]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blame - NEWS
NEWS: 2.6 will drop K&R.
[bison.git] / NEWS
CommitLineData
6780ca7a
DM
1Bison News
2----------
3af4feb2 3
90dcd415
JD
4* Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
5
debe2c03 6** Future changes:
041308d0 7
debe2c03 8 The next major release will drop support for K&R C.
ef51bfa7 9
466b4cf2 10** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
94556574 11
debe2c03
AD
12** glr.c: __attribute__ is preserved:
13
14 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined
15 (i.e., when -std is passed to GCC).
16
466b4cf2 17** lalr1.java: several fixes:
041308d0
AD
18
19 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if
20 the first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
21
ef51bfa7
AD
22** C++11 compatibility:
23
24 C and C++ parsers use nullptr instead of 0 when __cplusplus is
25 201103L or higher.
26
936c88d1
AD
27** C++ locations:
28
29 The position and location constructors (and their initialize
30 methods) accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues
31 in the documentation were fixed.
32
466b4cf2
AD
33** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
34
35** Several improvements have been made to the manual:
36
37 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact
38 scheme. Named references are motivated. The description of the
39 automaton description file (*.output) is updated to the current
40 format. Incorrect index entries were fixed. Some other errors were
41 fixed.
42
43** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
44
45** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
46
47 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of
48 tools such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself,
49 etc.
50
b2bc8a1b 51* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 52
eb8c66bb
JD
53** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
54
55 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
56 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
57 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
58 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
59 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
60
3b1977ea 61** Named references:
348f5608
AR
62
63 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
64 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
65 actions code.
66
67 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
68 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
69 as named references:
70
ac3297d5 71 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
348f5608
AR
72 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
73
74 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
75
ac3297d5 76 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
348f5608
AR
77 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
78
f840c05a 79 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
348f5608
AR
80 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
81 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
82
f840c05a 83 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
348f5608
AR
84 will help to stabilize them.
85
3b1977ea 86** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
34a6c2d1
JD
87
88 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
89 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 90 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
3b1977ea
JD
91 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
92 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
34a6c2d1
JD
93 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
94 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
95 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
96 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
97
98 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
99 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
100 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
101 file with these directives:
102
f37495f6
JD
103 %define lr.type lalr
104 %define lr.type ielr
105 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 106
6f04ee6c
JD
107 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
108 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
109 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
110 manual.
34a6c2d1
JD
111
112 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
113 stabilize them.
114
6f04ee6c 115** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
4c38b19e
JD
116
117 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
118 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
119 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 120 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
4c38b19e
JD
121 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
122 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
123 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
6f04ee6c
JD
124 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
125 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
126 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
127 tokens.
4c38b19e
JD
128
129 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
130 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
131 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
132 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
133 inconsistent states.
134
6f04ee6c
JD
135 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
136 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
137 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
138 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
139 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
4c38b19e
JD
140 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
141 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
142 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
143 power.
144
145 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
146 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
147
148 %define parse.lac full
149
6f04ee6c
JD
150 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
151 details including a few caveats.
4c38b19e
JD
152
153 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
154 stabilize it.
155
6ee881f6 156** %define improvements:
f37495f6 157
3b1977ea 158*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 159
34d41938 160 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 161
34d41938
JD
162 -D NAME[=VALUE]
163 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
164
165 -F NAME[=VALUE]
166 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
4ecd3681
JD
167
168 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
169
34d41938 170 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 171
34d41938
JD
172 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
173 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
174 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
ac3297d5 175 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 176
3b1977ea 177*** Variables renamed:
812775a0
JD
178
179 The following %define variables
180
181 api.push_pull
182 lr.keep_unreachable_states
183
184 have been renamed to
185
186 api.push-pull
187 lr.keep-unreachable-states
188
189 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
190 for backward compatibility.
191
723206df 192*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
f37495f6
JD
193
194 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
195 within quotations marks. For example,
196
197 %define api.push-pull "push"
198
199 can be rewritten as
200
201 %define api.push-pull push
202
6ee881f6 203*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 204
6ee881f6
JD
205*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
206
207** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
208
209** Character literals not of length one:
210
211 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
212 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
213 the following grammar to be the same token:
214
215 exp: exp '++'
216 | exp '+' exp
217 ;
218
219 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
220 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
221
222** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
223
224 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
225 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
226 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
227 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
228
229** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
230
231 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
232 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
ac3297d5
JD
233 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
234 and `last' members, instead of
6ee881f6
JD
235
236 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
237 do \
238 if (N) \
239 { \
240 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
241 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
242 } \
243 else \
244 { \
245 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
246 } \
247 while (false)
248
249 use:
250
251 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
252 do \
253 if (N) \
254 { \
255 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
256 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
257 } \
258 else \
259 { \
260 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
261 } \
262 while (false)
263
264** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
265
266 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
267 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
268 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
269 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 270
3b1977ea 271** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
62efdd2a
JD
272
273 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
274 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
275 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
276 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
277 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
278 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
279 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
280 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
281
3b1977ea 282** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
a2d05674
JD
283
284 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
285 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
286 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
287 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
288
289 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
290
291 instead of
292
293 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
294
295 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
296 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
297 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
298 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
299 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
300 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
301 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
302
095a1d11
JD
303** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
304
6f04ee6c
JD
305 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
306 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
307 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
308 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
309 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
095a1d11
JD
310
311*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
312 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
313 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
314 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
315 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
ac3297d5 316 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
095a1d11
JD
317 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
318 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
319 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
320 shifted or discarded.
321
322*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
323 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
324 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
325 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
326
327*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
4c38b19e
JD
328 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
329 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
330 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
331 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
332 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
333 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
334 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
335 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
336 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
337 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
338 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
339 by default.
1fa30307 340
4c2a6e42
JD
341** Java skeleton fixes:
342
343*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
344
345*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
346 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 347
f0e2c228
JD
348*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
349
248dba53
JD
350** -W/--warnings fixes:
351
ac3297d5 352*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
248dba53
JD
353
354 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
355 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
356
357 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
358
6f8bdce2
JD
359*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
360
361 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
362 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
ac3297d5 363 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
6f8bdce2
JD
364 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
365 example:
366
367 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
368 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
369 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
370 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
371
372 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
373 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
374 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
375 then have no effect on the conflict report.
376
ac3297d5 377*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
dab96632
JD
378
379 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
380 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
381
382 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
383
b2bc8a1b 384*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 385
ac3297d5 386 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
8ffd7912
JD
387 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
388 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
389 suppress all warnings:
390
391 bison -Wnone gram.y
392
9d6af153
JD
393** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
394
395 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
396 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
397 produced an assertion failure. For example:
398
399 %left END 0
400
401 This bug has been fixed.
402
7527c744 403* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 404
4631c34f
JD
405** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
406 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
407
7a9c3cb3
JD
408** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
409 been fixed.
410
132247cd
JD
411** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
412
88bb35d6
JD
413** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
414 been fixed.
415
43fdc9fd
JD
416** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
417 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
418 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
419 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
420
cf22447c
JD
421** Minor documentation fixes.
422
ea66d039 423* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 424
47fa5747
JD
425** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
426 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
ea66d039
JD
427 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
428 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
47fa5747
JD
429 affected platforms.
430
2c203528
JD
431** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
432
433 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
434 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
435 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
436 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
437 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
438 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
439 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
43fdc9fd
JD
440 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
441 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 442
c5196098
EB
443** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
444
34731471
JD
445** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
446 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
447 avoided.
af2ffe5c 448
966aba65
JD
449** %code is now a permanent feature.
450
451 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
452
453 %{CODE%}
454
455 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
456 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
457
458 %code {CODE}
459 %code requires {CODE}
460 %code provides {CODE}
461 %code top {CODE}
462
463 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
464 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
465 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
466 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
467 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
468
469 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
470 is still considered experimental.
471
41d35e54
JD
472** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
473
474 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
475 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
476 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
477 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
478 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
479 specified by POSIX.
480
481 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
482 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
483 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
484 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
485 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
486 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
487 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
488
489 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
490
491 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
492 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
493 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
494 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
495 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
496 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
497 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
498 be removed altogether.
499
500 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
501 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
502 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
503 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
504 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
505 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
506 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
507 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
508 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
509 2.4.2 is not necessary.
510
dac8cc0d
AD
511** Internationalization.
512
513 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
514 message translations were not installed although supported by the
515 host system.
516
41930e7a 517* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 518
a957d06c
JD
519** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
520 declarations have been fixed.
521
738cde3e
AD
522** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
523
524 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
525 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
526
527 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
528
529 instead of
530
531 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
532
d07932ef
JD
533 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
534 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
535 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
536 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
537 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
538 feature.
a957d06c
JD
539
540** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 541
d6fb461d 542* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 543
d6fb461d 544** %language is an experimental feature.
ed4d67dc
JD
545
546 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
547 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
548 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
549 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
550 in future releases.
7bd1665a 551
d6fb461d 552** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 553
d6fb461d 554** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
241fda7a
JD
555 fixed.
556
d6fb461d 557* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 558
d6fb461d 559** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
d9df47b6
JD
560 are now deprecated:
561
562 %define NAME "VALUE"
563
d6fb461d 564** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
d9df47b6
JD
565
566 %define api.pure
567
568 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
569 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
570
d6fb461d 571** Push Parsing
c373bf8b
JD
572
573 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 574 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
c373bf8b
JD
575 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
576 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
577 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
578
579 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
580 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
581
582 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
583
59da312b
JD
584 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
585 feedback will help to stabilize it.
586
d6fb461d 587** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
8e55b3aa
JD
588 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
589 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 590
d6fb461d 591** Java
59da312b
JD
592
593 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
594 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
595 %skeleton to select it.
596
597 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
598
599 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
600 feedback will help to stabilize it.
601
d6fb461d 602** %language
59da312b
JD
603
604 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
d43f77e7
PB
605 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
606 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
607 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 608
d6fb461d 609** XML Automaton Report
59da312b
JD
610
611 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
612 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
613 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 614
d6fb461d 615** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
c373bf8b
JD
616 %defines. For example:
617
618 %defines "parser.h"
619
d6fb461d 620** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
JD
621 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
622 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
623 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 624
d6fb461d 625** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
JD
626
627 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
628 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
629 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
JD
630
631 1. Removes unreachable states.
632
633 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
634 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
635 directives in existing grammar files.
636
637 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 638 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 639
31984206
JD
640 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
641
642 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
643
644 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
645 for further discussion.
646
d6fb461d 647** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 648
c373bf8b 649 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
JD
650 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
651 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
652 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
653 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
654 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
655 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
656 code.
657
d6fb461d 658** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 659 name.
1bb2bd75 660
d6fb461d 661** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
662 deprecated:
663
664 %file-prefix "parser"
665 %name-prefix "c_"
666 %output "parser.c"
667
d6fb461d 668** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
669
670 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
671 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
672 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
673 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
674 it:
675
16dc6a9e
JD
676 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
677 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
678 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
679 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 680
61fee93e
JD
681 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
682 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
683 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
684 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
685
686 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
687 determine whether they should become permanent features.
688
d6fb461d 689** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
690
691 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
692 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
693 about unused $2 in:
694
695 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
696
697 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
698 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
699
700 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
701
702 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
703 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
704 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
705
59da312b 706 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
707 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
708
d6fb461d 709** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
JD
710
711 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
712 %printer's:
713
714 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
715 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
716 declared semantic type tags.
717
3ebecc24 718 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
JD
719 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
720 type tags.
721
722 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 723 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
724 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
725 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
726
85894313
JD
727 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
728 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
729 features.
730
12e35840
JD
731 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
732 details.
733
d6fb461d 734** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
735 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
736 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
737
d6fb461d 738** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
739 completely removed from Bison.
740
d6fb461d 741* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 742
d6fb461d 743** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
744 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
745 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
746 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
747 and is required by POSIX.
748
d6fb461d 749** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
750 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
751
d6fb461d 752** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
753
754 For example:
755
b2a0b7ca
JD
756 %union { char *string; }
757 %token <string> STRING1
758 %token <string> STRING2
759 %type <string> string1
760 %type <string> string2
761 %union { char character; }
762 %token <character> CHR
763 %type <character> chr
764 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
765 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
766 %destructor { } <character>
767
768 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
769 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
770 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
771 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
772 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 773
85894313
JD
774 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
775 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
776 future versions.]
777
d6fb461d 778** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
779 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
780 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
781 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
782 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
783
d6fb461d 784** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 785 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
786
787 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
788 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
789 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
790 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 791 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 792
34f98f46 793 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
794 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
795 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
796 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
797 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
798 after the token definitions.
799
800 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
801 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
802
d6fb461d 803** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
804 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
805 %after-header.
806
807 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
808 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
809 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
810 convenient for you:
811
812 %before-header {
813 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
814 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
815 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
816 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
817 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
818 }
819 %start-header {
820 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
821 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
822 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
823 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
824 }
825 %union {
34f98f46
JD
826 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
827 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
828 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 829 }
34f98f46
JD
830 %end-header {
831 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
832 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
833 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
834 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
835 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 836 }
34f98f46
JD
837 %after-header {
838 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
839 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
840 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
841 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
842 * Bison-generated definitions. */
843 }
844
845 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
846 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 847
85894313
JD
848 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
849 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
850
d6fb461d 851** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
852 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
853 in a future release.
742e4900 854
d6fb461d 855* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 856
d6fb461d 857** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
858 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
859
d6fb461d 860** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
861 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
862
d6fb461d 863* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 864
d6fb461d 865** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
866 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
867 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 868
d6fb461d 869** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 870
d6fb461d 871** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 872
d6fb461d 873** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
874 their contents together.
875
d6fb461d 876** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
877 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
878 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 879
8f3596a6 880 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
881 | exp "+" exp
882 ;
affac613 883
8f3596a6
AD
884 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
885 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 886 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 887
4e26c69e
PE
888 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
889 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
890 | exp "+" exp
891 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 892 ;
affac613 893
4e26c69e
PE
894 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
895 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
896 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 897
8f3596a6 898 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
899 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
900 ;
901
84866159
AD
902 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
903 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
904
905 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
906
721be13c
PE
907 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
908 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 909
d6fb461d 910** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
911 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
912 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
913 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 914
d6fb461d 915** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
916 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
917 instead of warnings.
918
d6fb461d 919** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
920 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
921 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 922
d6fb461d 923** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 924
d6fb461d 925** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
926 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
927 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 928
d6fb461d 929** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
930 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
931 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
932 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
933 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
934
935 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
936 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
937 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
938 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 939
b50d2359 940 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 941 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 942
d6fb461d 943** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 944\f
d6fb461d 945* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 946
d6fb461d 947** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 948
d6fb461d 949** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
950 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
951 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
952 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
953 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
954 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 955
d6fb461d 956** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
957 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
958 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
959 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
960
d6fb461d 961** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
962 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
963 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
964
d6fb461d 965** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
966 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
967 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
968 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
969 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 970\f
d6fb461d 971* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 972
d6fb461d 973** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 974
82de6b0d
PE
975 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
976 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
977 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
978 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
979 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 980
82de6b0d
PE
981 - Error token location.
982 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
983 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
984 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
985 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 986
82de6b0d
PE
987 - Semicolon changes:
988 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
989 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 990
82de6b0d
PE
991 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
992 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
993 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
994 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 995
82de6b0d 996 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 997
d6fb461d 998** New features
1452af69 999
82de6b0d 1000 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 1001
82de6b0d
PE
1002 - New directive: %initial-action.
1003 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1004 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 1005
82de6b0d
PE
1006 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1007 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 1008
82de6b0d
PE
1009 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1010 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 1011
82de6b0d 1012 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 1013 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 1014
82de6b0d 1015 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 1016
82de6b0d
PE
1017 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1018 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 1019
d6fb461d 1020** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 1021
82de6b0d
PE
1022 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1023 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1024 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1025 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1026 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1027 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1028
82de6b0d
PE
1029 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1030 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1031
82de6b0d 1032 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1033\f
d6fb461d 1034* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1035
d6fb461d 1036** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1037 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1038
d6fb461d 1039** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1040
dc546b0f
PE
1041 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1042 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1043
dc546b0f
PE
1044 - %destructor
1045 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1046 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1047
dc546b0f
PE
1048 - %error-verbose
1049 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1050
dc546b0f
PE
1051 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1052 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1053
d6fb461d 1054** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1055
dc546b0f
PE
1056 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1057 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1058 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1059
dc546b0f
PE
1060 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1061 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1062 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1063 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1064 be consistent.
74724a70 1065
dc546b0f
PE
1066 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1067 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1068
dc546b0f
PE
1069 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1070 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1071
dc546b0f
PE
1072 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1073 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1074
dc546b0f
PE
1075 - Yacc command and library now available
1076 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1077 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1078 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1079 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1080
dc546b0f 1081 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1082
dc546b0f
PE
1083 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1084 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1085 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1086
d6fb461d 1087** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1088
dc546b0f
PE
1089 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1090 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1091 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1092 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1093 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1094 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1095
dc546b0f
PE
1096 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1097 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1098
dc546b0f
PE
1099 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1100 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1101
dc546b0f
PE
1102 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1103 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1104 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1105
d6fb461d 1106** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1107
dc546b0f
PE
1108 - GLR and inline
1109 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1110 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1111
dc546b0f
PE
1112 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1113 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1114
d6fb461d 1115** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1116 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1117 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1118
d6fb461d 1119** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1120 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1121
d6fb461d 1122** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1123 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1124 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1125 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1126\f
d6fb461d 1127* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1128
d6fb461d 1129** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1130
d6fb461d 1131** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1132
d6fb461d 1133** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1134 Fix spurious parse errors.
1135
d6fb461d 1136** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1137 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1138 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1139
d6fb461d 1140** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1141 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1142 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1143
1144 untyped: ... typed;
1145
1146 but the converse remains an error:
1147
1148 typed: ... untyped;
1149
d6fb461d 1150** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1151 The following code:
1152
1153 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1154
1155 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1156 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1157\f
d6fb461d 1158* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1159
d6fb461d 1160** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1161 The declaration
1162 %glr-parser
1163 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1164 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1165 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1166 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1167
7933f2b5 1168 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1169 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1170
d6fb461d 1171** Output Directory
8c165d89 1172 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1173 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1174 now creates `bar.c'.
1175
d6fb461d 1176** Undefined token
007a50a4 1177 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1178 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1179
d6fb461d 1180** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1181 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1182 no longer the case.
1183
d6fb461d 1184** Error token
e88dbdbf 1185 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1186 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1187 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1188 will be mapped onto another number.
1189
d6fb461d 1190** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1191 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1192 error recovery is possible.
1193
d6fb461d 1194** End token
217598da
AD
1195 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1196
d6fb461d 1197** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1198 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1199 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1200 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1201 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1202 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1203 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1204 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1205 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1206
d6fb461d 1207** Traces
5504898e
AD
1208 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1209
d6fb461d 1210** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1211 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1212 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1213 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1214 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1215
d6fb461d 1216** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1217 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1218 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1219 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1220
d6fb461d 1221** Useless rules
643a5994 1222 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1223 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1224
d6fb461d 1225** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1226 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1227
d6fb461d 1228** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1229 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1230 reported.
1231
d6fb461d 1232** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1233 On a grammar such as
1234
1235 %token useless useful
1236 %%
1237 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1238
1239 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1240 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1241
d6fb461d 1242** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1243 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1244
d6fb461d 1245** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1246 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1247 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1248 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1249 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1250
d6fb461d 1251** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1252 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1253 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1254 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1255 For instance
7bd6c77e 1256 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1257 or
7bd6c77e 1258 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1259
d6fb461d 1260** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1261 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1262
d6fb461d 1263** New translations
a861a339 1264 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1265 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1266
d6fb461d 1267** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1268 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1269
d6fb461d 1270** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1271 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1272 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1273 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1274
d6fb461d 1275** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1276 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1277 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1278 - itemset
1279 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1280 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1281 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1282 - solved
1283 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1284 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1285 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1286
d6fb461d 1287** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1288 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1289 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1290
1291 %type <foo> bar
1292 %%
1293 bar: '0' {} '0';
1294
1295 This is fixed.
a861a339 1296
d6fb461d 1297** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1298\f
d6fb461d 1299* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1300
d6fb461d 1301** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1302 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1303 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1304 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1305
1306 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1307 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1308 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1309 kludge will be disabled.
1310
1311 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1312 extended.
76551463 1313\f
d6fb461d 1314* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1315
d6fb461d 1316** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1317 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1318 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1319
d6fb461d 1320** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1321 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1322 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1323 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1324 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1325 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1326
d6fb461d 1327** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1328 many portability hassles.
1329
d6fb461d 1330** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1331
d6fb461d 1332** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1333\f
d6fb461d 1334* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1335
d6fb461d 1336** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1337 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1338 under some conditions.
1339
d6fb461d 1340** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1341 As is done with $n.
1342\f
d6fb461d 1343* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1344
d6fb461d 1345** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1346
d6fb461d 1347** Portability fixes
76551463 1348
d6fb461d 1349** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1350\f
d6fb461d 1351* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1352
d6fb461d 1353** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1354
d6fb461d 1355** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1356 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1357 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1358 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1359 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1360
d6fb461d 1361** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1362 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1363 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1364
1365 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1366 problems as on AIX.
1367
d6fb461d 1368** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1369
d6fb461d 1370** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1371 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1372
d6fb461d 1373** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1374 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1375 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1376 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1377
d6fb461d 1378** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1379 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1380 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1381
d6fb461d 1382** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1383 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1384
d6fb461d 1385** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1386 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1387
d6fb461d 1388** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1389 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1390
d6fb461d 1391** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1392 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1393 any warning.
1394
d6fb461d 1395** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1396
d6fb461d 1397** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1398
d6fb461d 1399** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1400
d6fb461d 1401** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1402 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1403 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1404 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1405
d6fb461d 1406** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1407 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1408 previous allocations were not freed.
1409
d6fb461d 1410** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1411 Some newlines were missing.
1412 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1413
d6fb461d 1414** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1415 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1416
d6fb461d 1417** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1418 Was not used.
1419 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1420
d6fb461d 1421** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1422
d6fb461d 1423** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1424
d6fb461d 1425** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1426
d6fb461d 1427** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1428 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1429
d6fb461d 1430** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1431
d6fb461d 1432** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1433 New.
1434
d6fb461d 1435** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1436 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1437\f
d6fb461d 1438* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1439
d6fb461d 1440** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1441 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1442 argument.
1443
d6fb461d 1444** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1445 experiment.
1446
d6fb461d 1447** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1448\f
d6fb461d 1449* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1450
d6fb461d 1451** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1452 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1453 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1454 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1455
d6fb461d 1456** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1457
d6fb461d 1458** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1459
d6fb461d 1460** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1461
d6fb461d 1462** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1463
d6fb461d 1464** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1465
d6fb461d 1466** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1467
d6fb461d 1468** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1469
d6fb461d 1470** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1471
d6fb461d 1472** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1473
d6fb461d 1474** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1475 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1476
d6fb461d 1477** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1478 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1479 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1480
d6fb461d 1481** @$
f987e9d2 1482 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1483\f
d6fb461d 1484* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1485
d6fb461d 1486** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1487
d6fb461d 1488** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1489
d6fb461d 1490** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1491
d6fb461d 1492** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1493\f
d6fb461d 1494* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1495
d6fb461d 1496** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1497 some systems has been fixed.
1498\f
d6fb461d 1499* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1500
d6fb461d 1501** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1502
d6fb461d 1503** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1504
d6fb461d 1505** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1506
d6fb461d 1507** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1508
d6fb461d 1509** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1510
d6fb461d 1511** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1512
d6fb461d 1513** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1514 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1515\f
d6fb461d 1516* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1517
d6fb461d 1518** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1519the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1520
d6fb461d 1521** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1522example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1523of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1524
d6fb461d 1525** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1526and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1527table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1528purposes.
1529
d6fb461d 1530** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1531directives in the parser file.
1532
d6fb461d 1533** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1534Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1535
d6fb461d 1536** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1537the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1538The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1539a switch statement body.
1540\f
d6fb461d 1541* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1542
4d019228
DM
1543The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1544passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1545actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1546by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1547
6780ca7a 1548Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1549\f
d6fb461d 1550* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1551
1552--help option added.
6780ca7a 1553\f
d6fb461d 1554* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1555
1556Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1557
1558Local Variables:
1559mode: outline
1560End:
76551463
AD
1561
1562-----
1563
c932d613 1564Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1565
8defe11b 1566This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1567
f16b0819 1568This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1569it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1570the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1571(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1572
f16b0819 1573This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1574but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1575MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1576GNU General Public License for more details.
1577
1578You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1579along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.