]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blame - NEWS
Don't let -Wnone disable -Werror.
[bison.git] / NEWS
CommitLineData
6780ca7a
DM
1Bison News
2----------
3af4feb2 3
006faedf
JD
4* Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
5
eb8c66bb
JD
6** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
7
8 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
9 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
10 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
11 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
12 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
13
3b1977ea 14** Named references:
348f5608
AR
15
16 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
17 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
18 actions code.
19
20 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
21 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
22 as named references:
23
24 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
25 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
26
27 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
28
29 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
30 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
31
f840c05a 32 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
348f5608
AR
33 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
34 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
35
f840c05a 36 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
348f5608
AR
37 will help to stabilize them.
38
3b1977ea 39** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
34a6c2d1
JD
40
41 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
42 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
43 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
3b1977ea
JD
44 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
45 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
34a6c2d1
JD
46 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
47 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
48 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
49 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
50
51 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
52 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
53 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
54 file with these directives:
55
f37495f6
JD
56 %define lr.type lalr
57 %define lr.type ielr
58 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 59
6f04ee6c
JD
60 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
61 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
62 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
63 manual.
34a6c2d1
JD
64
65 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
66 stabilize them.
67
6f04ee6c 68** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
4c38b19e
JD
69
70 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
71 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
72 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 73 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
4c38b19e
JD
74 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
75 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
76 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
6f04ee6c
JD
77 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
78 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
79 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
80 tokens.
4c38b19e
JD
81
82 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
83 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
84 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
85 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
86 inconsistent states.
87
6f04ee6c
JD
88 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
89 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
90 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
91 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
92 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
4c38b19e
JD
93 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
94 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
95 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
96 power.
97
98 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
99 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
100
101 %define parse.lac full
102
6f04ee6c
JD
103 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
104 details including a few caveats.
4c38b19e
JD
105
106 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
107 stabilize it.
108
6ee881f6 109** %define improvements:
f37495f6 110
3b1977ea 111*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 112
34d41938 113 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 114
34d41938
JD
115 -D NAME[=VALUE]
116 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
117
118 -F NAME[=VALUE]
119 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
4ecd3681
JD
120
121 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
122
34d41938 123 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 124
34d41938
JD
125 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
126 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
127 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
128 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 129
3b1977ea 130*** Variables renamed:
812775a0
JD
131
132 The following %define variables
133
134 api.push_pull
135 lr.keep_unreachable_states
136
137 have been renamed to
138
139 api.push-pull
140 lr.keep-unreachable-states
141
142 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
143 for backward compatibility.
144
3b1977ea 145*** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file:
f37495f6
JD
146
147 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
148 within quotations marks. For example,
149
150 %define api.push-pull "push"
151
152 can be rewritten as
153
154 %define api.push-pull push
155
6ee881f6 156*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 157
6ee881f6
JD
158*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
159
160** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
161
162** Character literals not of length one:
163
164 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
165 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
166 the following grammar to be the same token:
167
168 exp: exp '++'
169 | exp '+' exp
170 ;
171
172 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
173 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
174
175** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
176
177 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
178 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
179 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
180 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
181
182** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
183
184 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
185 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
186 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
187 and "last" members, instead of
188
189 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
190 do \
191 if (N) \
192 { \
193 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
194 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
195 } \
196 else \
197 { \
198 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
199 } \
200 while (false)
201
202 use:
203
204 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
205 do \
206 if (N) \
207 { \
208 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
209 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
210 } \
211 else \
212 { \
213 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
214 } \
215 while (false)
216
217** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
218
219 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
220 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
221 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
222 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 223
3b1977ea 224** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
62efdd2a
JD
225
226 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
227 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
228 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
229 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
230 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
231 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
232 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
233 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
234
3b1977ea 235** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
a2d05674
JD
236
237 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
238 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
239 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
240 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
241
242 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
243
244 instead of
245
246 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
247
248 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
249 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
250 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
251 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
252 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
253 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
254 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
255
095a1d11
JD
256** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
257
6f04ee6c
JD
258 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
259 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
260 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
261 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
262 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
095a1d11
JD
263
264*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
265 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
266 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
267 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
268 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
269 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
270 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
271 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
272 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
273 shifted or discarded.
274
275*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
276 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
277 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
278 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
279
280*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
4c38b19e
JD
281 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
282 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
283 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
284 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
285 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
286 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
287 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
288 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
289 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
290 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
291 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
292 by default.
1fa30307 293
4c2a6e42
JD
294** Java skeleton fixes:
295
296*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
297
298*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
299 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 300
f0e2c228
JD
301*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
302
248dba53
JD
303** -W/--warnings fixes:
304
305*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
306
307 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
308 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
309
310 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
311
dab96632
JD
312*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
313
314 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
315 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
316
317 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
318
7527c744 319* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 320
4631c34f
JD
321** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
322 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
323
7a9c3cb3
JD
324** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
325 been fixed.
326
132247cd
JD
327** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
328
88bb35d6
JD
329** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
330 been fixed.
331
43fdc9fd
JD
332** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
333 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
334 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
335 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
336
cf22447c
JD
337** Minor documentation fixes.
338
ea66d039 339* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 340
47fa5747
JD
341** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
342 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
ea66d039
JD
343 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
344 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
47fa5747
JD
345 affected platforms.
346
2c203528
JD
347** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
348
349 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
350 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
351 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
352 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
353 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
354 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
355 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
43fdc9fd
JD
356 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
357 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 358
c5196098
EB
359** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
360
34731471
JD
361** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
362 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
363 avoided.
af2ffe5c 364
966aba65
JD
365** %code is now a permanent feature.
366
367 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
368
369 %{CODE%}
370
371 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
372 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
373
374 %code {CODE}
375 %code requires {CODE}
376 %code provides {CODE}
377 %code top {CODE}
378
379 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
380 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
381 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
382 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
383 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
384
385 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
386 is still considered experimental.
387
41d35e54
JD
388** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
389
390 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
391 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
392 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
393 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
394 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
395 specified by POSIX.
396
397 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
398 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
399 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
400 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
401 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
402 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
403 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
404
405 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
406
407 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
408 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
409 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
410 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
411 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
412 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
413 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
414 be removed altogether.
415
416 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
417 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
418 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
419 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
420 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
421 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
422 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
423 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
424 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
425 2.4.2 is not necessary.
426
dac8cc0d
AD
427** Internationalization.
428
429 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
430 message translations were not installed although supported by the
431 host system.
432
41930e7a 433* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 434
a957d06c
JD
435** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
436 declarations have been fixed.
437
738cde3e
AD
438** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
439
440 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
441 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
442
443 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
444
445 instead of
446
447 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
448
d07932ef
JD
449 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
450 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
451 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
452 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
453 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
454 feature.
a957d06c
JD
455
456** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 457
d6fb461d 458* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 459
d6fb461d 460** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
461
462 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
463 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
464 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
465 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
466 in future releases.
7bd1665a 467
d6fb461d 468** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 469
d6fb461d 470** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
471 fixed.
472
d6fb461d 473* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 474
d6fb461d 475** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
476 are now deprecated:
477
478 %define NAME "VALUE"
479
d6fb461d 480** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
481
482 %define api.pure
483
484 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
485 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
486
d6fb461d 487** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
488
489 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 490 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
c373bf8b
JD
491 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
492 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
493 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
494
495 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
496 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
497
498 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
499
59da312b
JD
500 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
501 feedback will help to stabilize it.
502
d6fb461d 503** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
504 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
505 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 506
d6fb461d 507** Java
59da312b
JD
508
509 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
510 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
511 %skeleton to select it.
512
513 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
514
515 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
516 feedback will help to stabilize it.
517
d6fb461d 518** %language
59da312b
JD
519
520 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
521 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
522 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
523 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 524
d6fb461d 525** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
526
527 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
528 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
529 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 530
d6fb461d 531** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
532 %defines. For example:
533
534 %defines "parser.h"
535
d6fb461d 536** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
537 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
538 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
539 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 540
d6fb461d 541** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
542
543 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
544 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
545 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
546
547 1. Removes unreachable states.
548
549 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
550 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
551 directives in existing grammar files.
552
553 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 554 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 555
31984206
JD
556 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
557
558 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
559
560 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
561 for further discussion.
562
d6fb461d 563** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 564
c373bf8b 565 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
JD
566 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
567 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
568 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
569 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
570 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
571 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
572 code.
573
d6fb461d 574** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 575 name.
1bb2bd75 576
d6fb461d 577** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
578 deprecated:
579
580 %file-prefix "parser"
581 %name-prefix "c_"
582 %output "parser.c"
583
d6fb461d 584** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
585
586 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
587 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
588 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
589 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
590 it:
591
16dc6a9e
JD
592 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
593 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
594 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
595 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 596
61fee93e
JD
597 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
598 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
599 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
600 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
601
602 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
603 determine whether they should become permanent features.
604
d6fb461d 605** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
606
607 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
608 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
609 about unused $2 in:
610
611 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
612
613 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
614 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
615
616 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
617
618 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
619 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
620 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
621
59da312b 622 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
623 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
624
d6fb461d 625** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
626
627 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
628 %printer's:
629
630 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
631 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
632 declared semantic type tags.
633
3ebecc24 634 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
635 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
636 type tags.
637
638 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 639 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
640 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
641 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
642
85894313
JD
643 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
644 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
645 features.
646
12e35840
JD
647 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
648 details.
649
d6fb461d 650** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
651 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
652 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
653
d6fb461d 654** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
655 completely removed from Bison.
656
d6fb461d 657* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 658
d6fb461d 659** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
660 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
661 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
662 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
663 and is required by POSIX.
664
d6fb461d 665** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
666 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
667
d6fb461d 668** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
669
670 For example:
671
b2a0b7ca
JD
672 %union { char *string; }
673 %token <string> STRING1
674 %token <string> STRING2
675 %type <string> string1
676 %type <string> string2
677 %union { char character; }
678 %token <character> CHR
679 %type <character> chr
680 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
681 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
682 %destructor { } <character>
683
684 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
685 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
686 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
687 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
688 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 689
85894313
JD
690 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
691 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
692 future versions.]
693
d6fb461d 694** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
695 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
696 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
697 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
698 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
699
d6fb461d 700** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 701 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
702
703 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
704 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
705 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
706 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 707 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 708
34f98f46 709 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
710 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
711 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
712 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
713 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
714 after the token definitions.
715
716 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
717 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
718
d6fb461d 719** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
720 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
721 %after-header.
722
723 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
724 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
725 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
726 convenient for you:
727
728 %before-header {
729 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
730 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
731 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
732 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
733 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
734 }
735 %start-header {
736 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
737 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
738 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
739 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
740 }
741 %union {
34f98f46
JD
742 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
743 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
744 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 745 }
34f98f46
JD
746 %end-header {
747 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
748 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
749 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
750 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
751 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 752 }
34f98f46
JD
753 %after-header {
754 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
755 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
756 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
757 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
758 * Bison-generated definitions. */
759 }
760
761 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
762 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 763
85894313
JD
764 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
765 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
766
d6fb461d 767** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
768 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
769 in a future release.
742e4900 770
d6fb461d 771* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 772
d6fb461d 773** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
774 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
775
d6fb461d 776** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
777 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
778
d6fb461d 779* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 780
d6fb461d 781** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
782 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
783 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 784
d6fb461d 785** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 786
d6fb461d 787** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 788
d6fb461d 789** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
790 their contents together.
791
d6fb461d 792** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
793 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
794 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 795
8f3596a6 796 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
797 | exp "+" exp
798 ;
affac613 799
8f3596a6
AD
800 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
801 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 802 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 803
4e26c69e
PE
804 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
805 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
806 | exp "+" exp
807 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 808 ;
affac613 809
4e26c69e
PE
810 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
811 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
812 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 813
8f3596a6 814 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
815 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
816 ;
817
84866159
AD
818 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
819 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
820
821 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
822
721be13c
PE
823 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
824 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 825
d6fb461d 826** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
827 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
828 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
829 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 830
d6fb461d 831** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
832 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
833 instead of warnings.
834
d6fb461d 835** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
836 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
837 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 838
d6fb461d 839** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 840
d6fb461d 841** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
842 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
843 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 844
d6fb461d 845** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
846 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
847 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
848 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
849 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
850
851 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
852 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
853 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
854 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 855
b50d2359 856 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 857 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 858
d6fb461d 859** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 860\f
d6fb461d 861* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 862
d6fb461d 863** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 864
d6fb461d 865** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
866 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
867 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
868 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
869 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
870 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 871
d6fb461d 872** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
873 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
874 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
875 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
876
d6fb461d 877** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
878 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
879 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
880
d6fb461d 881** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
882 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
883 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
884 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
885 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 886\f
d6fb461d 887* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 888
d6fb461d 889** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 890
82de6b0d
PE
891 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
892 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
893 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
894 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
895 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 896
82de6b0d
PE
897 - Error token location.
898 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
899 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
900 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
901 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 902
82de6b0d
PE
903 - Semicolon changes:
904 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
905 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 906
82de6b0d
PE
907 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
908 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
909 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
910 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 911
82de6b0d 912 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 913
d6fb461d 914** New features
1452af69 915
82de6b0d 916 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 917
82de6b0d
PE
918 - New directive: %initial-action.
919 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
920 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 921
82de6b0d
PE
922 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
923 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 924
82de6b0d
PE
925 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
926 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 927
82de6b0d 928 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 929 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 930
82de6b0d 931 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 932
82de6b0d
PE
933 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
934 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 935
d6fb461d 936** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 937
82de6b0d
PE
938 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
939 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
940 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
941 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
942 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
943 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 944
82de6b0d
PE
945 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
946 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 947
82de6b0d 948 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 949\f
d6fb461d 950* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 951
d6fb461d 952** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 953 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 954
d6fb461d 955** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 956
dc546b0f
PE
957 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
958 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 959
dc546b0f
PE
960 - %destructor
961 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
962 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 963
dc546b0f
PE
964 - %error-verbose
965 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 966
dc546b0f
PE
967 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
968 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 969
d6fb461d 970** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 971
dc546b0f
PE
972 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
973 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
974 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 975
dc546b0f
PE
976 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
977 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
978 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
979 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
980 be consistent.
74724a70 981
dc546b0f
PE
982 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
983 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 984
dc546b0f
PE
985 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
986 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 987
dc546b0f
PE
988 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
989 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 990
dc546b0f
PE
991 - Yacc command and library now available
992 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
993 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
994 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
995 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 996
dc546b0f 997 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 998
dc546b0f
PE
999 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1000 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1001 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1002
d6fb461d 1003** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1004
dc546b0f
PE
1005 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1006 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1007 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1008 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1009 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1010 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1011
dc546b0f
PE
1012 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1013 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1014
dc546b0f
PE
1015 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1016 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1017
dc546b0f
PE
1018 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1019 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1020 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1021
d6fb461d 1022** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1023
dc546b0f
PE
1024 - GLR and inline
1025 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1026 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1027
dc546b0f
PE
1028 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1029 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1030
d6fb461d 1031** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1032 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1033 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1034
d6fb461d 1035** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1036 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1037
d6fb461d 1038** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1039 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1040 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1041 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1042\f
d6fb461d 1043* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1044
d6fb461d 1045** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1046
d6fb461d 1047** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1048
d6fb461d 1049** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1050 Fix spurious parse errors.
1051
d6fb461d 1052** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1053 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1054 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1055
d6fb461d 1056** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1057 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1058 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1059
1060 untyped: ... typed;
1061
1062 but the converse remains an error:
1063
1064 typed: ... untyped;
1065
d6fb461d 1066** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1067 The following code:
1068
1069 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1070
1071 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1072 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1073\f
d6fb461d 1074* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1075
d6fb461d 1076** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1077 The declaration
1078 %glr-parser
1079 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1080 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1081 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1082 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1083
7933f2b5 1084 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1085 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1086
d6fb461d 1087** Output Directory
8c165d89 1088 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1089 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1090 now creates `bar.c'.
1091
d6fb461d 1092** Undefined token
007a50a4 1093 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1094 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1095
d6fb461d 1096** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1097 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1098 no longer the case.
1099
d6fb461d 1100** Error token
e88dbdbf 1101 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1102 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1103 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1104 will be mapped onto another number.
1105
d6fb461d 1106** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1107 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1108 error recovery is possible.
1109
d6fb461d 1110** End token
217598da
AD
1111 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1112
d6fb461d 1113** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1114 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1115 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1116 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1117 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1118 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1119 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1120 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1121 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1122
d6fb461d 1123** Traces
5504898e
AD
1124 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1125
d6fb461d 1126** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1127 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1128 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1129 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1130 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1131
d6fb461d 1132** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1133 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1134 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1135 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1136
d6fb461d 1137** Useless rules
643a5994 1138 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1139 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1140
d6fb461d 1141** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1142 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1143
d6fb461d 1144** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1145 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1146 reported.
1147
d6fb461d 1148** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1149 On a grammar such as
1150
1151 %token useless useful
1152 %%
1153 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1154
1155 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1156 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1157
d6fb461d 1158** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1159 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1160
d6fb461d 1161** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1162 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1163 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1164 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1165 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1166
d6fb461d 1167** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1168 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1169 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1170 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1171 For instance
7bd6c77e 1172 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1173 or
7bd6c77e 1174 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1175
d6fb461d 1176** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1177 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1178
d6fb461d 1179** New translations
a861a339 1180 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1181 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1182
d6fb461d 1183** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1184 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1185
d6fb461d 1186** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1187 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1188 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1189 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1190
d6fb461d 1191** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1192 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1193 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1194 - itemset
1195 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1196 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1197 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1198 - solved
1199 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1200 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1201 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1202
d6fb461d 1203** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1204 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1205 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1206
1207 %type <foo> bar
1208 %%
1209 bar: '0' {} '0';
1210
1211 This is fixed.
a861a339 1212
d6fb461d 1213** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1214\f
d6fb461d 1215* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1216
d6fb461d 1217** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1218 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1219 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1220 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1221
1222 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1223 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1224 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1225 kludge will be disabled.
1226
1227 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1228 extended.
76551463 1229\f
d6fb461d 1230* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1231
d6fb461d 1232** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1233 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1234 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1235
d6fb461d 1236** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1237 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1238 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1239 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1240 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1241 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1242
d6fb461d 1243** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1244 many portability hassles.
1245
d6fb461d 1246** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1247
d6fb461d 1248** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1249\f
d6fb461d 1250* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1251
d6fb461d 1252** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1253 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1254 under some conditions.
1255
d6fb461d 1256** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1257 As is done with $n.
1258\f
d6fb461d 1259* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1260
d6fb461d 1261** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1262
d6fb461d 1263** Portability fixes
76551463 1264
d6fb461d 1265** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1266\f
d6fb461d 1267* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1268
d6fb461d 1269** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1270
d6fb461d 1271** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1272 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1273 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1274 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1275 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1276
d6fb461d 1277** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1278 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1279 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1280
1281 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1282 problems as on AIX.
1283
d6fb461d 1284** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1285
d6fb461d 1286** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1287 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1288
d6fb461d 1289** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1290 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1291 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1292 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1293
d6fb461d 1294** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1295 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1296 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1297
d6fb461d 1298** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1299 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1300
d6fb461d 1301** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1302 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1303
d6fb461d 1304** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1305 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1306
d6fb461d 1307** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1308 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1309 any warning.
1310
d6fb461d 1311** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1312
d6fb461d 1313** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1314
d6fb461d 1315** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1316
d6fb461d 1317** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1318 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1319 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1320 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1321
d6fb461d 1322** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1323 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1324 previous allocations were not freed.
1325
d6fb461d 1326** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1327 Some newlines were missing.
1328 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1329
d6fb461d 1330** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1331 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1332
d6fb461d 1333** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1334 Was not used.
1335 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1336
d6fb461d 1337** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1338
d6fb461d 1339** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1340
d6fb461d 1341** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1342
d6fb461d 1343** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1344 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1345
d6fb461d 1346** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1347
d6fb461d 1348** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1349 New.
1350
d6fb461d 1351** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1352 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1353\f
d6fb461d 1354* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1355
d6fb461d 1356** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1357 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1358 argument.
1359
d6fb461d 1360** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1361 experiment.
1362
d6fb461d 1363** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1364\f
d6fb461d 1365* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1366
d6fb461d 1367** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1368 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1369 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1370 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1371
d6fb461d 1372** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1373
d6fb461d 1374** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1375
d6fb461d 1376** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1377
d6fb461d 1378** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1379
d6fb461d 1380** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1381
d6fb461d 1382** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1383
d6fb461d 1384** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1385
d6fb461d 1386** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1387
d6fb461d 1388** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1389
d6fb461d 1390** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1391 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1392
d6fb461d 1393** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1394 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1395 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1396
d6fb461d 1397** @$
f987e9d2 1398 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1399\f
d6fb461d 1400* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1401
d6fb461d 1402** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1403
d6fb461d 1404** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1405
d6fb461d 1406** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1407
d6fb461d 1408** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1409\f
d6fb461d 1410* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1411
d6fb461d 1412** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1413 some systems has been fixed.
1414\f
d6fb461d 1415* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1416
d6fb461d 1417** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1418
d6fb461d 1419** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1420
d6fb461d 1421** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1422
d6fb461d 1423** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1424
d6fb461d 1425** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1426
d6fb461d 1427** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1428
d6fb461d 1429** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1430 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1431\f
d6fb461d 1432* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1433
d6fb461d 1434** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1435the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1436
d6fb461d 1437** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1438example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1439of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1440
d6fb461d 1441** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1442and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1443table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1444purposes.
1445
d6fb461d 1446** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1447directives in the parser file.
1448
d6fb461d 1449** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1450Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1451
d6fb461d 1452** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1453the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1454The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1455a switch statement body.
1456\f
d6fb461d 1457* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1458
4d019228
DM
1459The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1460passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1461actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1462by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1463
6780ca7a 1464Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1465\f
d6fb461d 1466* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1467
1468--help option added.
6780ca7a 1469\f
d6fb461d 1470* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1471
1472Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1473
1474Local Variables:
1475mode: outline
1476End:
76551463
AD
1477
1478-----
1479
ea0a7676 1480Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1481
8defe11b 1482This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1483
f16b0819 1484This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1485it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1486the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1487(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1488
f16b0819 1489This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1490but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1491MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1492GNU General Public License for more details.
1493
1494You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1495along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.