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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 (????-??-??):
64
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65** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
66
67 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
68 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
69 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
70 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
71 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
72
f1b238df 73** Named references:
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74
75 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
76 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
77 actions code.
78
79 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
80 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
81 as named references:
82
83 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
84 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
85
86 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
87
88 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
89 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
90
5b1ff423 91 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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92 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
93 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
94
5b1ff423 95 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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96 will help to stabilize them.
97
f1b238df 98** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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99
100 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
101 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
102 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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103 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
104 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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105 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
106 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
107 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
108 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
109
110 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
111 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
112 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
113 file with these directives:
114
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115 %define lr.type lalr
116 %define lr.type ielr
117 %define lr.type canonical-lr
eb45ef3b 118
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119 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
120 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
121 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
122 manual.
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123
124 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
125 stabilize them.
126
7fceb615 127** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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128
129 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
130 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
131 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
7fceb615 132 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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133 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
134 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
135 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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136 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
137 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
138 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
139 tokens.
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140
141 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
142 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
143 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
144 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
145 inconsistent states.
146
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147 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
148 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
149 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
150 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
151 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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152 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
153 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
154 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
155 power.
156
157 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
158 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
159
160 %define parse.lac full
161
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162 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
163 details including a few caveats.
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164
165 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
166 stabilize it.
167
d397d9f0 168** %define improvements:
cf499cff 169
f1b238df 170*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
50cca368 171
de5ab940 172 Each of these command-line options
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174 -D NAME[=VALUE]
175 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
176
177 -F NAME[=VALUE]
178 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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179
180 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
181
de5ab940 182 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
50cca368 183
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184 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
185 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
186 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
187 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
50cca368 188
f1b238df 189*** Variables renamed:
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190
191 The following %define variables
192
193 api.push_pull
194 lr.keep_unreachable_states
195
196 have been renamed to
197
198 api.push-pull
199 lr.keep-unreachable-states
200
201 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
202 for backward compatibility.
203
f1b238df 204*** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file:
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205
206 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
207 within quotations marks. For example,
208
209 %define api.push-pull "push"
210
211 can be rewritten as
212
213 %define api.push-pull push
214
d397d9f0 215*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
cdf3f113 216
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217*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
218
219** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
220
221** Character literals not of length one:
222
223 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
224 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
225 the following grammar to be the same token:
226
227 exp: exp '++'
228 | exp '+' exp
229 ;
230
231 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
232 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
233
234** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
235
236 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
237 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
238 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
239 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
240
241** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
242
243 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
244 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
245 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
246 and "last" members, instead of
247
248 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
249 do \
250 if (N) \
251 { \
252 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
253 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
254 } \
255 else \
256 { \
257 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
258 } \
259 while (false)
260
261 use:
262
263 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
264 do \
265 if (N) \
266 { \
267 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
268 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
269 } \
270 else \
271 { \
272 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
273 } \
274 while (false)
275
276** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
277
278 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
279 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
280 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
281 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
cdf3f113 282
f1b238df 283** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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284
285 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
286 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
287 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
288 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
289 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
290 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
291 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
292 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
293
f1b238df 294** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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295
296 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
297 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
298 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
299 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
300
301 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
302
303 instead of
304
305 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
306
307 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
308 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
309 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
310 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
311 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
312 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
313 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
314
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315** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
316
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317 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
318 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
319 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
320 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
321 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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322
323*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
324 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
325 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
326 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
327 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
328 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
329 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
330 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
331 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
332 shifted or discarded.
333
334*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
335 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
336 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
337 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
338
339*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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340 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
341 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
342 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
343 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
344 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
345 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
346 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
347 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
348 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
349 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
350 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
351 by default.
53f036ce 352
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353** Java skeleton fixes:
354
355*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
356
357*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
358 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
6771a463 359
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360*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
361
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362** -W/--warnings fixes:
363
364*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
365
366 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
367 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
368
369 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
370
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371*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
372
373 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
374 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
375
376 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
377
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378*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings.
379
380 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
381 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
382 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
383 suppress all warnings:
384
385 bison -Wnone gram.y
386
64877e5e 387* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
8b9e021f 388
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389** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
390 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
391
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392** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
393 been fixed.
394
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395** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
396
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397** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
398 been fixed.
399
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400** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
401 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
402 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
403 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
404
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405** Minor documentation fixes.
406
e19a049c 407* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
74553c98 408
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409** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
410 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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411 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
412 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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413 affected platforms.
414
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415** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
416
417 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
418 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
419 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
420 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
421 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
422 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
423 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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424 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
425 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
8bb3a2e7 426
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427** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
428
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429** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
430 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
431 avoided.
c938d650 432
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433** %code is now a permanent feature.
434
435 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
436
437 %{CODE%}
438
439 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
440 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
441
442 %code {CODE}
443 %code requires {CODE}
444 %code provides {CODE}
445 %code top {CODE}
446
447 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
448 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
449 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
450 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
451 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
452
453 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
454 is still considered experimental.
455
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456** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
457
458 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
459 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
460 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
461 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
462 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
463 specified by POSIX.
464
465 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
466 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
467 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
468 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
469 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
470 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
471 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
472
473 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
474
475 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
476 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
477 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
478 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
479 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
480 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
481 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
482 be removed altogether.
483
484 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
485 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
486 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
487 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
488 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
489 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
490 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
491 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
492 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
493 2.4.2 is not necessary.
494
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495** Internationalization.
496
497 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
498 message translations were not installed although supported by the
499 host system.
500
74553c98 501* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 502
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503** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
504 declarations have been fixed.
1979121c 505
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506** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
507
508 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
509 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
510
511 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
512
513 instead of
514
515 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
516
517 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
518 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
519 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
520 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
521 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
522 feature.
523
524** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 525
402b123d 526* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 527
402b123d 528** %language is an experimental feature.
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529
530 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
531 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
532 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
533 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
534 in future releases.
7bd1665a 535
402b123d 536** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 537
402b123d 538** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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539 fixed.
540
402b123d 541* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 542
402b123d 543** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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544 are now deprecated:
545
546 %define NAME "VALUE"
547
402b123d 548** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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549
550 %define api.pure
551
552 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
553 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
554
402b123d 555** Push Parsing
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556
557 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 558 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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559 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
560 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
561 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
562
563 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
564 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
565
566 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
567
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568 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
569 feedback will help to stabilize it.
570
402b123d 571** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
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572 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
573 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 574
402b123d 575** Java
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576
577 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
578 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
579 %skeleton to select it.
580
581 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
582
583 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
584 feedback will help to stabilize it.
585
402b123d 586** %language
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587
588 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
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589 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
590 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
591 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 592
402b123d 593** XML Automaton Report
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594
595 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
596 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
597 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 598
402b123d 599** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
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600 %defines. For example:
601
602 %defines "parser.h"
603
402b123d 604** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
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605 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
606 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
607 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 608
402b123d 609** Unreachable State Removal
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610
611 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
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612 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
613 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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614
615 1. Removes unreachable states.
616
617 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
618 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
619 directives in existing grammar files.
620
621 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 622 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 623
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624 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
625
626 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
627
628 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
629 for further discussion.
630
402b123d 631** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 632
c373bf8b 633 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
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634 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
635 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
636 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
637 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
638 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
639 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
640 code.
641
402b123d 642** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 643 name.
1bb2bd75 644
402b123d 645** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
646 deprecated:
647
648 %file-prefix "parser"
649 %name-prefix "c_"
650 %output "parser.c"
651
402b123d 652** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
653
654 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
655 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
656 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
657 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
658 it:
659
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660 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
661 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
662 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
663 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 664
61fee93e
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665 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
666 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
667 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
668 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
669
670 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
671 determine whether they should become permanent features.
672
402b123d 673** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
674
675 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
676 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
677 about unused $2 in:
678
679 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
680
681 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
682 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
683
684 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
685
686 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
687 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
688 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
689
59da312b 690 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
691 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
692
402b123d 693** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
694
695 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
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696 %printer's:
697
698 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
699 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
700 declared semantic type tags.
701
3ebecc24 702 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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703 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
704 type tags.
705
706 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 707 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
708 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
709 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
710
85894313
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711 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
712 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
713 features.
714
12e35840
JD
715 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
716 details.
717
402b123d 718** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
719 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
720 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
721
402b123d 722** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
723 completely removed from Bison.
724
402b123d 725* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 726
402b123d 727** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
728 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
729 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
730 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
731 and is required by POSIX.
732
402b123d 733** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
734 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
735
402b123d 736** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
737
738 For example:
739
b2a0b7ca
JD
740 %union { char *string; }
741 %token <string> STRING1
742 %token <string> STRING2
743 %type <string> string1
744 %type <string> string2
745 %union { char character; }
746 %token <character> CHR
747 %type <character> chr
748 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
749 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
750 %destructor { } <character>
751
752 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
753 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
754 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
755 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
756 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 757
85894313
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758 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
759 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
760 future versions.]
761
402b123d 762** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
763 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
764 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
765 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
766 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
767
402b123d 768** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 769 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
770
771 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
772 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
773 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
774 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 775 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 776
34f98f46 777 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
778 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
779 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
780 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
781 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
782 after the token definitions.
783
784 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
785 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
786
402b123d 787** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
788 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
789 %after-header.
790
791 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
792 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
793 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
794 convenient for you:
795
796 %before-header {
797 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
798 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
799 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
800 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
801 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
802 }
803 %start-header {
804 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
805 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
806 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
807 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
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808 }
809 %union {
34f98f46
JD
810 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
811 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
812 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 813 }
34f98f46
JD
814 %end-header {
815 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
816 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
817 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
818 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
819 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 820 }
34f98f46
JD
821 %after-header {
822 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
823 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
824 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
825 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
826 * Bison-generated definitions. */
827 }
828
829 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
830 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 831
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JD
832 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
833 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
834
402b123d 835** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
836 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
837 in a future release.
742e4900 838
402b123d 839* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 840
402b123d 841** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
842 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
843
402b123d 844** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
845 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
846
402b123d 847* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 848
402b123d 849** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
850 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
851 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 852
402b123d 853** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 854
402b123d 855** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 856
402b123d 857** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
858 their contents together.
859
402b123d 860** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
861 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
862 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 863
8f3596a6 864 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
865 | exp "+" exp
866 ;
affac613 867
8f3596a6
AD
868 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
869 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 870 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 871
4e26c69e
PE
872 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
873 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
874 | exp "+" exp
875 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 876 ;
affac613 877
4e26c69e
PE
878 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
879 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
880 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 881
8f3596a6 882 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
883 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
884 ;
885
84866159
AD
886 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
887 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
888
889 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
890
721be13c
PE
891 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
892 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 893
402b123d 894** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
895 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
896 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
897 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 898
402b123d 899** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
900 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
901 instead of warnings.
902
402b123d 903** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
904 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
905 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 906
402b123d 907** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 908
402b123d 909** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
910 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
911 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 912
402b123d 913** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
914 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
915 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
916 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
917 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
918
919 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
920 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
921 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
922 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 923
b50d2359 924 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 925 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 926
402b123d 927** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 928\f
402b123d 929* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 930
402b123d 931** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 932
402b123d 933** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
934 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
935 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
936 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
937 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
938 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 939
402b123d 940** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
941 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
942 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
943 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
944
402b123d 945** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
946 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
947 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
948
402b123d 949** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
950 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
951 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
952 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
953 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 954\f
402b123d 955* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 956
402b123d 957** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 958
82de6b0d
PE
959 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
960 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
961 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
962 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
963 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 964
82de6b0d
PE
965 - Error token location.
966 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
967 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
968 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
969 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 970
82de6b0d
PE
971 - Semicolon changes:
972 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
973 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 974
82de6b0d
PE
975 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
976 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
977 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
978 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 979
82de6b0d 980 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 981
402b123d 982** New features
1452af69 983
82de6b0d 984 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 985
82de6b0d
PE
986 - New directive: %initial-action.
987 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
988 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 989
82de6b0d
PE
990 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
991 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 992
82de6b0d
PE
993 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
994 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 995
82de6b0d 996 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 997 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 998
82de6b0d 999 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1000
82de6b0d
PE
1001 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1002 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1003
402b123d 1004** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1005
82de6b0d
PE
1006 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1007 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1008 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1009 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1010 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1011 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1012
82de6b0d
PE
1013 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1014 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1015
82de6b0d 1016 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1017\f
402b123d 1018* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1019
402b123d 1020** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1021 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1022
402b123d 1023** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1024
dc546b0f
PE
1025 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1026 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1027
dc546b0f
PE
1028 - %destructor
1029 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1030 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1031
dc546b0f
PE
1032 - %error-verbose
1033 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1034
dc546b0f
PE
1035 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1036 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1037
402b123d 1038** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1039
dc546b0f
PE
1040 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1041 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1042 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1043
dc546b0f
PE
1044 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1045 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1046 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1047 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1048 be consistent.
74724a70 1049
dc546b0f
PE
1050 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1051 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1052
dc546b0f
PE
1053 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1054 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1055
dc546b0f
PE
1056 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1057 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1058
dc546b0f
PE
1059 - Yacc command and library now available
1060 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1061 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1062 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1063 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1064
dc546b0f 1065 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1066
dc546b0f
PE
1067 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1068 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1069 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1070
402b123d 1071** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1072
dc546b0f
PE
1073 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1074 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1075 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1076 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1077 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1078 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1079
dc546b0f
PE
1080 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1081 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1082
dc546b0f
PE
1083 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1084 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1085
dc546b0f
PE
1086 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1087 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1088 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1089
402b123d 1090** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1091
dc546b0f
PE
1092 - GLR and inline
1093 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1094 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1095
dc546b0f
PE
1096 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1097 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1098
402b123d 1099** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1100 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1101 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1102
402b123d 1103** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1104 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1105
402b123d 1106** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1107 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1108 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1109 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1110\f
402b123d 1111* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1112
402b123d 1113** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1114
402b123d 1115** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1116
402b123d 1117** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1118 Fix spurious parse errors.
1119
402b123d 1120** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1121 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1122 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1123
402b123d 1124** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1125 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1126 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1127
1128 untyped: ... typed;
1129
1130 but the converse remains an error:
1131
1132 typed: ... untyped;
1133
402b123d 1134** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1135 The following code:
1136
1137 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1138
1139 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1140 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1141\f
402b123d 1142* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1143
402b123d 1144** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1145 The declaration
1146 %glr-parser
1147 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1148 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1149 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1150 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1151
7933f2b5 1152 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1153 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1154
402b123d 1155** Output Directory
8c165d89 1156 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1157 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1158 now creates `bar.c'.
1159
402b123d 1160** Undefined token
007a50a4 1161 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1162 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1163
402b123d 1164** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1165 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1166 no longer the case.
1167
402b123d 1168** Error token
e88dbdbf 1169 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1170 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1171 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1172 will be mapped onto another number.
1173
402b123d 1174** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1175 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1176 error recovery is possible.
1177
402b123d 1178** End token
217598da
AD
1179 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1180
402b123d 1181** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1182 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1183 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1184 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1185 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1186 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1187 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1188 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1189 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1190
402b123d 1191** Traces
5504898e
AD
1192 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1193
402b123d 1194** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1195 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1196 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1197 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1198 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1199
402b123d 1200** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1201 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1202 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1203 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1204
402b123d 1205** Useless rules
643a5994 1206 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1207 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1208
402b123d 1209** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1210 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1211
402b123d 1212** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1213 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1214 reported.
1215
402b123d 1216** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1217 On a grammar such as
1218
1219 %token useless useful
1220 %%
1221 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1222
1223 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1224 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1225
402b123d 1226** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1227 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1228
402b123d 1229** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1230 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1231 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1232 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1233 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1234
402b123d 1235** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1236 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1237 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1238 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1239 For instance
7bd6c77e 1240 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1241 or
7bd6c77e 1242 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1243
402b123d 1244** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1245 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1246
402b123d 1247** New translations
a861a339 1248 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1249 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1250
402b123d 1251** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1252 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1253
402b123d 1254** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1255 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1256 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1257 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1258
402b123d 1259** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1260 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1261 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1262 - itemset
1263 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1264 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1265 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1266 - solved
1267 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1268 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1269 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1270
402b123d 1271** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1272 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1273 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1274
1275 %type <foo> bar
1276 %%
1277 bar: '0' {} '0';
1278
1279 This is fixed.
a861a339 1280
402b123d 1281** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1282\f
402b123d 1283* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1284
402b123d 1285** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1286 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1287 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1288 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1289
1290 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1291 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1292 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1293 kludge will be disabled.
1294
1295 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1296 extended.
76551463 1297\f
402b123d 1298* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1299
402b123d 1300** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1301 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1302 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1303
402b123d 1304** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1305 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1306 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1307 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1308 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1309 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1310
402b123d 1311** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1312 many portability hassles.
1313
402b123d 1314** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1315
402b123d 1316** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1317\f
402b123d 1318* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1319
402b123d 1320** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1321 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1322 under some conditions.
1323
402b123d 1324** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1325 As is done with $n.
1326\f
402b123d 1327* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1328
402b123d 1329** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1330
402b123d 1331** Portability fixes
76551463 1332
402b123d 1333** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1334\f
402b123d 1335* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1336
402b123d 1337** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1338
402b123d 1339** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1340 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1341 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1342 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1343 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1344
402b123d 1345** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1346 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1347 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1348
1349 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1350 problems as on AIX.
1351
402b123d 1352** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1353
402b123d 1354** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1355 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1356
402b123d 1357** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1358 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1359 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1360 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1361
402b123d 1362** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1363 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1364 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1365
402b123d 1366** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1367 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1368
402b123d 1369** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1370 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1371
402b123d 1372** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1373 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1374
402b123d 1375** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1376 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1377 any warning.
1378
402b123d 1379** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1380
402b123d 1381** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1382
402b123d 1383** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1384
402b123d 1385** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1386 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1387 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1388 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1389
402b123d 1390** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1391 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1392 previous allocations were not freed.
1393
402b123d 1394** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1395 Some newlines were missing.
1396 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1397
402b123d 1398** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1399 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1400
402b123d 1401** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1402 Was not used.
1403 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1404
402b123d 1405** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1406
402b123d 1407** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1408
402b123d 1409** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1410
402b123d 1411** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1412 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1413
402b123d 1414** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1415
402b123d 1416** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1417 New.
1418
402b123d 1419** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1420 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1421\f
402b123d 1422* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1423
402b123d 1424** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1425 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1426 argument.
1427
402b123d 1428** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1429 experiment.
1430
402b123d 1431** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1432\f
402b123d 1433* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1434
402b123d 1435** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1436 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1437 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1438 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1439
402b123d 1440** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1441
402b123d 1442** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1443
402b123d 1444** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1445
402b123d 1446** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1447
402b123d 1448** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1449
402b123d 1450** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1451
402b123d 1452** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1453
402b123d 1454** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1455
402b123d 1456** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1457
402b123d 1458** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1459 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1460
402b123d 1461** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1462 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1463 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1464
402b123d 1465** @$
f987e9d2 1466 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1467\f
402b123d 1468* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1469
402b123d 1470** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1471
402b123d 1472** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1473
402b123d 1474** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1475
402b123d 1476** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1477\f
402b123d 1478* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1479
402b123d 1480** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1481 some systems has been fixed.
1482\f
402b123d 1483* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1484
402b123d 1485** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1486
402b123d 1487** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1488
402b123d 1489** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1490
402b123d 1491** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1492
402b123d 1493** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1494
402b123d 1495** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1496
402b123d 1497** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1498 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1499\f
402b123d 1500* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1501
402b123d 1502** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1503the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1504
402b123d 1505** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1506example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1507of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1508
402b123d 1509** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1510and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1511table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1512purposes.
1513
402b123d 1514** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1515directives in the parser file.
1516
402b123d 1517** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1518Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1519
402b123d 1520** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1521the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1522The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1523a switch statement body.
1524\f
402b123d 1525* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1526
4d019228
DM
1527The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1528passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1529actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1530by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1531
6780ca7a 1532Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1533\f
402b123d 1534* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1535
1536--help option added.
6780ca7a 1537\f
402b123d 1538* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1539
1540Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1541
1542Local Variables:
1543mode: outline
1544End:
76551463
AD
1545
1546-----
1547
575619af 1548Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1549
74553c98 1550This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1551
f16b0819 1552This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1553it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1554the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1555(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1556
f16b0819 1557This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1558but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1559MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1560GNU General Public License for more details.
1561
1562You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1563along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.