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ed7658fe 1GNU Bison NEWS
3af4feb2 2
52718713 3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
74553c98 4
8458a411 5** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
597afd73 6
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7 Bison will stop adding a semicolon at the end of the actions (as announced
8 in the release 2.5):
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9
10 foo.y:2.22: warning: a ';' might be needed at the end of action code
11 exp: "num" { $$ = $1 }
12 ^
13 foo.y:2.22: future versions of Bison will not add the ';'
14
15 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
16 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
17 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
18
8458a411 19** Backward incompatible changes
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20
21*** Obsolete features
22
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23 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
24
25 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
26 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
27
28 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
29 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
47db7ed1 30
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31** Bug fixes
32
c21e515e 33*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
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34
35 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
36 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
37 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
38 preprocessor expansion:
39
40 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
41
42 This is has been fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
43 identifiers for user-provided variables.
44
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45*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
46
47 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
48 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
49
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50** Diagnostics reported by Bison
51
52 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
53 Santet.
73370a9d 54
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55*** Carets
56
57 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
58 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
59 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
60
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61 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
62 the caret information only. For instance on:
63
64 %%
65 exp: 'a' | 'a';
66
67 Bison 2.7 reports:
68
69 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
70 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
71
72 Now bison reports:
73
74 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
75 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
76 exp: 'a' | 'a';
77 ^^^
78
79 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
80
81 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
82 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
83
1048a1c9 84*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
518e8830 85
1048a1c9 86 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
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87 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
88 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
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89
90 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
d949eefd 91 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
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92 errors (and only those):
93
94 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
95
96 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
97 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
98
99 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
100
101 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
102
103 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
104 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
105
106 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
107 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
108 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
518e8830 109
46bdb8ec 110*** The display of warnings is now richer
73370a9d 111
46bdb8ec 112 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
73370a9d 113
46bdb8ec 114 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
73370a9d 115
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116 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
117 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
d949eefd 118 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
1048a1c9 119
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120 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
121 with failure):
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122
123 bison: warnings being treated as errors
46bdb8ec 124 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
1048a1c9 125
46bdb8ec 126 it now reports:
1048a1c9 127
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128 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
129
130*** Deprecated constructs
131
132 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
133 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
134 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
135
73370a9d 136*** Useless semantic types
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137
138 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
139 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
140 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
141 types that trigger the warning:
142
143 %token <type1> term
144 %type <type2> nterm
145 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
146 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
147 %%
148 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
149
150 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
151 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
152
31557b9e 153*** Undefined but unused symbols
b921d92f 154
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155 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
156 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
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157
158 %printer {} symbol1
159 %destructor {} symbol2
31557b9e 160 %type <type> symbol3
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161 %%
162 exp: "a";
163
73370a9d 164*** Useless destructors or printers
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165
166 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
167 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
168 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
169 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
170
171 %token <type1> token1
172 <type2> token2
173 <type3> token3
174 <type4> token4
175 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
176 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
177
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178*** Conflicts
179
180 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
181 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
182
183 %glr-parser
184 %%
185 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
186
187 compare the previous version of bison:
188
189 $ bison foo.y
190 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
191 $ bison -Werror foo.y
192 bison: warnings being treated as errors
193 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
194
195 with the new behavior:
196
197 $ bison foo.y
198 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
199 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
200 $ bison -Werror foo.y
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201 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
202 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
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203
204 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
205
206 %expect 0
207 %glr-parser
208 %%
209 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
210
211 Former behavior:
212
213 $ bison bar.y
214 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
215 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
216 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
217
218 New one:
219
220 $ bison bar.y
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221 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
222 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
d87ea54c 223
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224** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
225
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226 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
227 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
228 or more arguments. Instead of
2055a44e 229
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230 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
231 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
232 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
233 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
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234
235 one may now declare
236
e436fa67 237 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
2055a44e 238
2a6b66c5 239** Variable api.token.prefix
99c08fb6 240
2a6b66c5 241 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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242 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
243 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
244
e436fa67 245 %token FILE for ERROR
2a6b66c5 246 %define api.token.prefix "TOK_"
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247 %%
248 start: FILE for ERROR;
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249
250 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
251 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
252 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
253 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
254
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255** Variable parse.error
256
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257 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
258 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
259 verbose".
31b850d2 260
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261** Renamed %define variables
262
263 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
264 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
265
266 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
267 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
268 namespace -> api.namespace
269 stype -> api.value.type
270
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271** Semantic predicates
272
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273 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
274
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275 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
276 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
ca2a6d15 277 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
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278 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
279 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
280 expressions.
ca2a6d15 281
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282** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
283
284 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
285 reduce/reduce conflicts.
286
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287** Token numbering has changed to preserve the user-defined order
288
289 When declaring %token A B, the numbering for A is inferior to B. Up to now,
290 when declaring associativity at the same time, with %left (or %right,
291 %precedence, %nonassoc), B was inferior to A.
292
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293** Useless precedence and associativity
294
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295 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
296
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297 When developping and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
298 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
299 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
300 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
301 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
302 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
303 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
304
305*** Precedence warning category
306
307 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
308 useless precedence and associativity directives.
309
310*** Useless associativity
311
312 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
313 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
314 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
315 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
316 For example:
317
318 %left '+'
319 %left '*'
320 %%
321 exp:
322 "num"
323 | exp '+' "num"
324 | exp '*' exp
325 ;
326
327 will produce a
328
329 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
330 %left '+'
331 ^^^
332
333*** Useless precedence
334
335 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
336 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
337 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
338 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
339
340 %precedence '='
341 %%
342 exp: "var" '=' "num";
343
344 will produce a
345
346 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
347 %precedence '='
348 ^^^
349
350*** Useless precedence and associativity
351
352 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
353 as follows:
354
355 %nonassoc '='
356 %%
357 exp: "var" '=' "num";
358
359 The warning is:
360
361 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
362 %nonassoc '='
363 ^^^
364
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365** Java skeleton improvements
366
367 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
368
369 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
370 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
371 and "%define init_throws".
372
373** C++ skeletons improvements
374
375*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
376
377 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
378 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
379 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
380
381*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
382
383 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
384
385*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
386
387 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
388 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
389 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
390 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
391 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
392 factory invoked by the user actions).
393
394*** %define api.value.type variant
395
396 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
397 from Théophile Ranquet.
398
399 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
400 instance:
401
402 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
403 %token <int> NUMBER;
404 %token SEMICOLON ";"
405 %type <::std::string> item;
406 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
407 %%
408 result:
409 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
410 ;
411
412 list:
413 /* nothing */ { /* Generates an empty string list */ }
414 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
415 ;
416
417 item:
418 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
419 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
420 ;
421
422*** %define api.token.constructor
423
424 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
425 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
426 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
427
428 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
429 {
430 parser::location_type loc = ...;
431 ...
432 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
433 ...
434 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
435 ...
436 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
437 ...
438 }
439
c13bb348 440* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
effd30c0 441
edf9a06f 442** Bug fixes
7bada535 443
edf9a06f 444 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
7bada535 445
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446 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
447
d4fe9e88 448** Diagnostics are improved
7bada535 449
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450 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
451
d4fe9e88 452*** Changes in the format of error messages
7bada535 453
d4fe9e88 454 This used to be the format of many error reports:
1f1bd572 455
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456 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
457 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
1f1bd572 458
d4fe9e88 459 It is now:
1f1bd572 460
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461 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
462 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
cbaea010 463
d4fe9e88 464*** New format for error reports: carets
cbaea010 465
d4fe9e88 466 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
cbaea010 467
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468 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
469 %type <sval> exp
470 ^^^^^^
471 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
472 %type <ival> exp
473 ^^^^^^
cbaea010 474
d4fe9e88 475 or
cbaea010 476
7bada535 477 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
fb6040f0 478 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
7bada535 479 ^^^^
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480 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
481 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
482 ^^^
483 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
484 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
485 ^^^
486 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
487 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
488 ^^^
7bada535 489
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490 The default behaviour for now is still not to display these unless
491 explictly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
492 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
493 -fno-caret).
d3e4409a 494
1f1bd572 495** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
d3e4409a 496
1f1bd572 497 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
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498 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
499 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
500 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
501 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
502 parsers).
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503
504 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
505 "%define api.pure full".
d3e4409a 506
7287be84 507** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
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508
509 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
510 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
511 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
512 then responsible to define her type.
513
514 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
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515 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
516 them.
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517
518 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
519 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
520 compatibility).
521
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522 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
523 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
524 api.position.type.
525
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526** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
527
528 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
529 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
530 before re-throwing the exception.
531
532 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
533 appreciated.
534
9c16d399 535** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
fc4fdd62 536
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537 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
538
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539 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
540 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
541 numbered and left-justified.
542
543 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
544 diamond shaped nodes.
545
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546 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
547 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
548
d4fe9e88 549** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
fb4c8a7c 550
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551 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
552 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
fb4c8a7c 553
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554** Documentation
555
556 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
557 have been fixed and extended.
9d2423f5 558
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559 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
560 were not properly documented.
561
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562 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
563
9d3f7eaf 564* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
6f1360bd 565
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566 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
567 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
568 reporting them to us.
569
570** Bug fixes
571
572 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
573 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
574 3.2.
575
576 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
6f1360bd 577
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578 Nul characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
579
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580 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
581 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
582
0ac15849 583* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
a4eb820f 584
468455e1 585 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
a4eb820f 586
6eb8f74f 587* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
933ec544 588
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589** Bug fixes
590
a1a77e1f 591 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
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592
593 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
594 users to the appropriate place to report them.
595
596 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
597
598 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
599 generated, are removed.
9c26b8fc 600
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601 All the generated headers are self-contained.
602
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603** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
604
605 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
606 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
607 For instance the header generated from
608
609 %define api.prefix "calc"
610 %defines "lib/parse.h"
611
612 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
613
c12c4c50 614** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
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615
616 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
617 warnings such as:
618
619 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
620 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
621 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
622 *++yyvsp = yylval;
623 ^
624
625 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
626
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627 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
628 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
629 addressed.
630
e1eeecd3 631* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
9c26b8fc 632
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633** Bug fixes
634
635 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
636 suite have been fixed.
637
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638** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
639
640 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
641 invalid C++. This is fixed.
9c26b8fc 642
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643** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
644
645 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
646
77b214ef 647* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
a4107f24 648
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649 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
650
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651** Future Changes
652
653 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
654 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
655 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
656
657 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
658
659 write:
660
661 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
662
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663** Bug fixes
664
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665*** Type names are now properly escaped.
666
667*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
a4107f24 668
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669*** Stray @ or $ in actions
670
671 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
672 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
673 now does.
674
cd735a8c 675** Type names in actions
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676
677 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
cd735a8c 678 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
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679
680 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
681
682 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
cd735a8c 683 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
60aa04a2 684
1505e8bb 685* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
0f11eec2 686
d0a30438 687** Future changes
9553083c 688
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689 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
690 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
0f11eec2 691
aaf61036 692*** K&R C parsers
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693
694 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
242cc08e 695 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
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696 compilers.
697
258cddbc 698*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
0f11eec2 699
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700 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
701 YYLTYPE.
0f11eec2 702
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703 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
704 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
705
706 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
707 %error-verbose.
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708
709*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
0f11eec2
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710
711 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
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712 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
713 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
714 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
715 it.
0f11eec2 716
c2425191 717** Generated Parser Headers
56ca3d8f 718
258cddbc 719*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
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720
721 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
242cc08e 722 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
c3e9f08f 723
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724 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
725 # define YY_FOO_H
726 ...
727 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
c3e9f08f 728
258cddbc 729*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
56ca3d8f
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730
731 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
732 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
733
e29f0771 734 int bar_parse (void);
56ca3d8f
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735
736 rather than
737
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738 #define yyparse bar_parse
739 int yyparse (void);
56ca3d8f
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740
741 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
742 single compilation unit.
c3e9f08f 743
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744*** Exported symbols in C++
745
746 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
747 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
748 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
749
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750*** YYLSP_NEEDED
751
752 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
753 longer defined.
754
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755** New %define variable: api.prefix
756
757 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
758 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
759 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
760 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
761 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
762 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
763 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
764
765 The following examples compares both:
766
767 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
768 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
769 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
770 %% %%
771 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
772
773 bison generates:
774
775 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
776 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
777
778 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
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779 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
780 > # if defined YYDEBUG
781 > # if YYDEBUG
782 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
783 > # else
784 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
785 > # endif
786 > # else
787 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
788 > # endif
789 # endif | # endif
790
791 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
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792 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
793 # endif # endif
794
795 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
796 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
797 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
798 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
799 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
800 }; };
801 # endif # endif
802
803 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
804 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
805 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
806 { {
807 int ival; int ival;
808 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
809 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
810 #endif #endif
811
812 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
813
814 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
815
816 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
817
dfaac272 818* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
df6e3db0 819
debe2c03 820** Future changes:
765e1bd4 821
e4ab1254 822 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
041308d0 823
466b4cf2 824** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
ef51bfa7 825
d834eca0 826** glr.c improvements:
041308d0 827
d834eca0 828*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
041308d0 829
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830 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
831 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
378e917c 832
d834eca0 833*** __attribute__ is preserved:
d115aad9 834
e4ab1254
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835 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
836 when -std is passed to GCC).
041308d0 837
466b4cf2 838** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0 839
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840 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
841 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
041308d0 842
22172d47 843** Changes for C++:
ef51bfa7 844
22172d47 845*** C++11 compatibility:
ef51bfa7 846
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847 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
848 or higher.
936c88d1 849
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850*** Header guards
851
852 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
853 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
854
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855 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
856 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
857 ...
858 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
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859
860 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
861 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
862 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
863
864 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
865
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866 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
867 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
868 ...
869 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
22172d47
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870
871*** C++ locations:
936c88d1 872
e4ab1254
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873 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
874 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
875 documentation were fixed.
936c88d1 876
466b4cf2
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877** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
878
7e508a2b
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879** Changes in the manual:
880
881*** %printer is documented
882
e4ab1254
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883 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
884 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
7e508a2b 885
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886 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
887 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
7e508a2b
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888
889*** Several improvements have been made:
466b4cf2 890
e4ab1254
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891 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
892 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
893 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
894 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
466b4cf2 895
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896** Building bison:
897
898*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
466b4cf2 899
e4ab1254
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900 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
901 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
466b4cf2 902
8ef26c2a
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903*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
904
905*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
466b4cf2 906
e4ab1254
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907 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
908 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
466b4cf2 909
91aadcc7 910*** The install-pdf target works properly:
8ef26c2a 911
e4ab1254
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912 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
913 halts in the middle of its course.
8ef26c2a 914
28801043 915* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 916
82f3355e
JD
917** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
918
919 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
920 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
921 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
922 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
923 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
924
f1b238df 925** Named references:
66381412
AR
926
927 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
928 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
929 actions code.
930
931 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
932 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
933 as named references:
934
4b568fc0 935 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
66381412
AR
936 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
937
938 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
939
4b568fc0 940 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
66381412
AR
941 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
942
5b1ff423 943 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
66381412
AR
944 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
945 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
946
5b1ff423 947 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
66381412 948 will help to stabilize them.
2bd435c3 949 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
66381412 950
f1b238df 951** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
eb45ef3b
JD
952
953 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
954 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 955 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
f1b238df
JD
956 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
957 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
eb45ef3b
JD
958 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
959 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
960 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
961 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
962
963 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
964 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
965 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
966 file with these directives:
967
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JD
968 %define lr.type lalr
969 %define lr.type ielr
970 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 971
7fceb615 972 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
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AD
973 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
974 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
7fceb615 975 manual.
eb45ef3b
JD
976
977 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
978 stabilize them.
979
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AD
980** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
981
982 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
fcf834f9
JD
983
984 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
985 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
986 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 987 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
fcf834f9
JD
988 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
989 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
990 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
7fceb615 991 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
e4ab1254 992 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
7fceb615
JD
993 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
994 tokens.
fcf834f9
JD
995
996 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
997 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
998 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
999 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1000 inconsistent states.
1001
7fceb615
JD
1002 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1003 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1004 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1005 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1006 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
fcf834f9
JD
1007 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1008 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1009 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1010 power.
1011
1012 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1013 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1014
1015 %define parse.lac full
1016
e4ab1254 1017 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
7fceb615 1018 details including a few caveats.
fcf834f9
JD
1019
1020 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1021 stabilize it.
1022
d397d9f0 1023** %define improvements:
cf499cff 1024
f1b238df 1025*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 1026
de5ab940 1027 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 1028
de5ab940
JD
1029 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1030 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1031
1032 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1033 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
50cca368
JD
1034
1035 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1036
de5ab940 1037 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 1038
de5ab940
JD
1039 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1040 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1041 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
e4ab1254 1042 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 1043
f1b238df 1044*** Variables renamed:
67212941
JD
1045
1046 The following %define variables
1047
1048 api.push_pull
1049 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1050
1051 have been renamed to
1052
1053 api.push-pull
1054 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1055
1056 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1057 for backward compatibility.
1058
7262f54f 1059*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
cf499cff
JD
1060
1061 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1062 within quotations marks. For example,
1063
1064 %define api.push-pull "push"
1065
1066 can be rewritten as
1067
1068 %define api.push-pull push
1069
d397d9f0 1070*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 1071
d397d9f0
JD
1072*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1073
1074** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1075
1076** Character literals not of length one:
1077
1078 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1079 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1080 the following grammar to be the same token:
1081
1082 exp: exp '++'
1083 | exp '+' exp
1084 ;
1085
1086 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1087 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1088
1089** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1090
1091 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1092 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1093 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1094 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1095
1096** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1097
1098 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1099 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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1100 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1101 and "last" members, instead of
d397d9f0 1102
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1103 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1104 do \
1105 if (N) \
1106 { \
1107 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1108 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1109 } \
1110 else \
1111 { \
1112 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1113 } \
1114 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1115
1116 use:
1117
e29f0771
AD
1118 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1119 do \
1120 if (N) \
1121 { \
1122 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1123 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1124 } \
1125 else \
1126 { \
1127 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1128 } \
1129 while (false)
d397d9f0
JD
1130
1131** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1132
1133 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1134 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1135 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1136 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 1137
f1b238df 1138** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
4395a9ff
JD
1139
1140 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1141 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1142 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1143 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1144 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1145 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1146 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1147 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1148
f1b238df 1149** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
197b82ba
JD
1150
1151 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1152 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1153 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1154 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1155
1156 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1157
1158 instead of
1159
1160 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1161
1162 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1163 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1164 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1165 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1166 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1167 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1168 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1169
d2060f06
JD
1170** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1171
e4ab1254 1172 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
7fceb615
JD
1173 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1174 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1175 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1176 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
d2060f06
JD
1177
1178*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1179 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1180 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1181 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1182 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
e4ab1254 1183 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
d2060f06
JD
1184 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1185 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1186 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1187 shifted or discarded.
1188
1189*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1190 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1191 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1192 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1193
1194*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
fcf834f9
JD
1195 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1196 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1197 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1198 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1199 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1200 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1201 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1202 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1203 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1204 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1205 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1206 by default.
53f036ce 1207
1a33f4f6
JD
1208** Java skeleton fixes:
1209
1210*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1211
1212*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1213 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 1214
02803d55
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1215*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1216
86408959
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1217** -W/--warnings fixes:
1218
e4ab1254 1219*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
86408959
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1220
1221 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1222 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1223
1224 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1225
786743d5
JD
1226*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1227
1228 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1229 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
e4ab1254 1230 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
786743d5
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1231 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1232 example:
1233
1234 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1235 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1236 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1237 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1238
1239 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1240 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1241 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1242 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1243
e4ab1254 1244*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
bf0e44e8
JD
1245
1246 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1247 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1248
1249 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1250
e4ab1254 1251*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 1252
e4ab1254 1253 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
c39014ae
JD
1254 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1255 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1256 suppress all warnings:
1257
1258 bison -Wnone gram.y
1259
1f36f544
JD
1260** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1261
1262 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1263 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1264 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1265
1266 %left END 0
1267
1268 This bug has been fixed.
1269
64877e5e 1270* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 1271
2bfcac9a
JD
1272** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1273 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1274
8b9e021f
JD
1275** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1276 been fixed.
1277
4ad3921d
JD
1278** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1279
06cb07d5
JD
1280** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1281 been fixed.
1282
9b5049bd
JD
1283** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1284 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1285 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1286 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1287
93d7dde9
JD
1288** Minor documentation fixes.
1289
e19a049c 1290* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 1291
f39ab286
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1292** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1293 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
e19a049c
JD
1294 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1295 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
f39ab286
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1296 affected platforms.
1297
e4ab1254 1298** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
8bb3a2e7
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1299
1300 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1301 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1302 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1303 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1304 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1305 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1306 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
9b5049bd
JD
1307 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1308 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 1309
d8911864
EB
1310** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1311
a603c6e0
JD
1312** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1313 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1314 avoided.
c938d650 1315
98a345a2
JD
1316** %code is now a permanent feature.
1317
1318 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1319
1320 %{CODE%}
1321
1322 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1323 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1324
1325 %code {CODE}
1326 %code requires {CODE}
1327 %code provides {CODE}
1328 %code top {CODE}
1329
1330 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1331 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1332 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1333 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1334 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1335
1336 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1337 is still considered experimental.
1338
1625df5b
JD
1339** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1340
1341 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1342 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1343 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1344 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1345 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1346 specified by POSIX.
1347
1348 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1349 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1350 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1351 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1352 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
e4ab1254 1353 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1625df5b
JD
1354 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1355
1356 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1357
1358 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1359 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1360 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1361 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1362 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1363 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
e4ab1254 1364 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1625df5b
JD
1365 be removed altogether.
1366
1367 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1368 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1369 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1370 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1371 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
e4ab1254 1372 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1625df5b
JD
1373 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1374 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1375 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1376 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1377
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1378** Internationalization.
1379
1380 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1381 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1382 host system.
1383
74553c98 1384* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 1385
0ea583d2
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1386** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1387 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 1388
0ea583d2
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1389** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1390
1391 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1392 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1393
1394 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1395
1396 instead of
1397
1398 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1399
e4ab1254 1400 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
0ea583d2
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1401 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1402 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1403 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1404 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1405 feature.
1406
1407** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 1408
402b123d 1409* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 1410
402b123d 1411** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
1412
1413 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1414 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1415 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1416 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1417 in future releases.
7bd1665a 1418
402b123d 1419** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 1420
402b123d 1421** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
1422 fixed.
1423
402b123d 1424* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 1425
402b123d 1426** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
1427 are now deprecated:
1428
1429 %define NAME "VALUE"
1430
e4ab1254 1431** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
1432
1433 %define api.pure
1434
1435 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1436 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1437
402b123d 1438** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
1439
1440 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
e4ab1254
AD
1441 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1442 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
c373bf8b
JD
1443 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1444 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1445
1446 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1447 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1448
e4ab1254 1449 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
c373bf8b 1450
59da312b
JD
1451 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1452 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1453
402b123d 1454** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
1455 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1456 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 1457
402b123d 1458** Java
59da312b
JD
1459
1460 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
e4ab1254 1461 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
59da312b
JD
1462 %skeleton to select it.
1463
e4ab1254 1464 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
59da312b
JD
1465
1466 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1467 feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1468 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
59da312b 1469
402b123d 1470** %language
59da312b
JD
1471
1472 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
1473 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1474 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1475 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 1476
402b123d 1477** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
1478
1479 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
e4ab1254 1480 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
59da312b 1481 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
2bd435c3 1482 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
c373bf8b 1483
402b123d 1484** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
1485 %defines. For example:
1486
1487 %defines "parser.h"
1488
402b123d 1489** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
1490 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1491 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1492 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 1493
402b123d 1494** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
1495
1496 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
1497 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1498 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
1499
1500 1. Removes unreachable states.
1501
1502 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1503 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1504 directives in existing grammar files.
1505
1506 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 1507 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 1508
31984206
JD
1509 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1510
1511 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1512
e4ab1254 1513 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
31984206
JD
1514 for further discussion.
1515
e4ab1254 1516** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
b1cc23c4 1517
e4ab1254
AD
1518 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1519 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
88c78747
JD
1520 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1521 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1522 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1523 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
e4ab1254 1524 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
88c78747
JD
1525 code.
1526
e4ab1254 1527** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
59da312b 1528 name.
1bb2bd75 1529
e4ab1254 1530** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
1531 deprecated:
1532
1533 %file-prefix "parser"
1534 %name-prefix "c_"
1535 %output "parser.c"
1536
e4ab1254 1537** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
c373bf8b
JD
1538
1539 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
1540 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1541 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1542 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1543 it:
1544
e4ab1254
AD
1545 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1546 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1547 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1548 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
8e0a5e9e 1549
e4ab1254
AD
1550 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1551 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1552 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
8e0a5e9e
JD
1553 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1554
1555 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1556 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1557
402b123d 1558** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
1559
1560 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1561 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1562 about unused $2 in:
1563
1564 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1565
1566 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1567 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1568
1569 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1570
1571 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1572 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1573 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1574
e4ab1254
AD
1575 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1576 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
17bd8a73 1577
e4ab1254 1578** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
c373bf8b
JD
1579
1580 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
1581 %printer's:
1582
e4ab1254 1583 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1584 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1585 declared semantic type tags.
1586
e4ab1254 1587 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
1588 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1589 type tags.
1590
e4ab1254
AD
1591 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1592 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
1593 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1594 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1595
85894313
JD
1596 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1597 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1598 features.
1599
e4ab1254 1600 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
12e35840
JD
1601 details.
1602
402b123d 1603** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
e4ab1254 1604 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
ab7f29f8
JD
1605 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1606
402b123d 1607** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
1608 completely removed from Bison.
1609
402b123d 1610* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 1611
402b123d 1612** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
1613 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1614 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1615 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1616 and is required by POSIX.
1617
402b123d 1618** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
1619 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1620
402b123d 1621** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
1622
1623 For example:
1624
b2a0b7ca
JD
1625 %union { char *string; }
1626 %token <string> STRING1
1627 %token <string> STRING2
1628 %type <string> string1
1629 %type <string> string2
1630 %union { char character; }
1631 %token <character> CHR
1632 %type <character> chr
1633 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1634 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1635 %destructor { } <character>
1636
1637 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
e4ab1254
AD
1638 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1639 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1640 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1641 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
ec5479ce 1642
85894313
JD
1643 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1644 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1645 future versions.]
1646
e4ab1254
AD
1647** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1648 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
b931235e
JD
1649 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1650 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1651 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1652
402b123d 1653** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 1654 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
1655
1656 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
e4ab1254 1657 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
1658 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1659 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 1660 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 1661
34f98f46 1662 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
1663 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1664 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1665 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1666 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1667 after the token definitions.
1668
1669 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1670 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1671
402b123d 1672** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
1673 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1674 %after-header.
1675
1676 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1677 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1678 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1679 convenient for you:
1680
1681 %before-header {
1682 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1683 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1684 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1685 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
e4ab1254 1686 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
34f98f46
JD
1687 }
1688 %start-header {
1689 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1690 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1691 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1692 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
1693 }
1694 %union {
34f98f46
JD
1695 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1696 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1697 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 1698 }
34f98f46
JD
1699 %end-header {
1700 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1701 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1702 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1703 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1704 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 1705 }
34f98f46
JD
1706 %after-header {
1707 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1708 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1709 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1710 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1711 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1712 }
1713
1714 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1715 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 1716
85894313
JD
1717 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1718 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1719
e4ab1254 1720** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
9e6e7ed2
PE
1721 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1722 in a future release.
742e4900 1723
402b123d 1724* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 1725
e4ab1254 1726** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
4ad3ed84
PE
1727 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1728
402b123d 1729** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
1730 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1731
402b123d 1732* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 1733
402b123d 1734** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
1735 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1736 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 1737
402b123d 1738** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 1739
402b123d 1740** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 1741
402b123d 1742** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
1743 their contents together.
1744
402b123d 1745** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
1746 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1747 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 1748
8f3596a6 1749 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
e9690142
JD
1750 | exp "+" exp
1751 ;
affac613 1752
8f3596a6
AD
1753 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1754 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 1755 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 1756
4e26c69e 1757 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
e9690142
JD
1758 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1759 | exp "+" exp
1760 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1761 ;
affac613 1762
4e26c69e
PE
1763 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1764 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1765 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 1766
8f3596a6 1767 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
e9690142
JD
1768 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1769 ;
721be13c 1770
84866159
AD
1771 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1772 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1773
1774 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1775
721be13c
PE
1776 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1777 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 1778
402b123d 1779** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
1780 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1781 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1782 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 1783
402b123d 1784** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
1785 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1786 instead of warnings.
1787
402b123d 1788** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
1789 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1790 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 1791
e4ab1254 1792** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
ad6a9b97 1793
402b123d 1794** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
1795 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1796 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 1797
402b123d 1798** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
1799 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1800 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
e4ab1254
AD
1801 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1802 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
fb9712a9
AD
1803
1804 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
e4ab1254 1805 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
1806 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1807 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 1808
b50d2359 1809 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
e4ab1254 1810 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 1811
402b123d 1812** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 1813\f
402b123d 1814* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 1815
402b123d 1816** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 1817
402b123d 1818** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
1819 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1820 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
1821 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1822 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1823 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 1824
402b123d 1825** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
1826 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1827 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1828 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1829
402b123d 1830** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
1831 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1832 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1833
402b123d 1834** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
1835 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1836 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1837 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1838 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 1839\f
402b123d 1840* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 1841
402b123d 1842** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 1843
82de6b0d
PE
1844 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1845 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1846 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1847 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1848 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 1849
82de6b0d
PE
1850 - Error token location.
1851 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1852 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1853 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1854 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1855
82de6b0d
PE
1856 - Semicolon changes:
1857 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1858 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1859
82de6b0d
PE
1860 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1861 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1862 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1863 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1864
82de6b0d 1865 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1866
402b123d 1867** New features
1452af69 1868
82de6b0d 1869 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1870
82de6b0d
PE
1871 - New directive: %initial-action.
1872 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1873 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1874
82de6b0d
PE
1875 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1876 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1877
e4ab1254 1878 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
82de6b0d 1879 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1880
e4ab1254 1881 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
9e6e7ed2 1882 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1883
82de6b0d 1884 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1885
82de6b0d
PE
1886 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1887 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1888
402b123d 1889** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1890
82de6b0d
PE
1891 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1892 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1893 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1894 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1895 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1896 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1897
82de6b0d
PE
1898 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1899 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1900
82de6b0d 1901 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1902\f
402b123d 1903* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1904
402b123d 1905** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1906 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1907
402b123d 1908** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1909
dc546b0f
PE
1910 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1911 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1912
dc546b0f
PE
1913 - %destructor
1914 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1915 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1916
dc546b0f
PE
1917 - %error-verbose
1918 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1919
dc546b0f
PE
1920 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1921 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1922
402b123d 1923** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1924
dc546b0f
PE
1925 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1926 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1927 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1928
e4ab1254
AD
1929 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1930 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1931 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1932 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
dc546b0f 1933 be consistent.
74724a70 1934
dc546b0f
PE
1935 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1936 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1937
dc546b0f
PE
1938 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1939 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1940
dc546b0f
PE
1941 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1942 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1943
dc546b0f 1944 - Yacc command and library now available
e4ab1254 1945 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
dc546b0f
PE
1946 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1947 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1948 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1949
dc546b0f 1950 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1951
dc546b0f
PE
1952 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1953 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1954 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1955
402b123d 1956** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1957
e4ab1254
AD
1958 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1959 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1960 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1961 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1962 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
dc546b0f 1963 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1964
e4ab1254 1965 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
dc546b0f 1966 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1967
dc546b0f 1968 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
e4ab1254 1969 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
437c2d80 1970
e4ab1254 1971 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
dc546b0f
PE
1972 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1973 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1974
402b123d 1975** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1976
dc546b0f
PE
1977 - GLR and inline
1978 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
e4ab1254 1979 C keyword "inline".
959e5f51 1980
e4ab1254
AD
1981 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1982 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1983
18ad57b3
AD
1984** %parse-param and %lex-param
1985 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1986 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1987 shortcomings:
1988
1989 - a single argument only can be added,
1990 - their types are weak (void *),
242cc08e 1991 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
18ad57b3
AD
1992 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1993
1994 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1995 For instance:
1996
1997 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1998 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1999 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2000
2001 results in the following signatures:
2002
2003 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2004 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2005
2006 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2007
2008 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2009 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2010
402b123d 2011** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
e4ab1254 2012 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
dc546b0f 2013 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 2014
402b123d 2015** #line in output files
dc546b0f 2016 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 2017
402b123d 2018** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
2019 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2020 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2021 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 2022\f
402b123d 2023* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 2024
402b123d 2025** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 2026
402b123d 2027** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 2028
402b123d 2029** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2030 Fix spurious parse errors.
2031
402b123d 2032** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
2033 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2034 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2035
402b123d 2036** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
2037 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2038 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2039
e9690142 2040 untyped: ... typed;
d90c934c
AD
2041
2042 but the converse remains an error:
2043
e9690142 2044 typed: ... untyped;
d90c934c 2045
402b123d 2046** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
2047 The following code:
2048
e9690142 2049 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
d90c934c
AD
2050
2051 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2052 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 2053\f
402b123d 2054* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 2055
402b123d 2056** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
2057 The declaration
2058 %glr-parser
2059 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2060 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 2061 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
2062 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2063
7933f2b5 2064 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
2065 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2066
402b123d 2067** Output Directory
8c165d89 2068 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e4ab1254
AD
2069 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2070 now creates "bar.c".
8c165d89 2071
402b123d 2072** Undefined token
007a50a4 2073 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 2074 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 2075
402b123d 2076** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 2077 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
2078 no longer the case.
2079
402b123d 2080** Error token
e88dbdbf 2081 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
2082 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2083 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2084 will be mapped onto another number.
2085
402b123d 2086** Verbose error messages
e4ab1254 2087 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
217598da
AD
2088 error recovery is possible.
2089
402b123d 2090** End token
e4ab1254 2091 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
217598da 2092
402b123d 2093** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
2094 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2095 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2096 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2097 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2098 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2099 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
2100 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2101 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 2102
402b123d 2103** Traces
5504898e
AD
2104 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2105
402b123d 2106** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
2107 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2108 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2109 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2110 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 2111
402b123d 2112** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
2113 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2114 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2115 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 2116
402b123d 2117** Useless rules
643a5994 2118 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 2119 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 2120
402b123d 2121** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
2122 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2123
402b123d 2124** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
2125 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2126 reported.
2127
e4ab1254 2128** Incorrect "Token not used"
11652ab3
AD
2129 On a grammar such as
2130
e29f0771
AD
2131 %token useless useful
2132 %%
2133 exp: '0' %prec useful;
11652ab3
AD
2134
2135 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
e4ab1254 2136 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
11652ab3 2137
402b123d 2138** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 2139 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 2140
402b123d 2141** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
2142 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2143 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2144 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2145 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 2146
402b123d 2147** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
2148 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2149 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
e4ab1254 2150 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 2151 For instance
e29f0771 2152 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 2153 or
e29f0771 2154 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 2155
402b123d 2156** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
2157 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2158
402b123d 2159** New translations
a861a339 2160 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
2161 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2162
402b123d 2163** Incorrect token definitions
e4ab1254
AD
2164 When given
2165 %token 'a' "A"
2166 bison used to output
2167 #define 'a' 65
b87f8b21 2168
402b123d 2169** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
2170 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2171 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 2172 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 2173
402b123d 2174** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
2175 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2176 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
2177 - itemset
2178 complete the core item sets with their closure
e4ab1254 2179 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
9e6e7ed2 2180 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
2181 - solved
2182 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2183 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2184 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 2185
402b123d 2186** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
2187 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2188 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2189
e29f0771
AD
2190 %type <foo> bar
2191 %%
2192 bar: '0' {} '0';
9af3fbce
AD
2193
2194 This is fixed.
a861a339 2195
402b123d 2196** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 2197\f
402b123d 2198* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 2199
402b123d 2200** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
2201 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2202 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2203 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2204
2205 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2206 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2207 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2208 kludge will be disabled.
2209
2210 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2211 extended.
76551463 2212\f
402b123d 2213* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 2214
402b123d 2215** File name clashes are detected
76551463 2216 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
e4ab1254 2217 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
76551463 2218
e4ab1254 2219** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
2220 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2221 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2222 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2223 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2224 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2225
402b123d 2226** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
2227 many portability hassles.
2228
402b123d 2229** DJGPP support added.
76551463 2230
402b123d 2231** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 2232\f
402b123d 2233* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 2234
402b123d 2235** Fix C++ issues
76551463
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2236 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2237 under some conditions.
2238
402b123d 2239** Catch invalid @n
76551463
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2240 As is done with $n.
2241\f
402b123d 2242* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 2243
402b123d 2244** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 2245
402b123d 2246** Portability fixes
76551463 2247
402b123d 2248** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 2249\f
402b123d 2250* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 2251
402b123d 2252** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 2253
402b123d 2254** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2255 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2256 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2257 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
e4ab1254 2258 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
52d1aeee 2259
402b123d 2260** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
2261 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2262 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2263
2264 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2265 problems as on AIX.
2266
402b123d 2267** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 2268
402b123d 2269** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
2270 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2271
402b123d 2272** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
2273 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2274 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2275 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2276
402b123d 2277** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 2278 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 2279 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 2280
402b123d 2281** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
2282 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2283
402b123d 2284** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
2285 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2286
402b123d 2287** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
2288 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2289
402b123d 2290** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2291 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2292 any warning.
2293
402b123d 2294** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 2295
402b123d 2296** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 2297
402b123d 2298** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 2299
402b123d 2300** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
2301 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2302 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2303 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2304
402b123d 2305** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
2306 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2307 previous allocations were not freed.
2308
402b123d 2309** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
2310 Some newlines were missing.
2311 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2312
402b123d 2313** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
2314 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2315
402b123d 2316** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
2317 Was not used.
2318 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2319
402b123d 2320** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 2321
402b123d 2322** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 2323
402b123d 2324** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 2325
402b123d 2326** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
2327 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2328
402b123d 2329** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 2330
402b123d 2331** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
2332 New.
2333
402b123d 2334** --output
e4ab1254 2335 New, aliasing "--output-file".
52d1aeee 2336\f
402b123d 2337* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 2338
e4ab1254
AD
2339** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2340 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
2341 argument.
2342
e4ab1254 2343** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
2344 experiment.
2345
402b123d 2346** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 2347\f
402b123d 2348* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 2349
402b123d 2350** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
2351 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2352 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
e4ab1254 2353 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
342b8b6e 2354
e4ab1254 2355** Added "-g" and "--graph".
f87a2205 2356
402b123d 2357** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 2358
402b123d 2359** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 2360
402b123d 2361** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 2362
402b123d 2363** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 2364
402b123d 2365** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 2366
e4ab1254 2367** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
6deb4447 2368
e4ab1254 2369** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
cd5bd6ac 2370
e4ab1254 2371** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
62ab6972 2372
402b123d 2373** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
2374 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2375
402b123d 2376** New directives.
e4ab1254
AD
2377 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2378 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
f987e9d2 2379
402b123d 2380** @$
f987e9d2 2381 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 2382\f
402b123d 2383* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 2384
402b123d 2385** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 2386
402b123d 2387** Added NLS.
d2e00347 2388
402b123d 2389** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 2390
402b123d 2391** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 2392\f
402b123d 2393* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 2394
402b123d 2395** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
2396 some systems has been fixed.
2397\f
402b123d 2398* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 2399
7e508a2b 2400** Bison now uses Automake.
4be07551 2401
402b123d 2402** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 2403
402b123d 2404** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 2405
402b123d 2406** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 2407
402b123d 2408** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 2409
402b123d 2410** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 2411
402b123d 2412** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 2413 not provide alloca().
4be07551 2414\f
402b123d 2415* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 2416
402b123d 2417** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 2418the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 2419
402b123d 2420** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5 2421example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
7e508a2b 2422of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
df8878c5 2423
402b123d 2424** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
2425and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2426table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2427purposes.
2428
402b123d 2429** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
2430directives in the parser file.
2431
402b123d 2432** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
2433Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2434
402b123d 2435** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
2436the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2437The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2438a switch statement body.
2439\f
402b123d 2440* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 2441
4d019228
DM
2442The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2443passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2444actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2445by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 2446
6780ca7a 2447Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 2448\f
402b123d 2449* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
2450
2451--help option added.
6780ca7a 2452\f
402b123d 2453* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
2454
2455Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6 2456
76551463
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2457-----
2458
7d6bad19 2459Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 2460
74553c98 2461This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 2462
f16b0819 2463This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 2464it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
2465the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2466(at your option) any later version.
76551463 2467
f16b0819 2468This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
2469but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2470MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2471GNU General Public License for more details.
2472
2473You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 2474along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
7e508a2b
AD
2475
2476 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2477 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2478 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2479 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2480 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2481 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2482 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2483 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2484 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2485 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2486 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2487 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2488 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
242cc08e 2489 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
7e508a2b 2490 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
242cc08e
AD
2491 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2492 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
dcb366b1 2493 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
d949eefd 2494 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts
7e508a2b
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2495
2496Local Variables:
2497mode: outline
e4ab1254 2498fill-column: 76
7e508a2b 2499End: