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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
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3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
8458a411 5** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 6
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7 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
8 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
9 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
10
8458a411 11** Backward incompatible changes
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12
13*** Obsolete features
14
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15 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
16
17 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
18 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
19
20 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
21 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 22
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23 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
24 in the release 2.5).
25
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26*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
27
28 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
29 Bison extensions.
30
31 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
32 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
33 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
34
35 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
36 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
37 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
38 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
39 warnings for Bison extensions.
40
41 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
42 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
43 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
44 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
45
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46** Bug fixes
47
c21e515e 48*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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49
50 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
51 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
52 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
53 preprocessor expansion:
54
55 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
56
6c7022f7 57 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
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58 identifiers for user-provided variables.
59
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60*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
61
62 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
63 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
64
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65*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
66
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67** Diagnostics reported by Bison
68
69 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
70 Santet.
73370a9d 71
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72*** Carets
73
74 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
75 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
76 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
77
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78 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
79 the caret information only. For instance on:
80
81 %%
82 exp: 'a' | 'a';
83
84 Bison 2.7 reports:
85
86 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
87 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
88
89 Now bison reports:
90
91 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
92 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
93 exp: 'a' | 'a';
94 ^^^
95
96 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
97
98 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
99 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
100
1048a1c9 101*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 102
1048a1c9 103 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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104 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
105 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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106
107 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 108 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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109 errors (and only those):
110
111 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
112
113 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
114 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
115
116 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
117
118 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
119
120 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
121 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
122
123 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
124 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
125 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 126
46bdb8ec 127*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 128
46bdb8ec 129 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 130
46bdb8ec 131 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 132
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133 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
134 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 135 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 136
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137 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
138 with failure):
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139
140 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 141 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 142
46bdb8ec 143 it now reports:
1048a1c9 144
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145 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
146
147*** Deprecated constructs
148
149 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
150 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
151 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
152
73370a9d 153*** Useless semantic types
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154
155 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
156 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
157 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
158 types that trigger the warning:
159
160 %token <type1> term
161 %type <type2> nterm
162 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
163 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
164 %%
165 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
166
167 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
168 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
169
31557b9e 170*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 171
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172 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
173 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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174
175 %printer {} symbol1
176 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 177 %type <type> symbol3
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178 %%
179 exp: "a";
180
73370a9d 181*** Useless destructors or printers
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182
183 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
184 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
185 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
186 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
187
188 %token <type1> token1
189 <type2> token2
190 <type3> token3
191 <type4> token4
192 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
193 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
194
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195*** Conflicts
196
197 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
198 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
199
200 %glr-parser
201 %%
202 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
203
204 compare the previous version of bison:
205
206 $ bison foo.y
207 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
208 $ bison -Werror foo.y
209 bison: warnings being treated as errors
210 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
211
212 with the new behavior:
213
214 $ bison foo.y
215 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
216 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
217 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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218 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
219 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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220
221 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
222
223 %expect 0
224 %glr-parser
225 %%
226 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
227
228 Former behavior:
229
230 $ bison bar.y
231 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
232 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
233 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
234
235 New one:
236
237 $ bison bar.y
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238 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
239 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 240
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241** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
242
243 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
244 with '-Wyacc'.
245
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246** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
247
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248 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
249 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
250 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 251
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252 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
253 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
254 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
255 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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256
257 one may now declare
258
e436fa67 259 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 260
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261** Types of values for %define variables
262
263 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
264 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
265 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
266 foo {bar}'.
267
268 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
269
270 %define lr.type lalr
271
272 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
273
274 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
275
276 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
277
2a6b66c5 278** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 279
2a6b66c5 280 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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281 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
282 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
283
e436fa67 284 %token FILE for ERROR
630a0218 285 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
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286 %%
287 start: FILE for ERROR;
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288
289 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
290 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
291 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
292 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
293
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294** Variable api.value.type
295
296 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
297 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
298 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
299
300 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
301
302 %union
303 {
304 int ival;
305 char *sval;
306 }
307 %token <ival> INT "integer"
308 %token <sval> STRING "string"
309 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
310 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
311
312 /* In yylex(). */
313 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
314 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
315
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316 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
317
318 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
435575cb 319 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
1fa19a76 320 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
6574576c 321
435575cb 322 %define api.value.type union
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323 %token <int> INT "integer"
324 %token <char *> STRING "string"
325 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
326 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
327
328 /* In yylex(). */
329 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
330 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
331
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332 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
333 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
6574576c 334
435575cb 335 %define api.value.type variant
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336 %token <int> INT "integer"
337 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
338
630a0218 339 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
435575cb 340 used to be used.
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341
342 %code requires
343 {
344 struct my_value
345 {
346 enum
347 {
348 is_int, is_string
349 } kind;
350 union
351 {
352 int ival;
353 char *sval;
354 } u;
355 };
356 }
435575cb 357 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
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358 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
359 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
360 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
361 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
362
363 /* In yylex(). */
364 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
365 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
366
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367** Variable parse.error
368
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369 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
370 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
371 verbose".
