace5d
AD
118*** Fixes in the test suite
119
120 Bugs and portability issues.
121
534497f5 122* Noteworthy changes in release 3.0 (2013-07-25) [stable]
facb910c 123
8458a411 124** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 125
597afd73
AD
126 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
127 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
128 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
129
8458a411 130** Backward incompatible changes
47db7ed1
AD
131
132*** Obsolete features
133
40bb6f78
AD
134 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
135
136 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
137 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
138
139 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
140 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 141
05e25f23
AD
142 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
143 in the release 2.5).
144
1fa19a76
AD
145*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
146
147 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
148 Bison extensions.
149
150 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
151 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
152 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
153
154 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
155 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
156 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
157 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
158 warnings for Bison extensions.
159
160 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
161 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
162 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
163 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
164
597afd73
AD
165** Bug fixes
166
c21e515e 167*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
597afd73
AD
168
169 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
170 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
171 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
172 preprocessor expansion:
173
174 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
175
6c7022f7 176 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
597afd73
AD
177 identifiers for user-provided variables.
178
f0f95a50
AD
179*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
180
181 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
182 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
183
bb4b189b
AD
184*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
185
597afd73
AD
186** Diagnostics reported by Bison
187
188 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
189 Santet.
73370a9d 190
016426c1
TR
191*** Carets
192
193 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
194 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
195 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
196
fec5f3c0
AD
197 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
198 the caret information only. For instance on:
199
200 %%
201 exp: 'a' | 'a';
202
203 Bison 2.7 reports:
204
205 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
206 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
207
208 Now bison reports:
209
210 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
211 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
212 exp: 'a' | 'a';
213 ^^^
214
215 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
216
217 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
218 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
219
1048a1c9 220*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 221
1048a1c9 222 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
d949eefd
AD
223 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
224 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
1048a1c9
AD
225
226 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 227 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
1048a1c9
AD
228 errors (and only those):
229
230 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
231
232 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
233 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
234
235 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
236
237 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
238
239 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
240 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
241
242 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
243 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
244 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 245
46bdb8ec 246*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 247
46bdb8ec 248 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 249
46bdb8ec 250 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 251
46bdb8ec
TR
252 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
253 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 254 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 255
46bdb8ec
TR
256 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
257 with failure):
1048a1c9
AD
258
259 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 260 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 261
46bdb8ec 262 it now reports:
1048a1c9 263
1048a1c9
AD
264 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
265
266*** Deprecated constructs
267
268 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
269 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
270 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
271
73370a9d 272*** Useless semantic types
9641b918
VS
273
274 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
275 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
276 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
277 types that trigger the warning:
278
279 %token <type1> term
280 %type <type2> nterm
281 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
282 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
283 %%
284 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
285
286 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
287 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
288
31557b9e 289*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 290
31557b9e
AD
291 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
292 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
b921d92f
VS
293
294 %printer {} symbol1
295 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 296 %type <type> symbol3
b921d92f
VS
297 %%
298 exp: "a";
299
73370a9d 300*** Useless destructors or printers
ea9a35c6
VS
301
302 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
303 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
304 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
305 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
306
307 %token <type1> token1
308 <type2> token2
309 <type3> token3
310 <type4> token4
311 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
312 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
313
d87ea54c
AD
314*** Conflicts
315
316 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
317 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
318
319 %glr-parser
320 %%
321 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
322
323 compare the previous version of bison:
324
325 $ bison foo.y
326 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
327 $ bison -Werror foo.y
328 bison: warnings being treated as errors
329 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
330
331 with the new behavior:
332
333 $ bison foo.y
334 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
335 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
336 $ bison -Werror foo.y
9503b0a4
TR
337 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
338 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
d87ea54c
AD
339
340 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
341
342 %expect 0
343 %glr-parser
344 %%
345 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
346
347 Former behavior:
348
349 $ bison bar.y
350 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
351 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
352 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
353
354 New one:
355
356 $ bison bar.y
9503b0a4
TR
357 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
358 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 359
f24695ef
AD
360** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
361
362 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
363 with '-Wyacc'.
364
2055a44e
AD
365** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
366
6dc4663d
AD
367 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
368 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
369 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 370
e436fa67
AD
371 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
372 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
373 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
374 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e
AD
375
376 one may now declare
377
e436fa67 378 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 379
630a0218
AD
380** Types of values for %define variables
381
382 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
383 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
384 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
385 foo {bar}'.
386
387 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
388
389 %define lr.type lalr
390
391 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
392
393 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
394
395 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
396
2a6b66c5 397** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 398
2a6b66c5 399 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
99c08fb6
AD
400 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
401 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
402
e436fa67 403 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 404 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
e436fa67
AD
405 %%
406 start: FILE for ERROR;
99c08fb6
AD
407
408 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
409 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
410 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
411 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
412
6574576c
AD
413** Variable api.value.type
414
415 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
416 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
417 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
418
419 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
420
421 %union
422 {
423 int ival;
424 char *sval;
425 }
426 %token <ival> INT "integer"
427 %token <sval> STRING "string"
428 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
429 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
430
431 /* In yylex(). */
432 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
433 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
434
630a0218
AD
435 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
436
437 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 438 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 439 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 440
435575cb 441 %define api.value.type union
6574576c
AD
442 %token <int> INT "integer"
443 %token <char *> STRING "string"
444 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
445 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
446
447 /* In yylex(). */
448 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
449 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
450
435575cb
AD
451 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
452 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 453
435575cb 454 %define api.value.type variant
6574576c
AD
455 %token <int> INT "integer"
456 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
457
630a0218 458 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 459 used to be used.
6574576c
AD
460
461 %code requires
462 {
463 struct my_value
464 {
465 enum
466 {
467 is_int, is_string
468 } kind;
469 union
470 {
471 int ival;
472 char *sval;
473 } u;
474 };
475 }
435575cb 476 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
6574576c
AD
477 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
478 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
479 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
480 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
481
482 /* In yylex(). */
483 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
484 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
485
31b850d2
AD
486** Variable parse.error
487
1f77b2e0
AD
488 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
489 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
490 verbose".
31b850d2 491
c21e515e
AD
492** Renamed %define variables
493
494 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
495 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
496
497 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
498 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
499 namespace -> api.namespace
500 stype -> api.value.type
501
ca2a6d15
PH
502** Semantic predicates
503
597afd73
AD
504 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
505
1f77b2e0
AD
506 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
507 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 508 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
1f77b2e0
AD
509 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
510 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
511 expressions.
ca2a6d15 512
d1400569
AD
513** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
514
515 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
516 reduce/reduce conflicts.
517
5202b6ac 518** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 519
5202b6ac
VT
520 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
521
522 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
523 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
524 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
525 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
526
527 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
528 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
529 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
530
531 %right A B 'c' 'd'
532
533 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
534 input order is now preserved.
535
536 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
537 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
538 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 539
cc2235ac
VT
540** Useless precedence and associativity
541
d2f9ae18
AD
542 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
543
1282c124 544 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
cc2235ac
VT
545 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
546 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
547 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
548 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
549 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
550 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
551
552*** Precedence warning category
553
554 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
555 useless precedence and associativity directives.
556
557*** Useless associativity
558
559 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
560 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
561 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
562 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
563 For example:
564
565 %left '+'
566 %left '*'
567 %%
568 exp:
1282c124
AD
569 "number"
570 | exp '+' "number"
cc2235ac
VT
571 | exp '*' exp
572 ;
573
574 will produce a
575
576 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
577 %left '+'
578 ^^^
579
580*** Useless precedence
581
582 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
583 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
584 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
585 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
586
587 %precedence '='
588 %%
1282c124 589 exp: "var" '=' "number";
cc2235ac
VT
590
591 will produce a
592
593 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
594 %precedence '='
595 ^^^
596
597*** Useless precedence and associativity
598
599 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
600 as follows:
601
602 %nonassoc '='
603 %%
1282c124 604 exp: "var" '=' "number";
cc2235ac
VT
605
606 The warning is:
607
608 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
609 %nonassoc '='
610 ^^^
09add9c2
AD
611
612** Empty rules
613
6240346a
AD
614 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
615
09add9c2
AD
616 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
617 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
618 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
619 %empty. On the following grammar:
620
621 %%
622 s: a b c;
623 a: ;
624 b: %empty;
625 c: 'a' %empty;
626
627 bison reports:
628
629 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
630 a: {}
631 ^^
632 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
633 c: 'a' %empty {};
634 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 635
c21e515e
AD
636** Java skeleton improvements
637
c21e515e
AD
638 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
639 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
640 and "%define init_throws".
aa94def1
DH
641 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
642
de1a2f20
AD
643 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
644 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
645
c21e515e
AD
646** C++ skeletons improvements
647
648*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
649
650 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
651 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
652 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
653
654*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
655
656 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
657
658*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
659
660 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
661 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
662 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
663 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
664 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
665 factory invoked by the user actions).
666
667*** %define api.value.type variant
668
669 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
670 from Théophile Ranquet.
671
672 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
673 instance:
674
675 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
676 %token <int> NUMBER;
677 %token SEMICOLON ";"
678 %type <::std::string> item;
679 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
680 %%
681 result:
682 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
683 ;
684
685 list:
6240346a 686 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
c21e515e
AD
687 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
688 ;
689
690 item:
691 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
692 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
693 ;
694
695*** %define api.token.constructor
696
697 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
698 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
699 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
700
701 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
702 {
703 parser::location_type loc = ...;
704 ...
705 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
706 ...
707 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
708 ...
709 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
710 ...
711 }
712
75ae8299
AD
713*** C++ locations
714
715 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
716 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
717
1f5542fe 718* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
cc8962bd 719
80a2826e
AD
720** Bug fixes
721
722*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
723
724 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 725
e83be476
AD
726*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
727
c13bb348 728* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 729
edf9a06f 730** Bug fixes
7bada535 731
edf9a06f 732 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 733
1127a75a
AD
734 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
735
d4fe9e88 736** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 737
8458a411
AD
738 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
739
d4fe9e88 740*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 741
d4fe9e88 742 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 743
d4fe9e88
AD
744 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
745 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 746
d4fe9e88 747 It is now:
1f1bd572 748
d4fe9e88
AD
749 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
750 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 751
d4fe9e88 752*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 753
d4fe9e88 754 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 755
d4fe9e88
AD
756 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
757 %type <sval> exp
758 ^^^^^^
759 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
760 %type <ival> exp
761 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 762
d4fe9e88 763 or
cbaea010 764
7bada535 765 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 766 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 767 ^^^^
fb6040f0
TR
768 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
769 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
770 ^^^
771 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
772 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
773 ^^^
774 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
775 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
776 ^^^
7bada535 777
1282c124
AD
778 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
779 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
AD
780 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
781 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 782
1f1bd572 783** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 784
1f1bd572 785 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
AD
786 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
787 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
788 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
789 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
790 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
791
792 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
793 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 794
7287be84 795** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
AD
796
797 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
798 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
799 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
800 then responsible to define her type.
801
802 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
AD
803 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
804 them.
db8ab2be
AD
805
806 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
807 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
808 compatibility).
809
7287be84
AD
810 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
811 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
812 api.position.type.
813
d4fe9e88
AD
814** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
815
816 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
817 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
818 before re-throwing the exception.
819
820 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
821 appreciated.
822
9c16d399 823** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 824
8458a411
AD
825 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
826
fc4fdd62
TR
827 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
828 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
829 numbered and left-justified.
830
831 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
832 diamond shaped nodes.
833
9c16d399
TR
834 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
835 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
836
d4fe9e88 837** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 838
d4fe9e88
AD
839 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
840 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 841
53e2cd1e
AD
842** Documentation
843
844 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
845 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 846
d4fe9e88
AD
847 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
848 were not properly documented.
849
be22823e
AD
850 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
851
9d3f7eaf 852* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 853
a68b1f23
AD
854 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
855 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
856 reporting them to us.
857
858** Bug fixes
859
860 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
861 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
862 3.2.
863
864 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 865
1282c124 866 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 867
a1d1ab50
AD
868 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
869 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
870
0ac15849 871* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 872
468455e1 873 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 874
6eb8f74f 875* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 876
6b4cb804
AD
877** Bug fixes
878
a1a77e1f 879 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
AD
880
881 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
882 users to the appropriate place to report them.
883
884 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
885
886 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
887 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 888
a2b3f101
TR
889 All the generated headers are self-contained.
890
c9d5bcc9
AD
891** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
892
893 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
894 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
895 For instance the header generated from
896
897 %define api.prefix "calc"
898 %defines "lib/parse.h"
899
900 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
901
c12c4c50 902** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
321d3e35
AD
903
904 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
905 warnings such as:
906
907 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
908 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
909 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
910 *++yyvsp = yylval;
911 ^
912
913 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
914
c12c4c50
AD
915 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
916 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
917 addressed.
918
e1eeecd3 919* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 920
43ca8040
AD
921** Bug fixes
922
923 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
924 suite have been fixed.
925
c9d546b2
AD
926** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
927
928 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
929 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 930
dcd5344d
AD
931** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
932
933 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
934
77b214ef 935* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 936
8617d87e
AD
937 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
938
e20e6a50
AD
939** Future Changes
940
941 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
942 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
943 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
944
945 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
946
947 write:
948
949 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
950
8617d87e
AD
951** Bug fixes
952
0e164d43
AD
953*** Type names are now properly escaped.
954
955*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 956
26313726
AD
957*** Stray @ or $ in actions
958
959 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
960 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
961 now does.
962
cd735a8c 963** Type names in actions
4982f078
AD
964
965 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 966 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
AD
967
968 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
969
970 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 971 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 972
1505e8bb 973* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 974
d0a30438 975** Future changes
9553083c 976
55d1006f
AD
977 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
978 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 979
aaf61036 980*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
AD
981
982 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 983 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
AD
984 compilers.
985
258cddbc 986*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 987
258cddbc
AD
988 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
989 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 990
258cddbc
AD
991 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
992 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
993
994 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
995 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
996
997*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
998
999 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
1000 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
1001 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
1002 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
1003 it.
0f11eec2 1004
c2425191 1005** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 1006
258cddbc 1007*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
1008
1009 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 1010 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 1011
e29f0771
AD
1012 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
1013 # define YY_FOO_H
1014 ...
1015 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 1016
258cddbc 1017*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
1018
1019 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
1020 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
1021
e29f0771 1022 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
1023
1024 rather than
1025
e29f0771
AD
1026 #define yyparse bar_parse
1027 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
1028
1029 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
1030 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 1031
258cddbc
AD
1032*** Exported symbols in C++
1033
1034 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
1035 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
1036 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
1037
694af10c
AD
1038*** YYLSP_NEEDED
1039
1040 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
1041 longer defined.
1042
4b3847c3
AD
1043** New %define variable: api.prefix
1044
1045 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
1046 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
1047 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
1048 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
1049 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
1050 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
1051 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
1052
1053 The following examples compares both:
1054
1055 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
1056 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
1057 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
1058 %% %%
1059 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
1060
1061 bison generates:
1062
1063 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
1064 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
1065
1066 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
1067 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
1068 > # if defined YYDEBUG
1069 > # if YYDEBUG
1070 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
1071 > # else
1072 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1073 > # endif
1074 > # else
1075 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1076 > # endif
1077 # endif | # endif
1078
1079 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
1080 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
1081 # endif # endif
1082
1083 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
1084 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
1085 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
1086 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
1087 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
1088 }; };
1089 # endif # endif
1090
1091 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
1092 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
1093 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
1094 { {
1095 int ival; int ival;
1096 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
1097 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
1098 #endif #endif
1099
1100 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
1101
1102 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
1103
1104 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
1105
dfaac272 1106* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 1107
debe2c03 1108** Future changes:
765e1bd4 1109
e4ab1254 1110 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 1111
466b4cf2 1112** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 1113
d834eca0 1114** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 1115
d834eca0 1116*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 1117
e4ab1254
AD
1118 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1119 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 1120
d834eca0 1121*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 1122
e4ab1254
AD
1123 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1124 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1125
466b4cf2 1126** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1127
e4ab1254
AD
1128 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1129 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1130
22172d47 1131** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1132
22172d47 1133*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1134
e4ab1254
AD
1135 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1136 or higher.
936c88d1 1137
22172d47
AD
1138*** Header guards
1139
1140 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1141 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1142
e29f0771
AD
1143 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1144 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1145 ...
1146 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1147
1148 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1149 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1150 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1151
1152 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1153
e29f0771
AD
1154 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1155 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1156 ...
1157 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1158
1159*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1160
e4ab1254
AD
1161 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1162 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1163 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1164
466b4cf2
AD
1165** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1166
7e508a2b
AD
1167** Changes in the manual:
1168
1169*** %printer is documented
1170
e4ab1254
AD
1171 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1172 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1173
e4ab1254
AD
1174 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1175 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1176
1177*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1178
e4ab1254
AD
1179 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1180 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1181 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1182 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1183
86b08b49
AD
1184** Building bison:
1185
1186*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1187
e4ab1254
AD
1188 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1189 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1190
8ef26c2a
AD
1191*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1192
1193*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1194
e4ab1254
AD
1195 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1196 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1197
91aadcc7 1198*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1199
e4ab1254
AD
1200 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1201 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1202
28801043 1203* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1204
82f3355e
JD
1205** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1206
1207 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1208 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1209 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1210 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1211 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1212
f1b238df 1213** Named references:
66381412
AR
1214
1215 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1216 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1217 actions code.
1218
1219 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1220 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1221 as named references:
1222
4b568fc0 1223 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1224 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1225
1226 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1227
4b568fc0 1228 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1229 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1230
5b1ff423 1231 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1232 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1233 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1234
5b1ff423 1235 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1236 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1237 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1238
f1b238df 1239** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1240
1241 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1242 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1243 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1244 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1245 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
1246 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1247 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1248 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1249 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1250
1251 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1252 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1253 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1254 file with these directives:
1255
cf499cff
JD
1256 %define lr.type lalr
1257 %define lr.type ielr
1258 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1259
7fceb615 1260 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
1261 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1262 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1263 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1264
1265 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1266 stabilize them.
1267
8458a411
AD
1268** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1269
1270 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1271
1272 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1273 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1274 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1275 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1276 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1277 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1278 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1279 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1280 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
1281 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1282 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
1283
1284 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1285 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1286 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1287 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1288 inconsistent states.
1289
7fceb615
JD
1290 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1291 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1292 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1293 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1294 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1295 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1296 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1297 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1298 power.
1299
1300 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1301 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1302
1303 %define parse.lac full
1304
e4ab1254 1305 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1306 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1307
1308 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1309 stabilize it.
1310
d397d9f0 1311** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1312
f1b238df 1313*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1314
de5ab940 1315 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1316
de5ab940
JD
1317 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1318 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1319
1320 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1321 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1322
1323 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1324
de5ab940 1325 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1326
de5ab940
JD
1327 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1328 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1329 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1330 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1331
f1b238df 1332*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1333
1334 The following %define variables
1335
1336 api.push_pull
1337 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1338
1339 have been renamed to
1340
1341 api.push-pull
1342 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1343
1344 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1345 for backward compatibility.
1346
7262f54f 1347*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1348
1349 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1350 within quotations marks. For example,
1351
1352 %define api.push-pull "push"
1353
1354 can be rewritten as
1355
1356 %define api.push-pull push
1357
d397d9f0 1358*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1359
d397d9f0
JD
1360*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1361
1362** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1363
1364** Character literals not of length one:
1365
1366 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1367 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1368 the following grammar to be the same token:
1369
1370 exp: exp '++'
1371 | exp '+' exp
1372 ;
1373
1374 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1375 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1376
1377** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1378
1379 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1380 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1381 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1382 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1383
1384** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1385
1386 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1387 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
AD
1388 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1389 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1390
e29f0771
AD
1391 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1392 do \
1393 if (N) \
1394 { \
1395 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1396 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1397 } \
1398 else \
1399 { \
1400 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1401 } \
1402 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1403
1404 use:
1405
e29f0771
AD
1406 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1407 do \
1408 if (N) \
1409 { \
1410 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1411 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1412 } \
1413 else \
1414 { \
1415 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1416 } \
1417 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1418
1419** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1420
1421 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1422 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1423 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1424 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1425
f1b238df 1426** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1427
1428 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1429 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1430 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1431 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1432 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1433 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1434 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1435 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1436
f1b238df 1437** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1438
1439 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1440 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1441 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1442 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1443
1444 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1445
1446 instead of
1447
1448 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1449
1450 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1451 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1452 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1453 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1454 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1455 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1456 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1457
d2060f06
JD
1458** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1459
e4ab1254 1460 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1461 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1462 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1463 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1464 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1465
1466*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1467 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1468 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1469 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1470 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1471 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1472 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1473 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1474 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1475 shifted or discarded.
1476
1477*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1478 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1479 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1480 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1481
1482*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1483 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1484 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1485 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1486 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1487 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1488 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1489 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1490 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1491 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1492 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1493 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1494 by default.
53f036ce 1495
1a33f4f6
JD
1496** Java skeleton fixes:
1497
1498*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1499
1500*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1501 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1502
02803d55
JD
1503*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1504
86408959
JD
1505** -W/--warnings fixes:
1506
e4ab1254 1507*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1508
1509 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1510 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1511
1512 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1513
786743d5
JD
1514*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1515
1516 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1517 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1518 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1519 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1520 example:
1521
1522 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1523 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1524 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1525 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1526
1527 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1528 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1529 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1530 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1531
e4ab1254 1532*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1533
1534 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1535 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1536
1537 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1538
e4ab1254 1539*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1540
e4ab1254 1541 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1542 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1543 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1544 suppress all warnings:
1545
1546 bison -Wnone gram.y
1547
1f36f544
JD
1548** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1549
1550 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1551 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1552 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1553
1554 %left END 0
1555
1556 This bug has been fixed.
1557
64877e5e 1558* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1559
2bfcac9a
JD
1560** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1561 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1562
8b9e021f
JD
1563** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1564 been fixed.
1565
4ad3921d
JD
1566** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1567
06cb07d5
JD
1568** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1569 been fixed.
1570
9b5049bd
JD
1571** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1572 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1573 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1574 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1575
93d7dde9
JD
1576** Minor documentation fixes.
1577
e19a049c 1578* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1579
f39ab286
JD
1580** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1581 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1582 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1583 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1584 affected platforms.
1585
e4ab1254 1586** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1587
1588 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1589 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1590 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1591 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1592 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1593 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1594 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1595 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1596 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1597
d8911864
EB
1598** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1599
a603c6e0
JD
1600** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1601 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1602 avoided.
c938d650 1603
98a345a2
JD
1604** %code is now a permanent feature.
1605
1606 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1607
1608 %{CODE%}
1609
1610 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1611 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1612
1613 %code {CODE}
1614 %code requires {CODE}
1615 %code provides {CODE}
1616 %code top {CODE}
1617
1618 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1619 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1620 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1621 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1622 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1623
1624 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1625 is still considered experimental.
1626
1625df5b
JD
1627** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1628
1629 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1630 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1631 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1632 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1633 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1634 specified by POSIX.
1635
1636 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1637 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1638 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1639 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1640 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1641 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1642 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1643
1644 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1645
1646 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1647 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1648 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1649 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1650 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1651 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1652 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1653 be removed altogether.
1654
1655 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1656 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1657 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1658 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1659 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1660 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1661 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1662 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1663 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1664 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1665
2755de8f
AD
1666** Internationalization.
1667
1668 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1669 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1670 host system.
1671
74553c98 1672* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1673
0ea583d2
AD
1674** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1675 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1676
0ea583d2
AD
1677** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1678
1679 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1680 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1681
1682 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1683
1684 instead of
1685
1686 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1687
e4ab1254 1688 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1689 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1690 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1691 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1692 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1693 feature.
1694
1695** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1696
402b123d 1697* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1698
402b123d 1699** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1700
1701 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1702 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1703 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1704 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1705 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1706
402b123d 1707** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1708
402b123d 1709** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1710 fixed.
1711
402b123d 1712* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1713
402b123d 1714** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1715 are now deprecated:
1716
1717 %define NAME "VALUE"
1718
e4ab1254 1719** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1720
1721 %define api.pure
1722
1723 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1724 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1725
402b123d 1726** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1727
1728 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1729 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1730 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1731 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1732 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1733
1734 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1735 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1736
e4ab1254 1737 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1738
59da312b
JD
1739 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1740 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1741
402b123d 1742** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1743 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1744 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1745
402b123d 1746** Java
59da312b
JD
1747
1748 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1749 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1750 %skeleton to select it.
1751
e4ab1254 1752 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1753
1754 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1755 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1756 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1757
402b123d 1758** %language
59da312b
JD
1759
1760 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1761 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1762 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1763 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1764
402b123d 1765** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1766
1767 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1768 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1769 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1770 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1771
402b123d 1772** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1773 %defines. For example:
1774
1775 %defines "parser.h"
1776
402b123d 1777** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1778 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1779 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1780 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1781
402b123d 1782** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1783
1784 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1785 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1786 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1787
1788 1. Removes unreachable states.
1789
1790 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1791 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1792 directives in existing grammar files.
1793
1794 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1795 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1796
31984206
JD
1797 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1798
1799 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1800
e4ab1254 1801 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1802 for further discussion.
1803
e4ab1254 1804** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1805
e4ab1254
AD
1806 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1807 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1808 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1809 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1810 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1811 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1812 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1813 code.
1814
e4ab1254 1815** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1816 name.
1bb2bd75 1817
e4ab1254 1818** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1819 deprecated:
1820
1821 %file-prefix "parser"
1822 %name-prefix "c_"
1823 %output "parser.c"
1824
e4ab1254 1825** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1826
1827 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1828 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1829 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1830 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1831 it:
1832
e4ab1254
AD
1833 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1834 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1835 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1836 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1837
e4ab1254
AD
1838 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1839 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1840 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1841 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1842
1843 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1844 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1845
402b123d 1846** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1847
1848 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1849 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1850 about unused $2 in:
1851
1852 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1853
1854 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1855 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1856
1857 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1858
1859 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1860 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1861 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1862
e4ab1254
AD
1863 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1864 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1865
e4ab1254 1866** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1867
1868 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1869 %printer's:
1870
e4ab1254 1871 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1872 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1873 declared semantic type tags.
1874
e4ab1254 1875 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1876 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1877 type tags.
1878
e4ab1254
AD
1879 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1880 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1881 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1882 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1883
85894313
JD
1884 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1885 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1886 features.
1887
e4ab1254 1888 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1889 details.
1890
402b123d 1891** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1892 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1893 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1894
402b123d 1895** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1896 completely removed from Bison.
1897
402b123d 1898* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1899
402b123d 1900** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1901 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1902 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1903 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1904 and is required by POSIX.
1905
402b123d 1906** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1907 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1908
402b123d 1909** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1910
1911 For example:
1912
b2a0b7ca
JD
1913 %union { char *string; }
1914 %token <string> STRING1
1915 %token <string> STRING2
1916 %type <string> string1
1917 %type <string> string2
1918 %union { char character; }
1919 %token <character> CHR
1920 %type <character> chr
1921 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1922 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1923 %destructor { } <character>
1924
1925 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1926 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1927 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1928 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1929 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1930
85894313
JD
1931 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1932 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1933 future versions.]
1934
e4ab1254
AD
1935** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1936 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1937 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1938 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1939 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1940
402b123d 1941** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1942 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1943
1944 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1945 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1946 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1947 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1948 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1949
34f98f46 1950 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1951 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1952 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1953 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1954 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1955 after the token definitions.
1956
1957 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1958 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1959
402b123d 1960** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1961 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1962 %after-header.
1963
1964 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1965 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1966 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1967 convenient for you:
1968
1969 %before-header {
1970 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1971 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1972 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1973 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1974 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1975 }
1976 %start-header {
1977 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1978 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1979 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1980 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1981 }
1982 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1983 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1984 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1985 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1986 }
34f98f46
JD
1987 %end-header {
1988 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1989 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1990 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1991 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1992 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1993 }
34f98f46
JD
1994 %after-header {
1995 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1996 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1997 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1998 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1999 * Bison-generated definitions. */
2000 }
2001
2002 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
2003 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 2004
85894313
JD
2005 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
2006 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
2007
e4ab1254 2008** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
2009 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
2010 in a future release.
742e4900 2011
402b123d 2012* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 2013
e4ab1254 2014** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
2015 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
2016
402b123d 2017** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
2018 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
2019
402b123d 2020* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 2021
402b123d 2022** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
2023 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
2024 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 2025
402b123d 2026** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 2027
402b123d 2028** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 2029
402b123d 2030** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
2031 their contents together.
2032
402b123d 2033** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
2034 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
2035 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 2036
8f3596a6 2037 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
2038 | exp "+" exp
2039 ;
affac613 2040
8f3596a6
AD
2041 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
2042 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 2043 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 2044
4e26c69e 2045 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
2046 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
2047 | exp "+" exp
2048 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
2049 ;
affac613 2050
4e26c69e
PE
2051 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
2052 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
2053 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 2054
8f3596a6 2055 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
2056 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
2057 ;
721be13c 2058
84866159
AD
2059 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
2060 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
2061
2062 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
2063
721be13c
PE
2064 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
2065 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 2066
402b123d 2067** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
2068 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
2069 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
2070 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 2071
402b123d 2072** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
2073 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
2074 instead of warnings.
2075
402b123d 2076** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
2077 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
2078 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 2079
e4ab1254 2080** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 2081
402b123d 2082** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
2083 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
2084 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 2085
402b123d 2086** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
2087 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
2088 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
2089 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
2090 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
2091
2092 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 2093 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
2094 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
2095 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 2096
b50d2359 2097 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 2098 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 2099
402b123d 2100** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 2101\f
402b123d 2102* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 2103
402b123d 2104** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 2105
402b123d 2106** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
2107 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
2108 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
2109 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
2110 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
2111 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 2112
402b123d 2113** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
2114 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
2115 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2116 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2117
402b123d 2118** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
2119 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2120 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2121
402b123d 2122** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2123 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2124 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2125 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2126 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2127\f
402b123d 2128* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2129
402b123d 2130** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2131
82de6b0d
PE
2132 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2133 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2134 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2135 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2136 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2137
82de6b0d
PE
2138 - Error token location.
2139 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2140 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2141 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2142 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2143
82de6b0d
PE
2144 - Semicolon changes:
2145 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2146 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2147
82de6b0d
PE
2148 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2149 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2150 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2151 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2152
82de6b0d 2153 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2154
402b123d 2155** New features
1452af69 2156
82de6b0d 2157 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2158
82de6b0d
PE
2159 - New directive: %initial-action.
2160 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2161 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2162
82de6b0d
PE
2163 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2164 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2165
e4ab1254 2166 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2167 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2168
e4ab1254 2169 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2170 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2171
82de6b0d 2172 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2173
82de6b0d
PE
2174 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2175 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2176
402b123d 2177** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2178
82de6b0d
PE
2179 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2180 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2181 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2182 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2183 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2184 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2185
82de6b0d
PE
2186 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2187 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2188
82de6b0d 2189 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2190\f
402b123d 2191* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2192
402b123d 2193** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2194 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2195
402b123d 2196** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2197
dc546b0f
PE
2198 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2199 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2200
dc546b0f
PE
2201 - %destructor
2202 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2203 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2204
dc546b0f
PE
2205 - %error-verbose
2206 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2207
dc546b0f
PE
2208 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2209 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2210
402b123d 2211** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2212
dc546b0f
PE
2213 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2214 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2215 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2216
e4ab1254
AD
2217 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2218 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2219 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2220 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2221 be consistent.
74724a70 2222
dc546b0f
PE
2223 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2224 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2225
dc546b0f
PE
2226 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2227 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2228
dc546b0f
PE
2229 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2230 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2231
dc546b0f 2232 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2233 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2234 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2235 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2236 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2237
dc546b0f 2238 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2239
dc546b0f
PE
2240 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2241 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2242 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2243
402b123d 2244** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2245
e4ab1254
AD
2246 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2247 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2248 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2249 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2250 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2251 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2252
e4ab1254 2253 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2254 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2255
dc546b0f 2256 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2257 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2258
e4ab1254 2259 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2260 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2261 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2262
402b123d 2263** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2264
dc546b0f
PE
2265 - GLR and inline
2266 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2267 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2268
e4ab1254
AD
2269 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2270 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2271
18ad57b3
AD
2272** %parse-param and %lex-param
2273 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2274 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2275 shortcomings:
2276
2277 - a single argument only can be added,
2278 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2279 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2280 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2281
2282 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2283 For instance:
2284
2285 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2286 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2287 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2288
2289 results in the following signatures:
2290
2291 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2292 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2293
2294 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2295
2296 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2297 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2298
402b123d 2299** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2300 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2301 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2302
402b123d 2303** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2304 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2305
402b123d 2306** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2307 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2308 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2309 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2310\f
402b123d 2311* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2312
402b123d 2313** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2314
402b123d 2315** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2316
402b123d 2317** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2318 Fix spurious parse errors.
2319
402b123d 2320** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2321 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2322 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2323
402b123d 2324** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2325 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2326 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2327
e9690142 2328 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2329
2330 but the converse remains an error:
2331
e9690142 2332 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2333
402b123d 2334** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2335 The following code:
2336
e9690142 2337 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2338
2339 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2340 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2341\f
402b123d 2342* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2343
402b123d 2344** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2345 The declaration
2346 %glr-parser
2347 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2348 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2349 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2350 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2351
7933f2b5 2352 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2353 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2354
402b123d 2355** Output Directory
8c165d89 2356 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2357 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2358 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2359
402b123d 2360** Undefined token
007a50a4 2361 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2362 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2363
402b123d 2364** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2365 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2366 no longer the case.
2367
402b123d 2368** Error token
e88dbdbf 2369 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2370 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2371 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2372 will be mapped onto another number.
2373
402b123d 2374** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2375 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2376 error recovery is possible.
2377
402b123d 2378** End token
e4ab1254 2379 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2380
402b123d 2381** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2382 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2383 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2384 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2385 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2386 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2387 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2388 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2389 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2390
402b123d 2391** Traces
5504898e
AD
2392 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2393
402b123d 2394** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2395 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2396 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2397 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2398 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2399
402b123d 2400** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2401 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2402 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2403 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2404
402b123d 2405** Useless rules
643a5994 2406 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2407 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2408
402b123d 2409** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2410 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2411
402b123d 2412** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2413 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2414 reported.
2415
e4ab1254 2416** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2417 On a grammar such as
2418
e29f0771
AD
2419 %token useless useful
2420 %%
2421 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2422
2423 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2424 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2425
402b123d 2426** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2427 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2428
402b123d 2429** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2430 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2431 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2432 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2433 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2434
402b123d 2435** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2436 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2437 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2438 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2439 For instance
e29f0771 2440 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2441 or
e29f0771 2442 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2443
402b123d 2444** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2445 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2446
402b123d 2447** New translations
a861a339 2448 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2449 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2450
402b123d 2451** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2452 When given
2453 %token 'a' "A"
2454 bison used to output
2455 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2456
402b123d 2457** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2458 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2459 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2460 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2461
402b123d 2462** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2463 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2464 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2465 - itemset
2466 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2467 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2468 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2469 - solved
2470 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2471 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2472 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2473
402b123d 2474** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2475 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2476 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2477
e29f0771
AD
2478 %type <foo> bar
2479 %%
2480 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2481
2482 This is fixed.
a861a339 2483
402b123d 2484** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2485\f
402b123d 2486* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2487
402b123d 2488** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2489 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2490 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2491 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2492
2493 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2494 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2495 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2496 kludge will be disabled.
2497
2498 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2499 extended.
76551463 2500\f
402b123d 2501* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2502
402b123d 2503** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2504 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2505 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2506
e4ab1254 2507** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2508 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2509 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2510 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2511 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2512 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2513
402b123d 2514** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2515 many portability hassles.
2516
402b123d 2517** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2518
402b123d 2519** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2520\f
402b123d 2521* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2522
402b123d 2523** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2524 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2525 under some conditions.
2526
402b123d 2527** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2528 As is done with $n.
2529\f
402b123d 2530* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2531
402b123d 2532** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2533
402b123d 2534** Portability fixes
76551463 2535
402b123d 2536** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2537\f
402b123d 2538* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2539
402b123d 2540** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2541
402b123d 2542** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2543 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2544 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2545 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2546 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2547
402b123d 2548** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2549 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2550 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2551
2552 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2553 problems as on AIX.
2554
402b123d 2555** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2556
402b123d 2557** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2558 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2559
402b123d 2560** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2561 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2562 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2563 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2564
402b123d 2565** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2566 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2567 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2568
402b123d 2569** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2570 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2571
402b123d 2572** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2573 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2574
402b123d 2575** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2576 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2577
402b123d 2578** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2579 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2580 any warning.
2581
402b123d 2582** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2583
402b123d 2584** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2585
402b123d 2586** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2587
402b123d 2588** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2589 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2590 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2591 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2592
402b123d 2593** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2594 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2595 previous allocations were not freed.
2596
402b123d 2597** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2598 Some newlines were missing.
2599 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2600
402b123d 2601** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2602 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2603
402b123d 2604** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2605 Was not used.
2606 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2607
402b123d 2608** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2609
402b123d 2610** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2611
402b123d 2612** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2613
402b123d 2614** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2615 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2616
402b123d 2617** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2618
402b123d 2619** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2620 New.
2621
402b123d 2622** --output
e4ab1254 2623 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2624\f
402b123d 2625* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2626
e4ab1254
AD
2627** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2628 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2629 argument.
2630
e4ab1254 2631** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2632 experiment.
2633
402b123d 2634** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2635\f
402b123d 2636* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2637
402b123d 2638** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2639 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2640 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2641 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2642
e4ab1254 2643** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2644
402b123d 2645** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2646
402b123d 2647** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2648
402b123d 2649** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2650
402b123d 2651** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2652
402b123d 2653** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2654
e4ab1254 2655** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2656
e4ab1254 2657** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2658
e4ab1254 2659** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2660
402b123d 2661** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2662 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2663
402b123d 2664** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2665 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2666 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2667
402b123d 2668** @$
f987e9d2 2669 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2670\f
402b123d 2671* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2672
402b123d 2673** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2674
402b123d 2675** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2676
402b123d 2677** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2678
402b123d 2679** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2680\f
402b123d 2681* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2682
402b123d 2683** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2684 some systems has been fixed.
2685\f
402b123d 2686* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2687
7e508a2b 2688** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2689
402b123d 2690** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2691
402b123d 2692** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2693
402b123d 2694** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2695
402b123d 2696** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2697
402b123d 2698** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2699
402b123d 2700** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2701 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2702\f
402b123d 2703* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2704
402b123d 2705** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2706the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2707
402b123d 2708** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2709example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2710of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2711
402b123d 2712** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2713and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2714table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2715purposes.
2716
402b123d 2717** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2718directives in the parser file.
2719
402b123d 2720** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2721Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2722
402b123d 2723** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2724the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2725The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2726a switch statement body.
2727\f
402b123d 2728* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2729
4d019228
DM
2730The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2731passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2732actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2733by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2734
6780ca7a 2735Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2736\f
402b123d 2737* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2738
2739--help option added.
6780ca7a 2740\f
402b123d 2741* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2742
2743Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2744
76551463
AD
2745-----
2746
3209eb1c 2747Copyright (C) 1995-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2748
74553c98 2749This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2750
f16b0819 2751This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2752it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2753the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2754(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2755
f16b0819 2756This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2757but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2758MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2759GNU General Public License for more details.
2760
2761You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2762along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2763
2764 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2765 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2766 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2767 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2768 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2769 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2770 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2771 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2772 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2773 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2774 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2775 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2776 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2777 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2778 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2779 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2780 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2781 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1282c124
AD
2782 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2783 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2784 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2785 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2786 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2787 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
7e508a2b
AD
2788
2789Local Variables:
2790mode: outline
e4ab1254 2791fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2792End: