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1Bison News
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3af4feb2 3
b2bc8a1b 4* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 5
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6** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
7
8 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
9 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
10 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
11 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
12 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
13
3b1977ea 14** Named references:
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15
16 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
17 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
18 actions code.
19
20 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
21 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
22 as named references:
23
ac3297d5 24 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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25 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
26
27 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
28
ac3297d5 29 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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30 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
31
f840c05a 32 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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33 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
34 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
35
f840c05a 36 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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37 will help to stabilize them.
38
3b1977ea 39** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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40
41 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
42 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 43 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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44 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
45 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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46 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
47 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
48 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
49 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
50
51 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
52 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
53 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
54 file with these directives:
55
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56 %define lr.type lalr
57 %define lr.type ielr
58 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 59
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60 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
61 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
62 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
63 manual.
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64
65 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
66 stabilize them.
67
6f04ee6c 68** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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69
70 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
71 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
72 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 73 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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74 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
75 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
76 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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77 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
78 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
79 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
80 tokens.
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81
82 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
83 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
84 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
85 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
86 inconsistent states.
87
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88 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
89 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
90 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
91 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
92 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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93 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
94 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
95 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
96 power.
97
98 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
99 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
100
101 %define parse.lac full
102
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103 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
104 details including a few caveats.
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105
106 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
107 stabilize it.
108
6ee881f6 109** %define improvements:
f37495f6 110
3b1977ea 111*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 112
34d41938 113 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 114
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115 -D NAME[=VALUE]
116 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
117
118 -F NAME[=VALUE]
119 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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120
121 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
122
34d41938 123 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 124
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125 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
126 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
127 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
ac3297d5 128 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 129
3b1977ea 130*** Variables renamed:
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131
132 The following %define variables
133
134 api.push_pull
135 lr.keep_unreachable_states
136
137 have been renamed to
138
139 api.push-pull
140 lr.keep-unreachable-states
141
142 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
143 for backward compatibility.
144
723206df 145*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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146
147 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
148 within quotations marks. For example,
149
150 %define api.push-pull "push"
151
152 can be rewritten as
153
154 %define api.push-pull push
155
6ee881f6 156*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 157
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158*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
159
160** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
161
162** Character literals not of length one:
163
164 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
165 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
166 the following grammar to be the same token:
167
168 exp: exp '++'
169 | exp '+' exp
170 ;
171
172 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
173 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
174
175** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
176
177 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
178 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
179 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
180 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
181
182** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
183
184 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
185 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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186 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
187 and `last' members, instead of
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188
189 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
190 do \
191 if (N) \
192 { \
193 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
194 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
195 } \
196 else \
197 { \
198 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
199 } \
200 while (false)
201
202 use:
203
204 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
205 do \
206 if (N) \
207 { \
208 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
209 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
210 } \
211 else \
212 { \
213 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
214 } \
215 while (false)
216
217** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
218
219 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
220 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
221 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
222 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 223
3b1977ea 224** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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225
226 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
227 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
228 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
229 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
230 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
231 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
232 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
233 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
234
3b1977ea 235** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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236
237 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
238 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
239 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
240 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
241
242 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
243
244 instead of
245
246 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
247
248 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
249 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
250 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
251 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
252 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
253 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
254 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
255
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256** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
257
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258 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
259 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
260 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
261 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
262 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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263
264*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
265 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
266 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
267 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
268 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
ac3297d5 269 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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270 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
271 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
272 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
273 shifted or discarded.
274
275*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
276 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
277 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
278 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
279
280*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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281 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
282 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
283 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
284 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
285 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
286 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
287 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
288 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
289 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
290 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
291 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
292 by default.
1fa30307 293
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294** Java skeleton fixes:
295
296*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
297
298*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
299 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 300
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301*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
302
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303** -W/--warnings fixes:
304
ac3297d5 305*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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306
307 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
308 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
309
310 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
311
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312*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
313
314 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
315 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
ac3297d5 316 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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317 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
318 example:
319
320 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
321 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
322 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
323 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
324
325 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
326 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
327 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
328 then have no effect on the conflict report.
329
ac3297d5 330*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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331
332 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
333 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
334
335 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
336
b2bc8a1b 337*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 338
ac3297d5 339 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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340 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
341 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
342 suppress all warnings:
343
344 bison -Wnone gram.y
345
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346** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
347
348 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
349 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
350 produced an assertion failure. For example:
351
352 %left END 0
353
354 This bug has been fixed.
355
7527c744 356* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 357
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358** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
359 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
360
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361** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
362 been fixed.
363
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364** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
365
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366** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
367 been fixed.
368
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369** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
370 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
371 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
372 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
373
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374** Minor documentation fixes.
375
ea66d039 376* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 377
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378** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
379 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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380 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
381 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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382 affected platforms.
383
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384** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
385
386 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
387 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
388 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
389 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
390 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
391 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
392 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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393 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
394 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 395
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396** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
397
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398** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
399 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
400 avoided.
af2ffe5c 401
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402** %code is now a permanent feature.
403
404 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
405
406 %{CODE%}
407
408 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
409 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
410
411 %code {CODE}
412 %code requires {CODE}
413 %code provides {CODE}
414 %code top {CODE}
415
416 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
417 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
418 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
419 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
420 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
421
422 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
423 is still considered experimental.
424
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425** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
426
427 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
428 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
429 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
430 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
431 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
432 specified by POSIX.
433
434 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
435 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
436 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
437 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
438 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
439 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
440 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
441
442 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
443
444 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
445 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
446 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
447 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
448 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
449 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
450 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
451 be removed altogether.
452
453 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
454 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
455 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
456 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
457 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
458 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
459 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
460 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
461 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
462 2.4.2 is not necessary.
463
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464** Internationalization.
465
466 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
467 message translations were not installed although supported by the
468 host system.
469
41930e7a 470* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 471
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472** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
473 declarations have been fixed.
474
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475** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
476
477 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
478 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
479
480 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
481
482 instead of
483
484 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
485
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486 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
487 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
488 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
489 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
490 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
491 feature.
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492
493** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 494
d6fb461d 495* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 496
d6fb461d 497** %language is an experimental feature.
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498
499 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
500 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
501 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
502 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
503 in future releases.
7bd1665a 504
d6fb461d 505** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 506
d6fb461d 507** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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508 fixed.
509
d6fb461d 510* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 511
d6fb461d 512** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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513 are now deprecated:
514
515 %define NAME "VALUE"
516
d6fb461d 517** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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518
519 %define api.pure
520
521 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
522 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
523
d6fb461d 524** Push Parsing
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525
526 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 527 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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528 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
529 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
530 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
531
532 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
533 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
534
535 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
536
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537 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
538 feedback will help to stabilize it.
539
d6fb461d 540** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
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541 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
542 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 543
d6fb461d 544** Java
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545
546 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
547 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
548 %skeleton to select it.
549
550 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
551
552 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
553 feedback will help to stabilize it.
554
d6fb461d 555** %language
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556
557 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
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558 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
559 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
560 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 561
d6fb461d 562** XML Automaton Report
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563
564 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
565 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
566 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 567
d6fb461d 568** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
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569 %defines. For example:
570
571 %defines "parser.h"
572
d6fb461d 573** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
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574 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
575 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
576 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 577
d6fb461d 578** Unreachable State Removal
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579
580 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
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581 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
582 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
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583
584 1. Removes unreachable states.
585
586 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
587 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
588 directives in existing grammar files.
589
590 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 591 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 592
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593 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
594
595 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
596
597 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
598 for further discussion.
599
d6fb461d 600** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 601
c373bf8b 602 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
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603 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
604 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
605 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
606 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
607 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
608 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
609 code.
610
d6fb461d 611** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 612 name.
1bb2bd75 613
d6fb461d 614** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
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615 deprecated:
616
617 %file-prefix "parser"
618 %name-prefix "c_"
619 %output "parser.c"
620
d6fb461d 621** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
622
623 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
624 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
625 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
626 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
627 it:
628
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629 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
630 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
631 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
632 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 633
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JD
634 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
635 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
636 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
637 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
638
639 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
640 determine whether they should become permanent features.
641
d6fb461d 642** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
643
644 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
645 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
646 about unused $2 in:
647
648 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
649
650 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
651 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
652
653 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
654
655 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
656 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
657 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
658
59da312b 659 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
660 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
661
d6fb461d 662** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
663
664 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
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665 %printer's:
666
667 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
668 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
669 declared semantic type tags.
670
3ebecc24 671 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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672 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
673 type tags.
674
675 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 676 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
677 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
678 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
679
85894313
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680 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
681 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
682 features.
683
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684 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
685 details.
686
d6fb461d 687** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
688 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
689 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
690
d6fb461d 691** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
692 completely removed from Bison.
693
d6fb461d 694* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 695
d6fb461d 696** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
697 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
698 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
699 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
700 and is required by POSIX.
701
d6fb461d 702** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
703 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
704
d6fb461d 705** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
706
707 For example:
708
b2a0b7ca
JD
709 %union { char *string; }
710 %token <string> STRING1
711 %token <string> STRING2
712 %type <string> string1
713 %type <string> string2
714 %union { char character; }
715 %token <character> CHR
716 %type <character> chr
717 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
718 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
719 %destructor { } <character>
720
721 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
722 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
723 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
724 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
725 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 726
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JD
727 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
728 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
729 future versions.]
730
d6fb461d 731** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
732 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
733 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
734 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
735 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
736
d6fb461d 737** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 738 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
739
740 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
741 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
742 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
743 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 744 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 745
34f98f46 746 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
747 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
748 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
749 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
750 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
751 after the token definitions.
752
753 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
754 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
755
d6fb461d 756** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
757 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
758 %after-header.
759
760 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
761 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
762 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
763 convenient for you:
764
765 %before-header {
766 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
767 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
768 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
769 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
770 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
771 }
772 %start-header {
773 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
774 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
775 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
776 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
777 }
778 %union {
34f98f46
JD
779 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
780 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
781 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 782 }
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JD
783 %end-header {
784 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
785 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
786 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
787 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
788 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 789 }
34f98f46
JD
790 %after-header {
791 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
792 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
793 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
794 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
795 * Bison-generated definitions. */
796 }
797
798 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
799 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 800
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JD
801 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
802 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
803
d6fb461d 804** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
805 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
806 in a future release.
742e4900 807
d6fb461d 808* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 809
d6fb461d 810** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
811 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
812
d6fb461d 813** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
814 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
815
d6fb461d 816* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 817
d6fb461d 818** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
819 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
820 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 821
d6fb461d 822** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 823
d6fb461d 824** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 825
d6fb461d 826** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
827 their contents together.
828
d6fb461d 829** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
830 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
831 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 832
8f3596a6 833 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
834 | exp "+" exp
835 ;
affac613 836
8f3596a6
AD
837 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
838 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 839 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 840
4e26c69e
PE
841 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
842 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
843 | exp "+" exp
844 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 845 ;
affac613 846
4e26c69e
PE
847 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
848 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
849 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 850
8f3596a6 851 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
852 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
853 ;
854
84866159
AD
855 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
856 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
857
858 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
859
721be13c
PE
860 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
861 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 862
d6fb461d 863** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
864 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
865 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
866 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 867
d6fb461d 868** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
869 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
870 instead of warnings.
871
d6fb461d 872** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
873 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
874 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 875
d6fb461d 876** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 877
d6fb461d 878** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
879 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
880 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 881
d6fb461d 882** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
883 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
884 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
885 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
886 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
887
888 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
889 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
890 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
891 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 892
b50d2359 893 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 894 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 895
d6fb461d 896** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 897\f
d6fb461d 898* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 899
d6fb461d 900** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 901
d6fb461d 902** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
903 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
904 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
905 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
906 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
907 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 908
d6fb461d 909** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
910 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
911 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
912 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
913
d6fb461d 914** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
915 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
916 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
917
d6fb461d 918** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
919 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
920 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
921 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
922 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 923\f
d6fb461d 924* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 925
d6fb461d 926** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 927
82de6b0d
PE
928 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
929 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
930 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
931 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
932 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 933
82de6b0d
PE
934 - Error token location.
935 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
936 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
937 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
938 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 939
82de6b0d
PE
940 - Semicolon changes:
941 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
942 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 943
82de6b0d
PE
944 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
945 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
946 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
947 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 948
82de6b0d 949 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 950
d6fb461d 951** New features
1452af69 952
82de6b0d 953 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 954
82de6b0d
PE
955 - New directive: %initial-action.
956 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
957 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 958
82de6b0d
PE
959 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
960 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 961
82de6b0d
PE
962 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
963 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 964
82de6b0d 965 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 966 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 967
82de6b0d 968 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 969
82de6b0d
PE
970 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
971 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 972
d6fb461d 973** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 974
82de6b0d
PE
975 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
976 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
977 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
978 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
979 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
980 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 981
82de6b0d
PE
982 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
983 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 984
82de6b0d 985 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 986\f
d6fb461d 987* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 988
d6fb461d 989** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 990 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 991
d6fb461d 992** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 993
dc546b0f
PE
994 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
995 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 996
dc546b0f
PE
997 - %destructor
998 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
999 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1000
dc546b0f
PE
1001 - %error-verbose
1002 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1003
dc546b0f
PE
1004 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1005 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1006
d6fb461d 1007** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1008
dc546b0f
PE
1009 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1010 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1011 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1012
dc546b0f
PE
1013 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1014 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1015 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1016 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1017 be consistent.
74724a70 1018
dc546b0f
PE
1019 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1020 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1021
dc546b0f
PE
1022 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1023 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1024
dc546b0f
PE
1025 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1026 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1027
dc546b0f
PE
1028 - Yacc command and library now available
1029 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1030 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1031 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1032 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1033
dc546b0f 1034 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1035
dc546b0f
PE
1036 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1037 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1038 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1039
d6fb461d 1040** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1041
dc546b0f
PE
1042 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1043 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1044 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1045 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1046 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1047 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1048
dc546b0f
PE
1049 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1050 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1051
dc546b0f
PE
1052 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1053 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1054
dc546b0f
PE
1055 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1056 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1057 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1058
d6fb461d 1059** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1060
dc546b0f
PE
1061 - GLR and inline
1062 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1063 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1064
dc546b0f
PE
1065 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1066 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1067
d6fb461d 1068** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1069 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1070 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1071
d6fb461d 1072** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1073 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1074
d6fb461d 1075** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1076 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1077 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1078 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1079\f
d6fb461d 1080* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1081
d6fb461d 1082** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1083
d6fb461d 1084** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1085
d6fb461d 1086** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1087 Fix spurious parse errors.
1088
d6fb461d 1089** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1090 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1091 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1092
d6fb461d 1093** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1094 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1095 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1096
1097 untyped: ... typed;
1098
1099 but the converse remains an error:
1100
1101 typed: ... untyped;
1102
d6fb461d 1103** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1104 The following code:
1105
1106 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1107
1108 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1109 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1110\f
d6fb461d 1111* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1112
d6fb461d 1113** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1114 The declaration
1115 %glr-parser
1116 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1117 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1118 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1119 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1120
7933f2b5 1121 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1122 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1123
d6fb461d 1124** Output Directory
8c165d89 1125 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1126 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1127 now creates `bar.c'.
1128
d6fb461d 1129** Undefined token
007a50a4 1130 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1131 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1132
d6fb461d 1133** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1134 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1135 no longer the case.
1136
d6fb461d 1137** Error token
e88dbdbf 1138 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1139 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1140 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1141 will be mapped onto another number.
1142
d6fb461d 1143** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1144 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1145 error recovery is possible.
1146
d6fb461d 1147** End token
217598da
AD
1148 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1149
d6fb461d 1150** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1151 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1152 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1153 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1154 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1155 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1156 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1157 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1158 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1159
d6fb461d 1160** Traces
5504898e
AD
1161 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1162
d6fb461d 1163** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1164 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1165 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1166 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1167 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1168
d6fb461d 1169** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1170 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1171 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1172 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1173
d6fb461d 1174** Useless rules
643a5994 1175 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1176 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1177
d6fb461d 1178** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1179 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1180
d6fb461d 1181** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1182 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1183 reported.
1184
d6fb461d 1185** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1186 On a grammar such as
1187
1188 %token useless useful
1189 %%
1190 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1191
1192 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1193 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1194
d6fb461d 1195** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1196 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1197
d6fb461d 1198** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1199 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1200 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1201 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1202 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1203
d6fb461d 1204** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1205 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1206 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1207 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1208 For instance
7bd6c77e 1209 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1210 or
7bd6c77e 1211 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1212
d6fb461d 1213** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1214 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1215
d6fb461d 1216** New translations
a861a339 1217 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1218 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1219
d6fb461d 1220** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1221 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1222
d6fb461d 1223** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1224 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1225 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1226 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1227
d6fb461d 1228** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1229 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1230 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1231 - itemset
1232 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1233 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1234 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1235 - solved
1236 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1237 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1238 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1239
d6fb461d 1240** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1241 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1242 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1243
1244 %type <foo> bar
1245 %%
1246 bar: '0' {} '0';
1247
1248 This is fixed.
a861a339 1249
d6fb461d 1250** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1251\f
d6fb461d 1252* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1253
d6fb461d 1254** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1255 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1256 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1257 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1258
1259 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1260 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1261 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1262 kludge will be disabled.
1263
1264 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1265 extended.
76551463 1266\f
d6fb461d 1267* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1268
d6fb461d 1269** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1270 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1271 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1272
d6fb461d 1273** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1274 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1275 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1276 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1277 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1278 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1279
d6fb461d 1280** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1281 many portability hassles.
1282
d6fb461d 1283** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1284
d6fb461d 1285** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1286\f
d6fb461d 1287* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1288
d6fb461d 1289** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1290 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1291 under some conditions.
1292
d6fb461d 1293** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1294 As is done with $n.
1295\f
d6fb461d 1296* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1297
d6fb461d 1298** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1299
d6fb461d 1300** Portability fixes
76551463 1301
d6fb461d 1302** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1303\f
d6fb461d 1304* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1305
d6fb461d 1306** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1307
d6fb461d 1308** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1309 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1310 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1311 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1312 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1313
d6fb461d 1314** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1315 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1316 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1317
1318 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1319 problems as on AIX.
1320
d6fb461d 1321** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1322
d6fb461d 1323** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1324 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1325
d6fb461d 1326** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1327 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1328 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1329 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1330
d6fb461d 1331** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1332 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1333 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1334
d6fb461d 1335** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1336 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1337
d6fb461d 1338** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1339 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1340
d6fb461d 1341** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1342 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1343
d6fb461d 1344** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1345 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1346 any warning.
1347
d6fb461d 1348** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1349
d6fb461d 1350** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1351
d6fb461d 1352** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1353
d6fb461d 1354** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1355 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1356 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1357 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1358
d6fb461d 1359** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1360 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1361 previous allocations were not freed.
1362
d6fb461d 1363** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1364 Some newlines were missing.
1365 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1366
d6fb461d 1367** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1368 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1369
d6fb461d 1370** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1371 Was not used.
1372 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1373
d6fb461d 1374** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1375
d6fb461d 1376** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1377
d6fb461d 1378** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1379
d6fb461d 1380** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1381 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1382
d6fb461d 1383** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1384
d6fb461d 1385** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1386 New.
1387
d6fb461d 1388** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1389 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1390\f
d6fb461d 1391* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1392
d6fb461d 1393** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1394 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1395 argument.
1396
d6fb461d 1397** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1398 experiment.
1399
d6fb461d 1400** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1401\f
d6fb461d 1402* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1403
d6fb461d 1404** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1405 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1406 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1407 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1408
d6fb461d 1409** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1410
d6fb461d 1411** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1412
d6fb461d 1413** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1414
d6fb461d 1415** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1416
d6fb461d 1417** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1418
d6fb461d 1419** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1420
d6fb461d 1421** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1422
d6fb461d 1423** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1424
d6fb461d 1425** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1426
d6fb461d 1427** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1428 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1429
d6fb461d 1430** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1431 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1432 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1433
d6fb461d 1434** @$
f987e9d2 1435 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1436\f
d6fb461d 1437* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1438
d6fb461d 1439** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1440
d6fb461d 1441** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1442
d6fb461d 1443** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1444
d6fb461d 1445** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1446\f
d6fb461d 1447* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1448
d6fb461d 1449** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1450 some systems has been fixed.
1451\f
d6fb461d 1452* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1453
d6fb461d 1454** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1455
d6fb461d 1456** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1457
d6fb461d 1458** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1459
d6fb461d 1460** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1461
d6fb461d 1462** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1463
d6fb461d 1464** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1465
d6fb461d 1466** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1467 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1468\f
d6fb461d 1469* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1470
d6fb461d 1471** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1472the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1473
d6fb461d 1474** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1475example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1476of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1477
d6fb461d 1478** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1479and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1480table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1481purposes.
1482
d6fb461d 1483** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1484directives in the parser file.
1485
d6fb461d 1486** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1487Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1488
d6fb461d 1489** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1490the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1491The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1492a switch statement body.
1493\f
d6fb461d 1494* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1495
4d019228
DM
1496The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1497passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1498actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1499by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1500
6780ca7a 1501Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1502\f
d6fb461d 1503* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1504
1505--help option added.
6780ca7a 1506\f
d6fb461d 1507* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1508
1509Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1510
1511Local Variables:
1512mode: outline
1513End:
76551463
AD
1514
1515-----
1516
ea0a7676 1517Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1518
8defe11b 1519This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1520
f16b0819 1521This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1522it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1523the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1524(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1525
f16b0819 1526This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1527but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1528MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1529GNU General Public License for more details.
1530
1531You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1532along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.