31b850d2 372
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373** Renamed %define variables
374
375 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
376 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
377
378 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
379 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
380 namespace -> api.namespace
381 stype -> api.value.type
382
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383** Semantic predicates
384
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385 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
386
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387 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
388 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 389 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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390 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
391 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
392 expressions.
ca2a6d15 393
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394** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
395
396 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
397 reduce/reduce conflicts.
398
5202b6ac 399** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
93561c21 400
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401 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
402
403 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
404 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
405 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
406 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
407
408 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
409 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
410 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
411
412 %right A B 'c' 'd'
413
414 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
415 input order is now preserved.
416
417 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
418 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
419 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
93561c21 420
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421** Useless precedence and associativity
422
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423 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
424
1282c124 425 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
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426 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
427 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
428 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
429 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
430 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
431 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
432
433*** Precedence warning category
434
435 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
436 useless precedence and associativity directives.
437
438*** Useless associativity
439
440 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
441 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
442 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
443 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
444 For example:
445
446 %left '+'
447 %left '*'
448 %%
449 exp:
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450 "number"
451 | exp '+' "number"
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452 | exp '*' exp
453 ;
454
455 will produce a
456
457 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
458 %left '+'
459 ^^^
460
461*** Useless precedence
462
463 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
464 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
465 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
466 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
467
468 %precedence '='
469 %%
1282c124 470 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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471
472 will produce a
473
474 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
475 %precedence '='
476 ^^^
477
478*** Useless precedence and associativity
479
480 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
481 as follows:
482
483 %nonassoc '='
484 %%
1282c124 485 exp: "var" '=' "number";
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486
487 The warning is:
488
489 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
490 %nonassoc '='
491 ^^^
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492
493** Empty rules
494
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495 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
496
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497 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
498 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
499 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
500 %empty. On the following grammar:
501
502 %%
503 s: a b c;
504 a: ;
505 b: %empty;
506 c: 'a' %empty;
507
508 bison reports:
509
510 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
511 a: {}
512 ^^
513 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
514 c: 'a' %empty {};
515 ^^^^^^
cc2235ac 516
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517** Java skeleton improvements
518
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519 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
520 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
521 and "%define init_throws".
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522 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
523
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524 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
525 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
526
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527** C++ skeletons improvements
528
529*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
530
531 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
532 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
533 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
534
535*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
536
537 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
538
539*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
540
541 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
542 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
543 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
544 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
545 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
546 factory invoked by the user actions).
547
548*** %define api.value.type variant
549
550 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
551 from Théophile Ranquet.
552
553 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
554 instance:
555
556 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
557 %token <int> NUMBER;
558 %token SEMICOLON ";"
559 %type <::std::string> item;
560 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
561 %%
562 result:
563 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
564 ;
565
566 list:
6240346a 567 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
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568 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
569 ;
570
571 item:
572 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
573 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
574 ;
575
576*** %define api.token.constructor
577
578 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
579 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
580 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
581
582 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
583 {
584 parser::location_type loc = ...;
585 ...
586 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
587 ...
588 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
589 ...
590 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
591 ...
592 }
593
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594*** C++ locations
595
596 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
597 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
598
1f5542fe 599* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
cc8962bd 600
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601** Bug fixes
602
603*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
604
605 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
0a7b8559 606
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607*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
608
c13bb348 609* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 610
edf9a06f 611** Bug fixes
7bada535 612
edf9a06f 613 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 614
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615 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
616
d4fe9e88 617** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 618
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619 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
620
d4fe9e88 621*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 622
d4fe9e88 623 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 624
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625 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
626 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 627
d4fe9e88 628 It is now:
1f1bd572 629
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630 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
631 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 632
d4fe9e88 633*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 634
d4fe9e88 635 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 636
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637 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
638 %type <sval> exp
639 ^^^^^^
640 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
641 %type <ival> exp
642 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 643
d4fe9e88 644 or
cbaea010 645
7bada535 646 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 647 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 648 ^^^^
fb6040f0
TR
649 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
650 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
651 ^^^
652 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
653 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
654 ^^^
655 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
656 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
657 ^^^
7bada535 658
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659 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
660 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
d4fe9e88
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661 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
662 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 663
1f1bd572 664** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 665
1f1bd572 666 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
d4fe9e88
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667 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
668 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
669 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
670 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
671 parsers).
1f1bd572
TR
672
673 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
674 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 675
7287be84 676** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
db8ab2be
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677
678 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
679 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
680 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
681 then responsible to define her type.
682
683 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
7287be84
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684 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
685 them.
db8ab2be
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686
687 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
688 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
689 compatibility).
690
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691 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
692 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
693 api.position.type.
694
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695** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
696
697 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
698 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
699 before re-throwing the exception.
700
701 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
702 appreciated.
703
9c16d399 704** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 705
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706 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
707
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708 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
709 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
710 numbered and left-justified.
711
712 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
713 diamond shaped nodes.
714
9c16d399
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715 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
716 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
717
d4fe9e88 718** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 719
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720 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
721 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 722
53e2cd1e
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723** Documentation
724
725 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
726 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 727
d4fe9e88
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728 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
729 were not properly documented.
730
be22823e
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731 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
732
9d3f7eaf 733* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 734
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735 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
736 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
737 reporting them to us.
738
739** Bug fixes
740
741 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
742 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
743 3.2.
744
745 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 746
1282c124 747 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
95066e92 748
a1d1ab50
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749 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
750 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
751
0ac15849 752* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 753
468455e1 754 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 755
6eb8f74f 756* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 757
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758** Bug fixes
759
a1a77e1f 760 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
6b4cb804
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761
762 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
763 users to the appropriate place to report them.
764
765 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
766
767 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
768 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 769
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770 All the generated headers are self-contained.
771
c9d5bcc9
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772** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
773
774 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
775 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
776 For instance the header generated from
777
778 %define api.prefix "calc"
779 %defines "lib/parse.h"
780
781 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
782
c12c4c50 783** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
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784
785 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
786 warnings such as:
787
788 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
789 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
790 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
791 *++yyvsp = yylval;
792 ^
793
794 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
795
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796 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
797 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
798 addressed.
799
e1eeecd3 800* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 801
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802** Bug fixes
803
804 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
805 suite have been fixed.
806
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807** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
808
809 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
810 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 811
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812** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
813
814 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
815
77b214ef 816* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 817
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818 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
819
e20e6a50
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820** Future Changes
821
822 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
823 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
824 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
825
826 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
827
828 write:
829
830 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
831
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832** Bug fixes
833
0e164d43
AD
834*** Type names are now properly escaped.
835
836*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 837
26313726
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838*** Stray @ or $ in actions
839
840 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
841 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
842 now does.
843
cd735a8c 844** Type names in actions
4982f078
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845
846 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 847 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
4982f078
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848
849 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
850
851 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 852 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 853
1505e8bb 854* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 855
d0a30438 856** Future changes
9553083c 857
55d1006f
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858 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
859 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 860
aaf61036 861*** K&R C parsers
55d1006f
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862
863 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 864 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
55d1006f
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865 compilers.
866
258cddbc 867*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 868
258cddbc
AD
869 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
870 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 871
258cddbc
AD
872 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
873 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
874
875 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
876 %error-verbose.
55d1006f
AD
877
878*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
AD
879
880 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
55d1006f
AD
881 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
882 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
883 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
884 it.
0f11eec2 885
c2425191 886** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 887
258cddbc 888*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
c3e9f08f
AD
889
890 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 891 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 892
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AD
893 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
894 # define YY_FOO_H
895 ...
896 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 897
258cddbc 898*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
AD
899
900 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
901 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
902
e29f0771 903 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
904
905 rather than
906
e29f0771
AD
907 #define yyparse bar_parse
908 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
AD
909
910 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
911 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 912
258cddbc
AD
913*** Exported symbols in C++
914
915 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
916 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
917 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
918
694af10c
AD
919*** YYLSP_NEEDED
920
921 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
922 longer defined.
923
4b3847c3
AD
924** New %define variable: api.prefix
925
926 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
927 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
928 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
929 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
930 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
931 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
932 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
933
934 The following examples compares both:
935
936 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
937 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
938 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
939 %% %%
940 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
941
942 bison generates:
943
944 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
945 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
946
947 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
5f108727
AD
948 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
949 > # if defined YYDEBUG
950 > # if YYDEBUG
951 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
952 > # else
953 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
954 > # endif
955 > # else
956 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
957 > # endif
958 # endif | # endif
959
960 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
4b3847c3
AD
961 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
962 # endif # endif
963
964 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
965 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
966 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
967 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
968 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
969 }; };
970 # endif # endif
971
972 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
973 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
974 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
975 { {
976 int ival; int ival;
977 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
978 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
979 #endif #endif
980
981 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
982
983 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
984
985 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
986
dfaac272 987* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 988
debe2c03 989** Future changes:
765e1bd4 990
e4ab1254 991 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 992
466b4cf2 993** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 994
d834eca0 995** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 996
d834eca0 997*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 998
e4ab1254
AD
999 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1000 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 1001
d834eca0 1002*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 1003
e4ab1254
AD
1004 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1005 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 1006
466b4cf2 1007** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 1008
e4ab1254
AD
1009 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1010 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 1011
22172d47 1012** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 1013
22172d47 1014*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 1015
e4ab1254
AD
1016 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1017 or higher.
936c88d1 1018
22172d47
AD
1019*** Header guards
1020
1021 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1022 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1023
e29f0771
AD
1024 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1025 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1026 ...
1027 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1028
1029 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1030 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1031 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1032
1033 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1034
e29f0771
AD
1035 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1036 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1037 ...
1038 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
AD
1039
1040*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 1041
e4ab1254
AD
1042 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1043 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1044 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 1045
466b4cf2
AD
1046** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1047
7e508a2b
AD
1048** Changes in the manual:
1049
1050*** %printer is documented
1051
e4ab1254
AD
1052 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1053 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 1054
e4ab1254
AD
1055 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1056 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
AD
1057
1058*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 1059
e4ab1254
AD
1060 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1061 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1062 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1063 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 1064
86b08b49
AD
1065** Building bison:
1066
1067*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 1068
e4ab1254
AD
1069 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1070 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 1071
8ef26c2a
AD
1072*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1073
1074*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 1075
e4ab1254
AD
1076 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1077 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 1078
91aadcc7 1079*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 1080
e4ab1254
AD
1081 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1082 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 1083
28801043 1084* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 1085
82f3355e
JD
1086** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1087
1088 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1089 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1090 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1091 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1092 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1093
f1b238df 1094** Named references:
66381412
AR
1095
1096 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1097 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1098 actions code.
1099
1100 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1101 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1102 as named references:
1103
4b568fc0 1104 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
1105 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1106
1107 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1108
4b568fc0 1109 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
1110 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1111
5b1ff423 1112 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
1113 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1114 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1115
5b1ff423 1116 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 1117 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 1118 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 1119
f1b238df 1120** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
1121
1122 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1123 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 1124 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
1125 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1126 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
1127 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1128 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1129 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1130 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1131
1132 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1133 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1134 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1135 file with these directives:
1136
cf499cff
JD
1137 %define lr.type lalr
1138 %define lr.type ielr
1139 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 1140
7fceb615 1141 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
e4ab1254
AD
1142 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1143 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 1144 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
1145
1146 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1147 stabilize them.
1148
8458a411
AD
1149** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1150
1151 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
1152
1153 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1154 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1155 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 1156 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
1157 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1158 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1159 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 1160 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 1161 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
1162 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1163 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
1164
1165 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1166 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1167 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1168 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1169 inconsistent states.
1170
7fceb615
JD
1171 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1172 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1173 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1174 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1175 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1176 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1177 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1178 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1179 power.
1180
1181 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1182 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1183
1184 %define parse.lac full
1185
e4ab1254 1186 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1187 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1188
1189 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1190 stabilize it.
1191
d397d9f0 1192** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1193
f1b238df 1194*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1195
de5ab940 1196 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1197
de5ab940
JD
1198 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1199 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1200
1201 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1202 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1203
1204 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1205
de5ab940 1206 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1207
de5ab940
JD
1208 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1209 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1210 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1211 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1212
f1b238df 1213*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1214
1215 The following %define variables
1216
1217 api.push_pull
1218 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1219
1220 have been renamed to
1221
1222 api.push-pull
1223 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1224
1225 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1226 for backward compatibility.
1227
7262f54f 1228*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1229
1230 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1231 within quotations marks. For example,
1232
1233 %define api.push-pull "push"
1234
1235 can be rewritten as
1236
1237 %define api.push-pull push
1238
d397d9f0 1239*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1240
d397d9f0
JD
1241*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1242
1243** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1244
1245** Character literals not of length one:
1246
1247 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1248 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1249 the following grammar to be the same token:
1250
1251 exp: exp '++'
1252 | exp '+' exp
1253 ;
1254
1255 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1256 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1257
1258** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1259
1260 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1261 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1262 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1263 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1264
1265** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1266
1267 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1268 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
e4ab1254
AD
1269 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1270 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1271
e29f0771
AD
1272 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1273 do \
1274 if (N) \
1275 { \
1276 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1277 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1278 } \
1279 else \
1280 { \
1281 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1282 } \
1283 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1284
1285 use:
1286
e29f0771
AD
1287 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1288 do \
1289 if (N) \
1290 { \
1291 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1292 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1293 } \
1294 else \
1295 { \
1296 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1297 } \
1298 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1299
1300** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1301
1302 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1303 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1304 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1305 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1306
f1b238df 1307** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1308
1309 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1310 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1311 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1312 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1313 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1314 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1315 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1316 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1317
f1b238df 1318** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1319
1320 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1321 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1322 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1323 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1324
1325 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1326
1327 instead of
1328
1329 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1330
1331 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1332 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1333 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1334 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1335 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1336 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1337 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1338
d2060f06
JD
1339** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1340
e4ab1254 1341 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1342 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1343 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1344 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1345 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1346
1347*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1348 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1349 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1350 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1351 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1352 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1353 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1354 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1355 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1356 shifted or discarded.
1357
1358*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1359 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1360 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1361 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1362
1363*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1364 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1365 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1366 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1367 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1368 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1369 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1370 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1371 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1372 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1373 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1374 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1375 by default.
53f036ce 1376
1a33f4f6
JD
1377** Java skeleton fixes:
1378
1379*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1380
1381*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1382 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1383
02803d55
JD
1384*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1385
86408959
JD
1386** -W/--warnings fixes:
1387
e4ab1254 1388*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
JD
1389
1390 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1391 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1392
1393 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1394
786743d5
JD
1395*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1396
1397 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1398 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1399 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
JD
1400 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1401 example:
1402
1403 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1404 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1405 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1406 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1407
1408 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1409 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1410 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1411 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1412
e4ab1254 1413*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1414
1415 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1416 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1417
1418 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1419
e4ab1254 1420*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1421
e4ab1254 1422 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1423 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1424 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1425 suppress all warnings:
1426
1427 bison -Wnone gram.y
1428
1f36f544
JD
1429** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1430
1431 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1432 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1433 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1434
1435 %left END 0
1436
1437 This bug has been fixed.
1438
64877e5e 1439* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1440
2bfcac9a
JD
1441** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1442 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1443
8b9e021f
JD
1444** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1445 been fixed.
1446
4ad3921d
JD
1447** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1448
06cb07d5
JD
1449** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1450 been fixed.
1451
9b5049bd
JD
1452** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1453 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1454 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1455 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1456
93d7dde9
JD
1457** Minor documentation fixes.
1458
e19a049c 1459* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1460
f39ab286
JD
1461** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1462 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1463 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1464 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
JD
1465 affected platforms.
1466
e4ab1254 1467** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
JD
1468
1469 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1470 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1471 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1472 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1473 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1474 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1475 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1476 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1477 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1478
d8911864
EB
1479** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1480
a603c6e0
JD
1481** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1482 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1483 avoided.
c938d650 1484
98a345a2
JD
1485** %code is now a permanent feature.
1486
1487 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1488
1489 %{CODE%}
1490
1491 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1492 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1493
1494 %code {CODE}
1495 %code requires {CODE}
1496 %code provides {CODE}
1497 %code top {CODE}
1498
1499 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1500 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1501 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1502 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1503 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1504
1505 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1506 is still considered experimental.
1507
1625df5b
JD
1508** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1509
1510 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1511 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1512 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1513 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1514 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1515 specified by POSIX.
1516
1517 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1518 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1519 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1520 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1521 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1522 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1523 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1524
1525 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1526
1527 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1528 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1529 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1530 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1531 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1532 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1533 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1534 be removed altogether.
1535
1536 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1537 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1538 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1539 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1540 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1541 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1542 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1543 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1544 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1545 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1546
2755de8f
AD
1547** Internationalization.
1548
1549 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1550 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1551 host system.
1552
74553c98 1553* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1554
0ea583d2
AD
1555** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1556 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1557
0ea583d2
AD
1558** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1559
1560 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1561 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1562
1563 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1564
1565 instead of
1566
1567 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1568
e4ab1254 1569 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
AD
1570 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1571 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1572 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1573 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1574 feature.
1575
1576** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1577
402b123d 1578* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1579
402b123d 1580** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1581
1582 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1583 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1584 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1585 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1586 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1587
402b123d 1588** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1589
402b123d 1590** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1591 fixed.
1592
402b123d 1593* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1594
402b123d 1595** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1596 are now deprecated:
1597
1598 %define NAME "VALUE"
1599
e4ab1254 1600** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1601
1602 %define api.pure
1603
1604 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1605 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1606
402b123d 1607** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1608
1609 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1610 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1611 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1612 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1613 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1614
1615 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1616 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1617
e4ab1254 1618 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1619
59da312b
JD
1620 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1621 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1622
402b123d 1623** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1624 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1625 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1626
402b123d 1627** Java
59da312b
JD
1628
1629 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1630 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1631 %skeleton to select it.
1632
e4ab1254 1633 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1634
1635 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1636 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1637 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1638
402b123d 1639** %language
59da312b
JD
1640
1641 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1642 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1643 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1644 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1645
402b123d 1646** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1647
1648 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1649 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1650 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1651 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1652
402b123d 1653** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1654 %defines. For example:
1655
1656 %defines "parser.h"
1657
402b123d 1658** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1659 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1660 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1661 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1662
402b123d 1663** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1664
1665 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1666 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1667 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1668
1669 1. Removes unreachable states.
1670
1671 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1672 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1673 directives in existing grammar files.
1674
1675 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1676 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1677
31984206
JD
1678 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1679
1680 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1681
e4ab1254 1682 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1683 for further discussion.
1684
e4ab1254 1685** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1686
e4ab1254
AD
1687 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1688 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1689 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1690 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1691 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1692 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1693 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1694 code.
1695
e4ab1254 1696** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1697 name.
1bb2bd75 1698
e4ab1254 1699** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1700 deprecated:
1701
1702 %file-prefix "parser"
1703 %name-prefix "c_"
1704 %output "parser.c"
1705
e4ab1254 1706** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1707
1708 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1709 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1710 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1711 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1712 it:
1713
e4ab1254
AD
1714 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1715 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1716 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1717 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1718
e4ab1254
AD
1719 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1720 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1721 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1722 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1723
1724 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1725 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1726
402b123d 1727** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1728
1729 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1730 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1731 about unused $2 in:
1732
1733 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1734
1735 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1736 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1737
1738 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1739
1740 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1741 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1742 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1743
e4ab1254
AD
1744 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1745 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1746
e4ab1254 1747** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1748
1749 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1750 %printer's:
1751
e4ab1254 1752 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1753 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1754 declared semantic type tags.
1755
e4ab1254 1756 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1757 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1758 type tags.
1759
e4ab1254
AD
1760 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1761 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1762 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1763 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1764
85894313
JD
1765 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1766 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1767 features.
1768
e4ab1254 1769 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1770 details.
1771
402b123d 1772** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1773 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1774 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1775
402b123d 1776** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1777 completely removed from Bison.
1778
402b123d 1779* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1780
402b123d 1781** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1782 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1783 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1784 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1785 and is required by POSIX.
1786
402b123d 1787** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1788 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1789
402b123d 1790** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1791
1792 For example:
1793
b2a0b7ca
JD
1794 %union { char *string; }
1795 %token <string> STRING1
1796 %token <string> STRING2
1797 %type <string> string1
1798 %type <string> string2
1799 %union { char character; }
1800 %token <character> CHR
1801 %type <character> chr
1802 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1803 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1804 %destructor { } <character>
1805
1806 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1807 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1808 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1809 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1810 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1811
85894313
JD
1812 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1813 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1814 future versions.]
1815
e4ab1254
AD
1816** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1817 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1818 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1819 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1820 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1821
402b123d 1822** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1823 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1824
1825 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1826 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1827 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1828 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1829 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1830
34f98f46 1831 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1832 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1833 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1834 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1835 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1836 after the token definitions.
1837
1838 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1839 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1840
402b123d 1841** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1842 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1843 %after-header.
1844
1845 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1846 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1847 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1848 convenient for you:
1849
1850 %before-header {
1851 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1852 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1853 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1854 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1855 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1856 }
1857 %start-header {
1858 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1859 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1860 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1861 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1862 }
1863 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1864 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1865 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1866 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1867 }
34f98f46
JD
1868 %end-header {
1869 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1870 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1871 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1872 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1873 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1874 }
34f98f46
JD
1875 %after-header {
1876 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1877 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1878 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1879 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1880 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1881 }
1882
1883 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1884 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1885
85894313
JD
1886 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1887 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1888
e4ab1254 1889** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1890 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1891 in a future release.
742e4900 1892
402b123d 1893* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1894
e4ab1254 1895** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1896 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1897
402b123d 1898** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1899 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1900
402b123d 1901* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1902
402b123d 1903** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1904 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1905 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1906
402b123d 1907** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1908
402b123d 1909** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1910
402b123d 1911** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1912 their contents together.
1913
402b123d 1914** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1915 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1916 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1917
8f3596a6 1918 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1919 | exp "+" exp
1920 ;
affac613 1921
8f3596a6
AD
1922 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1923 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1924 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1925
4e26c69e 1926 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1927 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1928 | exp "+" exp
1929 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1930 ;
affac613 1931
4e26c69e
PE
1932 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1933 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1934 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1935
8f3596a6 1936 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1937 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1938 ;
721be13c 1939
84866159
AD
1940 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1941 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1942
1943 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1944
721be13c
PE
1945 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1946 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1947
402b123d 1948** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1949 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1950 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1951 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1952
402b123d 1953** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1954 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1955 instead of warnings.
1956
402b123d 1957** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1958 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1959 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1960
e4ab1254 1961** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1962
402b123d 1963** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1964 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1965 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1966
402b123d 1967** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1968 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1969 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1970 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1971 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1972
1973 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1974 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1975 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1976 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1977
b50d2359 1978 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1979 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1980
402b123d 1981** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1982\f
402b123d 1983* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1984
402b123d 1985** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1986
402b123d 1987** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1988 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1989 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1990 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1991 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1992 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1993
402b123d 1994** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1995 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1996 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1997 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1998
402b123d 1999** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
2000 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2001 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2002
402b123d 2003** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
2004 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2005 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2006 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2007 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 2008\f
402b123d 2009* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 2010
402b123d 2011** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 2012
82de6b0d
PE
2013 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2014 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2015 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2016 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2017 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 2018
82de6b0d
PE
2019 - Error token location.
2020 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2021 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2022 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2023 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 2024
82de6b0d
PE
2025 - Semicolon changes:
2026 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2027 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 2028
82de6b0d
PE
2029 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2030 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2031 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2032 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 2033
82de6b0d 2034 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 2035
402b123d 2036** New features
1452af69 2037
82de6b0d 2038 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 2039
82de6b0d
PE
2040 - New directive: %initial-action.
2041 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2042 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 2043
82de6b0d
PE
2044 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2045 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 2046
e4ab1254 2047 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 2048 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 2049
e4ab1254 2050 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 2051 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 2052
82de6b0d 2053 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 2054
82de6b0d
PE
2055 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2056 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 2057
402b123d 2058** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 2059
82de6b0d
PE
2060 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2061 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2062 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2063 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2064 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2065 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 2066
82de6b0d
PE
2067 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2068 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 2069
82de6b0d 2070 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 2071\f
402b123d 2072* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 2073
402b123d 2074** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 2075 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 2076
402b123d 2077** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 2078
dc546b0f
PE
2079 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2080 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 2081
dc546b0f
PE
2082 - %destructor
2083 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2084 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 2085
dc546b0f
PE
2086 - %error-verbose
2087 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 2088
dc546b0f
PE
2089 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2090 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 2091
402b123d 2092** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 2093
dc546b0f
PE
2094 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2095 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2096 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 2097
e4ab1254
AD
2098 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2099 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2100 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2101 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 2102 be consistent.
74724a70 2103
dc546b0f
PE
2104 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2105 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 2106
dc546b0f
PE
2107 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2108 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 2109
dc546b0f
PE
2110 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2111 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 2112
dc546b0f 2113 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 2114 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
2115 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2116 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2117 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 2118
dc546b0f 2119 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 2120
dc546b0f
PE
2121 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2122 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2123 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 2124
402b123d 2125** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 2126
e4ab1254
AD
2127 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2128 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2129 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2130 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2131 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 2132 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 2133
e4ab1254 2134 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 2135 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 2136
dc546b0f 2137 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 2138 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 2139
e4ab1254 2140 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
2141 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2142 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 2143
402b123d 2144** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 2145
dc546b0f
PE
2146 - GLR and inline
2147 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 2148 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 2149
e4ab1254
AD
2150 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2151 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 2152
18ad57b3
AD
2153** %parse-param and %lex-param
2154 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2155 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2156 shortcomings:
2157
2158 - a single argument only can be added,
2159 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 2160 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
2161 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2162
2163 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2164 For instance:
2165
2166 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2167 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2168 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2169
2170 results in the following signatures:
2171
2172 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2173 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2174
2175 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2176
2177 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2178 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2179
402b123d 2180** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2181 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2182 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2183
402b123d 2184** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2185 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2186
402b123d 2187** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2188 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2189 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2190 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2191\f
402b123d 2192* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2193
402b123d 2194** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2195
402b123d 2196** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2197
402b123d 2198** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2199 Fix spurious parse errors.
2200
402b123d 2201** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2202 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2203 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2204
402b123d 2205** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2206 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2207 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2208
e9690142 2209 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2210
2211 but the converse remains an error:
2212
e9690142 2213 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2214
402b123d 2215** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2216 The following code:
2217
e9690142 2218 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2219
2220 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2221 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2222\f
402b123d 2223* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2224
402b123d 2225** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2226 The declaration
2227 %glr-parser
2228 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2229 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2230 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2231 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2232
7933f2b5 2233 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2234 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2235
402b123d 2236** Output Directory
8c165d89 2237 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2238 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2239 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2240
402b123d 2241** Undefined token
007a50a4 2242 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2243 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2244
402b123d 2245** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2246 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2247 no longer the case.
2248
402b123d 2249** Error token
e88dbdbf 2250 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2251 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2252 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2253 will be mapped onto another number.
2254
402b123d 2255** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2256 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2257 error recovery is possible.
2258
402b123d 2259** End token
e4ab1254 2260 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2261
402b123d 2262** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2263 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2264 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2265 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2266 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2267 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2268 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2269 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2270 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2271
402b123d 2272** Traces
5504898e
AD
2273 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2274
402b123d 2275** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2276 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2277 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2278 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2279 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2280
402b123d 2281** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2282 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2283 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2284 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2285
402b123d 2286** Useless rules
643a5994 2287 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2288 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2289
402b123d 2290** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2291 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2292
402b123d 2293** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2294 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2295 reported.
2296
e4ab1254 2297** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2298 On a grammar such as
2299
e29f0771
AD
2300 %token useless useful
2301 %%
2302 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2303
2304 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2305 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2306
402b123d 2307** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2308 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2309
402b123d 2310** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2311 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2312 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2313 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2314 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2315
402b123d 2316** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2317 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2318 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2319 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2320 For instance
e29f0771 2321 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2322 or
e29f0771 2323 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2324
402b123d 2325** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2326 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2327
402b123d 2328** New translations
a861a339 2329 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2330 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2331
402b123d 2332** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2333 When given
2334 %token 'a' "A"
2335 bison used to output
2336 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2337
402b123d 2338** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2339 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2340 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2341 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2342
402b123d 2343** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2344 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2345 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2346 - itemset
2347 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2348 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2349 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2350 - solved
2351 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2352 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2353 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2354
402b123d 2355** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2356 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2357 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2358
e29f0771
AD
2359 %type <foo> bar
2360 %%
2361 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2362
2363 This is fixed.
a861a339 2364
402b123d 2365** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2366\f
402b123d 2367* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2368
402b123d 2369** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2370 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2371 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2372 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2373
2374 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2375 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2376 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2377 kludge will be disabled.
2378
2379 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2380 extended.
76551463 2381\f
402b123d 2382* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2383
402b123d 2384** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2385 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2386 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2387
e4ab1254 2388** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2389 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2390 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2391 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2392 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2393 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2394
402b123d 2395** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2396 many portability hassles.
2397
402b123d 2398** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2399
402b123d 2400** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2401\f
402b123d 2402* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2403
402b123d 2404** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
2405 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2406 under some conditions.
2407
402b123d 2408** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
2409 As is done with $n.
2410\f
402b123d 2411* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2412
402b123d 2413** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2414
402b123d 2415** Portability fixes
76551463 2416
402b123d 2417** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2418\f
402b123d 2419* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2420
402b123d 2421** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2422
402b123d 2423** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2424 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2425 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2426 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2427 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2428
402b123d 2429** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2430 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2431 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2432
2433 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2434 problems as on AIX.
2435
402b123d 2436** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2437
402b123d 2438** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2439 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2440
402b123d 2441** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2442 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2443 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2444 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2445
402b123d 2446** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2447 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2448 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2449
402b123d 2450** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2451 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2452
402b123d 2453** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2454 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2455
402b123d 2456** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2457 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2458
402b123d 2459** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2460 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2461 any warning.
2462
402b123d 2463** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2464
402b123d 2465** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2466
402b123d 2467** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2468
402b123d 2469** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2470 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2471 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2472 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2473
402b123d 2474** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2475 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2476 previous allocations were not freed.
2477
402b123d 2478** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2479 Some newlines were missing.
2480 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2481
402b123d 2482** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2483 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2484
402b123d 2485** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2486 Was not used.
2487 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2488
402b123d 2489** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2490
402b123d 2491** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2492
402b123d 2493** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2494
402b123d 2495** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2496 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2497
402b123d 2498** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2499
402b123d 2500** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2501 New.
2502
402b123d 2503** --output
e4ab1254 2504 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2505\f
402b123d 2506* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2507
e4ab1254
AD
2508** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2509 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2510 argument.
2511
e4ab1254 2512** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2513 experiment.
2514
402b123d 2515** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2516\f
402b123d 2517* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2518
402b123d 2519** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2520 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2521 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2522 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2523
e4ab1254 2524** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2525
402b123d 2526** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2527
402b123d 2528** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2529
402b123d 2530** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2531
402b123d 2532** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2533
402b123d 2534** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2535
e4ab1254 2536** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2537
e4ab1254 2538** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2539
e4ab1254 2540** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2541
402b123d 2542** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2543 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2544
402b123d 2545** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2546 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2547 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2548
402b123d 2549** @$
f987e9d2 2550 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2551\f
402b123d 2552* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2553
402b123d 2554** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2555
402b123d 2556** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2557
402b123d 2558** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2559
402b123d 2560** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2561\f
402b123d 2562* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2563
402b123d 2564** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2565 some systems has been fixed.
2566\f
402b123d 2567* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2568
7e508a2b 2569** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2570
402b123d 2571** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2572
402b123d 2573** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2574
402b123d 2575** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2576
402b123d 2577** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2578
402b123d 2579** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2580
402b123d 2581** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2582 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2583\f
402b123d 2584* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2585
402b123d 2586** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2587the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2588
402b123d 2589** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2590example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2591of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2592
402b123d 2593** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2594and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2595table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2596purposes.
2597
402b123d 2598** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2599directives in the parser file.
2600
402b123d 2601** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2602Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2603
402b123d 2604** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2605the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2606The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2607a switch statement body.
2608\f
402b123d 2609* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2610
4d019228
DM
2611The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2612passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2613actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2614by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2615
6780ca7a 2616Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2617\f
402b123d 2618* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2619
2620--help option added.
6780ca7a 2621\f
402b123d 2622* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2623
2624Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2625
76551463
AD
2626-----
2627
7d6bad19 2628Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2629
74553c98 2630This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2631
f16b0819 2632This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2633it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2634the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2635(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2636
f16b0819 2637This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2638but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2639MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2640GNU General Public License for more details.
2641
2642You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2643along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2644
2645 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2646 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2647 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2648 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2649 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2650 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2651 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2652 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2653 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2654 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2655 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2656 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2657 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2658 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2659 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2660 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2661 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2662 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
1282c124
AD
2663 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2664 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2665 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2666 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2667 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
6574576c 2668 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
7e508a2b
AD
2669
2670Local Variables:
2671mode: outline
e4ab1254 2672fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2673End: