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4* Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
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6** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
7
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
bb9191dd 9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives
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10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
11
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
16
17 one may now declare
18
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
20
21** Java skeleton improvements
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22
23 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
24 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
25 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
26
4c6622c2 27** Variable api.tokens.prefix
99c08fb6 28
4c6622c2 29 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
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30 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
31 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
32
33 %token FILE for ERROR
4c6622c2 34 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
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35 %%
36 start: FILE for ERROR;
37
38 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
39 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
40 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
41 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
42
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43** Variable api.namespace
44
45 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
46 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
47
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48** Variable parse.error
49
50 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
51 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
52 %define parse.error "verbose".
53
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54** Semantic predicates
55
56 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
57 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
58 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
59 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
60 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
61 runtime expressions.
62
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63* Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
64
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65** Minor improvements have been made to the manual.
66
28801043 67* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
50cca368 68
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69** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
70
71 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
72 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
73 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
74 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
75 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
76
f1b238df 77** Named references:
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78
79 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
80 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
81 actions code.
82
83 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
84 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
85 as named references:
86
4b568fc0 87 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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88 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
89
90 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
91
4b568fc0 92 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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93 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
94
5b1ff423 95 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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96 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
97 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
98
5b1ff423 99 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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100 will help to stabilize them.
101
f1b238df 102** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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103
104 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
105 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
7262f54f 106 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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107 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
108 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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109 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
110 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
111 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
112 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
113
114 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
115 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
116 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
117 file with these directives:
118
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119 %define lr.type lalr
120 %define lr.type ielr
121 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 122
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123 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
124 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
125 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
126 manual.
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127
128 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
129 stabilize them.
130
7fceb615 131** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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132
133 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
134 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
135 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 136 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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137 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
138 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
139 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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140 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
141 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
142 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
143 tokens.
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144
145 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
146 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
147 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
148 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
149 inconsistent states.
150
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151 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
152 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
153 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
154 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
155 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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156 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
157 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
158 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
159 power.
160
161 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
162 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
163
164 %define parse.lac full
165
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166 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
167 details including a few caveats.
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168
169 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
170 stabilize it.
171
d397d9f0 172** %define improvements:
cf499cff 173
f1b238df 174*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 175
de5ab940 176 Each of these command-line options
50cca368 177
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178 -D NAME[=VALUE]
179 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
180
181 -F NAME[=VALUE]
182 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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183
184 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
185
de5ab940 186 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 187
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188 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
189 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
190 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
4b568fc0 191 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
50cca368 192
f1b238df 193*** Variables renamed:
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194
195 The following %define variables
196
197 api.push_pull
198 lr.keep_unreachable_states
199
200 have been renamed to
201
202 api.push-pull
203 lr.keep-unreachable-states
204
205 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
206 for backward compatibility.
207
7262f54f 208*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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209
210 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
211 within quotations marks. For example,
212
213 %define api.push-pull "push"
214
215 can be rewritten as
216
217 %define api.push-pull push
218
d397d9f0 219*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 220
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221*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
222
223** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
224
225** Character literals not of length one:
226
227 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
228 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
229 the following grammar to be the same token:
230
231 exp: exp '++'
232 | exp '+' exp
233 ;
234
235 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
236 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
237
238** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
239
240 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
241 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
242 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
243 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
244
245** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
246
247 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
248 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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249 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
250 and `last' members, instead of
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251
252 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
253 do \
254 if (N) \
255 { \
256 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
257 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
258 } \
259 else \
260 { \
261 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
262 } \
263 while (false)
264
265 use:
266
267 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
268 do \
269 if (N) \
270 { \
271 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
272 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
273 } \
274 else \
275 { \
276 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
277 } \
278 while (false)
279
280** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
281
282 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
283 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
284 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
285 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 286
f1b238df 287** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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288
289 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
290 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
291 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
292 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
293 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
294 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
295 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
296 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
297
f1b238df 298** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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299
300 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
301 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
302 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
303 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
304
305 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
306
307 instead of
308
309 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
310
311 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
312 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
313 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
314 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
315 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
316 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
317 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
318
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319** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
320
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321 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
322 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
323 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
324 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
325 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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326
327*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
328 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
329 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
330 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
331 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
4b568fc0 332 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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333 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
334 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
335 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
336 shifted or discarded.
337
338*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
339 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
340 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
341 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
342
343*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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344 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
345 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
346 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
347 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
348 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
349 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
350 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
351 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
352 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
353 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
354 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
355 by default.
53f036ce 356
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357** Java skeleton fixes:
358
359*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
360
361*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
362 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 363
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364*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
365
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366** -W/--warnings fixes:
367
4b568fc0 368*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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369
370 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
371 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
372
373 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
374
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375*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
376
377 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
378 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
4b568fc0 379 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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380 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
381 example:
382
383 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
384 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
385 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
386 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
387
388 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
389 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
390 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
391 then have no effect on the conflict report.
392
4b568fc0 393*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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394
395 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
396 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
397
398 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
399
28801043 400*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
c39014ae 401
4b568fc0 402 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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403 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
404 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
405 suppress all warnings:
406
407 bison -Wnone gram.y
408
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409** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
410
411 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
412 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
413 produced an assertion failure. For example:
414
415 %left END 0
416
417 This bug has been fixed.
418
64877e5e 419* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 420
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421** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
422 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
423
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424** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
425 been fixed.
426
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427** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
428
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429** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
430 been fixed.
431
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432** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
433 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
434 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
435 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
436
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437** Minor documentation fixes.
438
e19a049c 439* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 440
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441** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
442 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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443 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
444 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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445 affected platforms.
446
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447** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
448
449 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
450 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
451 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
452 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
453 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
454 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
455 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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456 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
457 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 458
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459** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
460
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461** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
462 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
463 avoided.
c938d650 464
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465** %code is now a permanent feature.
466
467 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
468
469 %{CODE%}
470
471 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
472 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
473
474 %code {CODE}
475 %code requires {CODE}
476 %code provides {CODE}
477 %code top {CODE}
478
479 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
480 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
481 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
482 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
483 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
484
485 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
486 is still considered experimental.
487
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488** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
489
490 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
491 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
492 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
493 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
494 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
495 specified by POSIX.
496
497 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
498 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
499 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
500 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
501 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
502 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
503 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
504
505 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
506
507 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
508 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
509 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
510 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
511 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
512 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
513 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
514 be removed altogether.
515
516 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
517 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
518 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
519 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
520 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
521 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
522 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
523 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
524 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
525 2.4.2 is not necessary.
526
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527** Internationalization.
528
529 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
530 message translations were not installed although supported by the
531 host system.
532
74553c98 533* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 534
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535** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
536 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 537
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538** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
539
540 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
541 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
542
543 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
544
545 instead of
546
547 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
548
549 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
550 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
551 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
552 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
553 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
554 feature.
555
556** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 557
402b123d 558* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 559
402b123d 560** %language is an experimental feature.
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561
562 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
563 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
564 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
565 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
566 in future releases.
7bd1665a 567
402b123d 568** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 569
402b123d 570** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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571 fixed.
572
402b123d 573* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 574
402b123d 575** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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576 are now deprecated:
577
578 %define NAME "VALUE"
579
402b123d 580** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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581
582 %define api.pure
583
584 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
585 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
586
402b123d 587** Push Parsing
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588
589 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 590 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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591 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
592 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
593 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
594
595 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
596 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
597
598 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
599
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600 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
601 feedback will help to stabilize it.
602
402b123d 603** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
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604 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
605 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 606
402b123d 607** Java
59da312b
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608
609 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
610 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
611 %skeleton to select it.
612
613 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
614
615 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
616 feedback will help to stabilize it.
617
402b123d 618** %language
59da312b
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619
620 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
621 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
622 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
623 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 624
402b123d 625** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
626
627 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
628 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
629 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 630
402b123d 631** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
632 %defines. For example:
633
634 %defines "parser.h"
635
402b123d 636** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
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637 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
638 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
639 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 640
402b123d 641** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
642
643 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
644 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
645 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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646
647 1. Removes unreachable states.
648
649 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
650 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
651 directives in existing grammar files.
652
653 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 654 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 655
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656 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
657
658 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
659
660 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
661 for further discussion.
662
402b123d 663** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 664
c373bf8b 665 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
JD
666 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
667 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
668 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
669 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
670 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
671 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
672 code.
673
402b123d 674** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 675 name.
1bb2bd75 676
402b123d 677** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
678 deprecated:
679
680 %file-prefix "parser"
681 %name-prefix "c_"
682 %output "parser.c"
683
402b123d 684** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
685
686 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
687 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
688 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
689 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
690 it:
691
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692 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
693 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
694 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
695 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 696
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697 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
698 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
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699 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
700 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
701
702 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
703 determine whether they should become permanent features.
704
402b123d 705** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
706
707 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
708 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
709 about unused $2 in:
710
711 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
712
713 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
714 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
715
716 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
717
718 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
719 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
720 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
721
59da312b 722 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
723 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
724
402b123d 725** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
726
727 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
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728 %printer's:
729
730 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
731 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
732 declared semantic type tags.
733
3ebecc24 734 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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735 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
736 type tags.
737
738 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 739 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
740 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
741 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
742
85894313
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743 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
744 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
745 features.
746
12e35840
JD
747 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
748 details.
749
402b123d 750** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
751 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
752 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
753
402b123d 754** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
755 completely removed from Bison.
756
402b123d 757* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 758
402b123d 759** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
760 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
761 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
762 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
763 and is required by POSIX.
764
402b123d 765** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
766 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
767
402b123d 768** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
769
770 For example:
771
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JD
772 %union { char *string; }
773 %token <string> STRING1
774 %token <string> STRING2
775 %type <string> string1
776 %type <string> string2
777 %union { char character; }
778 %token <character> CHR
779 %type <character> chr
780 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
781 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
782 %destructor { } <character>
783
784 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
785 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
786 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
787 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
788 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 789
85894313
JD
790 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
791 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
792 future versions.]
793
402b123d 794** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
795 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
796 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
797 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
798 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
799
402b123d 800** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 801 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
802
803 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
804 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
805 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
806 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 807 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 808
34f98f46 809 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
810 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
811 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
812 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
813 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
814 after the token definitions.
815
816 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
817 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
818
402b123d 819** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
820 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
821 %after-header.
822
823 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
824 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
825 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
826 convenient for you:
827
828 %before-header {
829 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
830 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
831 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
832 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
833 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
834 }
835 %start-header {
836 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
837 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
838 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
839 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
840 }
841 %union {
34f98f46
JD
842 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
843 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
844 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 845 }
34f98f46
JD
846 %end-header {
847 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
848 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
849 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
850 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
851 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 852 }
34f98f46
JD
853 %after-header {
854 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
855 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
856 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
857 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
858 * Bison-generated definitions. */
859 }
860
861 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
862 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 863
85894313
JD
864 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
865 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
866
402b123d 867** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
868 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
869 in a future release.
742e4900 870
402b123d 871* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 872
402b123d 873** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
874 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
875
402b123d 876** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
877 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
878
402b123d 879* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 880
402b123d 881** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
882 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
883 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 884
402b123d 885** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 886
402b123d 887** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 888
402b123d 889** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
890 their contents together.
891
402b123d 892** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
893 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
894 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 895
8f3596a6 896 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
897 | exp "+" exp
898 ;
affac613 899
8f3596a6
AD
900 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
901 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 902 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 903
4e26c69e
PE
904 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
905 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
906 | exp "+" exp
907 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 908 ;
affac613 909
4e26c69e
PE
910 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
911 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
912 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 913
8f3596a6 914 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
915 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
916 ;
917
84866159
AD
918 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
919 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
920
921 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
922
721be13c
PE
923 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
924 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 925
402b123d 926** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
927 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
928 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
929 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 930
402b123d 931** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
932 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
933 instead of warnings.
934
402b123d 935** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
936 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
937 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 938
402b123d 939** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 940
402b123d 941** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
942 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
943 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 944
402b123d 945** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
946 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
947 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
948 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
949 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
950
951 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
952 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
953 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
954 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 955
b50d2359 956 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 957 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 958
402b123d 959** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 960\f
402b123d 961* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 962
402b123d 963** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 964
402b123d 965** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
966 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
967 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
968 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
969 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
970 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 971
402b123d 972** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
973 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
974 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
975 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
976
402b123d 977** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
978 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
979 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
980
402b123d 981** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
982 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
983 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
984 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
985 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 986\f
402b123d 987* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 988
402b123d 989** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 990
82de6b0d
PE
991 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
992 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
993 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
994 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
995 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 996
82de6b0d
PE
997 - Error token location.
998 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
999 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1000 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1001 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 1002
82de6b0d
PE
1003 - Semicolon changes:
1004 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1005 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 1006
82de6b0d
PE
1007 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1008 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1009 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1010 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 1011
82de6b0d 1012 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 1013
402b123d 1014** New features
1452af69 1015
82de6b0d 1016 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1017
82de6b0d
PE
1018 - New directive: %initial-action.
1019 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1020 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1021
82de6b0d
PE
1022 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1023 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1024
82de6b0d
PE
1025 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1026 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1027
82de6b0d 1028 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 1029 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1030
82de6b0d 1031 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1032
82de6b0d
PE
1033 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1034 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1035
402b123d 1036** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1037
82de6b0d
PE
1038 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1039 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1040 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1041 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1042 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1043 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1044
82de6b0d
PE
1045 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1046 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1047
82de6b0d 1048 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1049\f
402b123d 1050* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1051
402b123d 1052** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1053 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1054
402b123d 1055** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1056
dc546b0f
PE
1057 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1058 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1059
dc546b0f
PE
1060 - %destructor
1061 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1062 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1063
dc546b0f
PE
1064 - %error-verbose
1065 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1066
dc546b0f
PE
1067 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1068 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1069
402b123d 1070** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1071
dc546b0f
PE
1072 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1073 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1074 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1075
dc546b0f
PE
1076 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1077 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1078 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1079 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1080 be consistent.
74724a70 1081
dc546b0f
PE
1082 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1083 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1084
dc546b0f
PE
1085 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1086 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1087
dc546b0f
PE
1088 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1089 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1090
dc546b0f
PE
1091 - Yacc command and library now available
1092 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1093 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1094 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1095 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1096
dc546b0f 1097 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1098
dc546b0f
PE
1099 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1100 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1101 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1102
402b123d 1103** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1104
dc546b0f
PE
1105 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1106 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1107 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1108 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1109 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1110 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1111
dc546b0f
PE
1112 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1113 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1114
dc546b0f
PE
1115 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1116 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1117
dc546b0f
PE
1118 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1119 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1120 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1121
402b123d 1122** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1123
dc546b0f
PE
1124 - GLR and inline
1125 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1126 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1127
dc546b0f
PE
1128 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1129 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1130
402b123d 1131** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1132 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1133 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1134
402b123d 1135** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1136 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1137
402b123d 1138** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1139 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1140 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1141 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1142\f
402b123d 1143* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1144
402b123d 1145** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1146
402b123d 1147** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1148
402b123d 1149** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1150 Fix spurious parse errors.
1151
402b123d 1152** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1153 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1154 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1155
402b123d 1156** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1157 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1158 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1159
1160 untyped: ... typed;
1161
1162 but the converse remains an error:
1163
1164 typed: ... untyped;
1165
402b123d 1166** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1167 The following code:
1168
1169 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1170
1171 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1172 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1173\f
402b123d 1174* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1175
402b123d 1176** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1177 The declaration
1178 %glr-parser
1179 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1180 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1181 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1182 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1183
7933f2b5 1184 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1185 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1186
402b123d 1187** Output Directory
8c165d89 1188 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1189 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1190 now creates `bar.c'.
1191
402b123d 1192** Undefined token
007a50a4 1193 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1194 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1195
402b123d 1196** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1197 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1198 no longer the case.
1199
402b123d 1200** Error token
e88dbdbf 1201 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1202 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1203 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1204 will be mapped onto another number.
1205
402b123d 1206** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1207 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1208 error recovery is possible.
1209
402b123d 1210** End token
217598da
AD
1211 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1212
402b123d 1213** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1214 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1215 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1216 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1217 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1218 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1219 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1220 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1221 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1222
402b123d 1223** Traces
5504898e
AD
1224 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1225
402b123d 1226** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1227 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1228 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1229 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1230 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1231
402b123d 1232** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1233 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1234 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1235 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1236
402b123d 1237** Useless rules
643a5994 1238 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1239 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1240
402b123d 1241** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1242 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1243
402b123d 1244** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1245 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1246 reported.
1247
402b123d 1248** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1249 On a grammar such as
1250
1251 %token useless useful
1252 %%
1253 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1254
1255 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1256 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1257
402b123d 1258** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1259 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1260
402b123d 1261** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1262 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1263 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1264 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1265 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1266
402b123d 1267** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1268 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1269 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1270 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1271 For instance
7bd6c77e 1272 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1273 or
7bd6c77e 1274 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1275
402b123d 1276** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1277 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1278
402b123d 1279** New translations
a861a339 1280 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1281 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1282
402b123d 1283** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1284 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1285
402b123d 1286** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1287 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1288 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1289 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1290
402b123d 1291** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1292 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1293 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1294 - itemset
1295 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1296 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1297 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1298 - solved
1299 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1300 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1301 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1302
402b123d 1303** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1304 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1305 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1306
1307 %type <foo> bar
1308 %%
1309 bar: '0' {} '0';
1310
1311 This is fixed.
a861a339 1312
402b123d 1313** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1314\f
402b123d 1315* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1316
402b123d 1317** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1318 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1319 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1320 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1321
1322 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1323 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1324 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1325 kludge will be disabled.
1326
1327 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1328 extended.
76551463 1329\f
402b123d 1330* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1331
402b123d 1332** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1333 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1334 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1335
402b123d 1336** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1337 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1338 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1339 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1340 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1341 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1342
402b123d 1343** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1344 many portability hassles.
1345
402b123d 1346** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1347
402b123d 1348** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1349\f
402b123d 1350* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1351
402b123d 1352** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1353 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1354 under some conditions.
1355
402b123d 1356** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1357 As is done with $n.
1358\f
402b123d 1359* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1360
402b123d 1361** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1362
402b123d 1363** Portability fixes
76551463 1364
402b123d 1365** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1366\f
402b123d 1367* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1368
402b123d 1369** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1370
402b123d 1371** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1372 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1373 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1374 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1375 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1376
402b123d 1377** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1378 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1379 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1380
1381 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1382 problems as on AIX.
1383
402b123d 1384** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1385
402b123d 1386** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1387 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1388
402b123d 1389** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1390 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1391 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1392 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1393
402b123d 1394** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1395 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1396 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1397
402b123d 1398** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1399 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1400
402b123d 1401** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1402 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1403
402b123d 1404** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1405 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1406
402b123d 1407** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1408 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1409 any warning.
1410
402b123d 1411** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1412
402b123d 1413** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1414
402b123d 1415** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1416
402b123d 1417** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1418 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1419 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1420 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1421
402b123d 1422** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1423 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1424 previous allocations were not freed.
1425
402b123d 1426** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1427 Some newlines were missing.
1428 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1429
402b123d 1430** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1431 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1432
402b123d 1433** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1434 Was not used.
1435 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1436
402b123d 1437** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1438
402b123d 1439** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1440
402b123d 1441** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1442
402b123d 1443** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1444 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1445
402b123d 1446** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1447
402b123d 1448** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1449 New.
1450
402b123d 1451** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1452 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1453\f
402b123d 1454* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1455
402b123d 1456** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1457 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1458 argument.
1459
402b123d 1460** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1461 experiment.
1462
402b123d 1463** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1464\f
402b123d 1465* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1466
402b123d 1467** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1468 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1469 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1470 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1471
402b123d 1472** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1473
402b123d 1474** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1475
402b123d 1476** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1477
402b123d 1478** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1479
402b123d 1480** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1481
402b123d 1482** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1483
402b123d 1484** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1485
402b123d 1486** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1487
402b123d 1488** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1489
402b123d 1490** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1491 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1492
402b123d 1493** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1494 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1495 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1496
402b123d 1497** @$
f987e9d2 1498 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1499\f
402b123d 1500* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1501
402b123d 1502** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1503
402b123d 1504** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1505
402b123d 1506** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1507
402b123d 1508** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1509\f
402b123d 1510* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1511
402b123d 1512** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1513 some systems has been fixed.
1514\f
402b123d 1515* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1516
402b123d 1517** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1518
402b123d 1519** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1520
402b123d 1521** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1522
402b123d 1523** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1524
402b123d 1525** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1526
402b123d 1527** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1528
402b123d 1529** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1530 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1531\f
402b123d 1532* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1533
402b123d 1534** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1535the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1536
402b123d 1537** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1538example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1539of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1540
402b123d 1541** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1542and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1543table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1544purposes.
1545
402b123d 1546** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1547directives in the parser file.
1548
402b123d 1549** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1550Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1551
402b123d 1552** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1553the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1554The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1555a switch statement body.
1556\f
402b123d 1557* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1558
4d019228
DM
1559The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1560passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1561actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1562by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1563
6780ca7a 1564Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1565\f
402b123d 1566* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1567
1568--help option added.
6780ca7a 1569\f
402b123d 1570* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1571
1572Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1573
1574Local Variables:
1575mode: outline
1576End:
76551463
AD
1577
1578-----
1579
575619af 1580Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1581
74553c98 1582This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1583
f16b0819 1584This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1585it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1586the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1587(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1588
f16b0819 1589This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1590but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1591MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1592GNU General Public License for more details.
1593
1594You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1595along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.