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4* Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
5
041308d0 6** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
74516381 7
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8 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of
9 tools such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself,
10 etc.
11
12** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
13
14** Many minor improvements have been made to the manual:
15
16 The layout for grammar has changed to a more compact scheme. Named
17 references are motivated. The description of the automaton
18 description file is updated.
908c8647 19
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20** YYBACKUP works as expected.
21
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22** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
23
24** Several Java fixes:
25
26 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if
27 the first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
28
b2bc8a1b 29* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
006faedf 30
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31** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
32
33 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
34 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
35 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
36 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
37 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
38
3b1977ea 39** Named references:
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40
41 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
42 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
43 actions code.
44
45 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
46 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
47 as named references:
48
ac3297d5 49 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
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50 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
51
52 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
53
ac3297d5 54 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
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55 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
56
f840c05a 57 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
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58 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
59 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
60
f840c05a 61 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
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62 will help to stabilize them.
63
3b1977ea 64** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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65
66 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
67 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
723206df 68 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
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69 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
70 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
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71 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
72 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
73 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
74 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
75
76 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
77 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
78 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
79 file with these directives:
80
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81 %define lr.type lalr
82 %define lr.type ielr
83 %define lr.type canonical-lr
34a6c2d1 84
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85 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
86 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
87 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
88 manual.
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89
90 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
91 stabilize them.
92
6f04ee6c 93** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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94
95 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
96 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
97 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
6f04ee6c 98 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
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99 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
100 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
101 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
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102 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
103 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
104 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
105 tokens.
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106
107 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
108 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
109 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
110 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
111 inconsistent states.
112
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113 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
114 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
115 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
116 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
117 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
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118 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
119 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
120 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
121 power.
122
123 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
124 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
125
126 %define parse.lac full
127
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128 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
129 details including a few caveats.
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130
131 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
132 stabilize it.
133
6ee881f6 134** %define improvements:
f37495f6 135
3b1977ea 136*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
4ecd3681 137
34d41938 138 Each of these command-line options
4ecd3681 139
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140 -D NAME[=VALUE]
141 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
142
143 -F NAME[=VALUE]
144 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
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145
146 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
147
34d41938 148 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
4ecd3681 149
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150 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
151 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
152 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
ac3297d5 153 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
4ecd3681 154
3b1977ea 155*** Variables renamed:
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156
157 The following %define variables
158
159 api.push_pull
160 lr.keep_unreachable_states
161
162 have been renamed to
163
164 api.push-pull
165 lr.keep-unreachable-states
166
167 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
168 for backward compatibility.
169
723206df 170*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
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171
172 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
173 within quotations marks. For example,
174
175 %define api.push-pull "push"
176
177 can be rewritten as
178
179 %define api.push-pull push
180
6ee881f6 181*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
c046698e 182
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183*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
184
185** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
186
187** Character literals not of length one:
188
189 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
190 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
191 the following grammar to be the same token:
192
193 exp: exp '++'
194 | exp '+' exp
195 ;
196
197 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
198 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
199
200** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
201
202 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
203 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
204 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
205 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
206
207** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
208
209 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
210 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
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211 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
212 and `last' members, instead of
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213
214 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
215 do \
216 if (N) \
217 { \
218 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
219 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
220 } \
221 else \
222 { \
223 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
224 } \
225 while (false)
226
227 use:
228
229 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
230 do \
231 if (N) \
232 { \
233 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
234 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
235 } \
236 else \
237 { \
238 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
239 } \
240 while (false)
241
242** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
243
244 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
245 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
246 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
247 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
c046698e 248
3b1977ea 249** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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250
251 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
252 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
253 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
254 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
255 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
256 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
257 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
258 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
259
3b1977ea 260** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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261
262 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
263 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
264 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
265 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
266
267 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
268
269 instead of
270
271 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
272
273 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
274 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
275 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
276 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
277 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
278 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
279 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
280
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281** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
282
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283 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
284 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
285 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
286 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
287 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
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288
289*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
290 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
291 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
292 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
293 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
ac3297d5 294 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
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295 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
296 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
297 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
298 shifted or discarded.
299
300*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
301 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
302 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
303 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
304
305*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
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306 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
307 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
308 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
309 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
310 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
311 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
312 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
313 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
314 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
315 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
316 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
317 by default.
1fa30307 318
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319** Java skeleton fixes:
320
321*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
322
323*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
324 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
77768165 325
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326*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
327
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328** -W/--warnings fixes:
329
ac3297d5 330*** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
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331
332 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
333 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
334
335 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
336
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337*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
338
339 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
340 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
ac3297d5 341 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
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342 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
343 example:
344
345 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
346 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
347 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
348 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
349
350 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
351 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
352 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
353 then have no effect on the conflict report.
354
ac3297d5 355*** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
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356
357 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
358 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
359
360 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
361
b2bc8a1b 362*** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
8ffd7912 363
ac3297d5 364 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
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365 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
366 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
367 suppress all warnings:
368
369 bison -Wnone gram.y
370
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371** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
372
373 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
374 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
375 produced an assertion failure. For example:
376
377 %left END 0
378
379 This bug has been fixed.
380
7527c744 381* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
7a9c3cb3 382
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383** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
384 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
385
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386** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
387 been fixed.
388
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389** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
390
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391** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
392 been fixed.
393
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394** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
395 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
396 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
397 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
398
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399** Minor documentation fixes.
400
ea66d039 401* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
8defe11b 402
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403** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
404 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
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405 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
406 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
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407 affected platforms.
408
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409** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
410
411 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
412 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
413 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
414 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
415 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
416 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
417 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
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418 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
419 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
2c203528 420
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421** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
422
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423** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
424 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
425 avoided.
af2ffe5c 426
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427** %code is now a permanent feature.
428
429 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
430
431 %{CODE%}
432
433 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
434 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
435
436 %code {CODE}
437 %code requires {CODE}
438 %code provides {CODE}
439 %code top {CODE}
440
441 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
442 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
443 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
444 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
445 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
446
447 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
448 is still considered experimental.
449
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450** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
451
452 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
453 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
454 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
455 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
456 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
457 specified by POSIX.
458
459 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
460 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
461 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
462 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
463 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
464 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
465 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
466
467 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
468
469 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
470 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
471 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
472 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
473 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
474 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
475 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
476 be removed altogether.
477
478 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
479 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
480 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
481 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
482 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
483 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
484 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
485 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
486 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
487 2.4.2 is not necessary.
488
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489** Internationalization.
490
491 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
492 message translations were not installed although supported by the
493 host system.
494
41930e7a 495* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
c9ba9e59 496
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497** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
498 declarations have been fixed.
499
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500** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
501
502 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
503 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
504
505 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
506
507 instead of
508
509 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
510
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511 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
512 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
513 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
514 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
515 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
516 feature.
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517
518** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
c9ba9e59 519
d6fb461d 520* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
7bd1665a 521
d6fb461d 522** %language is an experimental feature.
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523
524 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
525 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
526 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
527 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
528 in future releases.
7bd1665a 529
d6fb461d 530** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
241fda7a 531
d6fb461d 532** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
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533 fixed.
534
d6fb461d 535* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
35fe0834 536
d6fb461d 537** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
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538 are now deprecated:
539
540 %define NAME "VALUE"
541
d6fb461d 542** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
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543
544 %define api.pure
545
546 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
547 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
548
d6fb461d 549** Push Parsing
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550
551 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
ef1b4273 552 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
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553 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
554 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
555 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
556
557 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
558 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
559
560 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
561
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562 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
563 feedback will help to stabilize it.
564
d6fb461d 565** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
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566 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
567 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
c373bf8b 568
d6fb461d 569** Java
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570
571 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
572 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
573 %skeleton to select it.
574
575 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
576
577 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
578 feedback will help to stabilize it.
579
d6fb461d 580** %language
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581
582 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
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583 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
584 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
585 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
59da312b 586
d6fb461d 587** XML Automaton Report
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588
589 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
590 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
591 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
c373bf8b 592
d6fb461d 593** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
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594 %defines. For example:
595
596 %defines "parser.h"
597
d6fb461d 598** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
d80fb37a
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599 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
600 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
601 instead of "unused".
cff03fb2 602
d6fb461d 603** Unreachable State Removal
c373bf8b
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604
605 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
31984206
JD
606 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
607 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
75ad86ee
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608
609 1. Removes unreachable states.
610
611 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
612 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
613 directives in existing grammar files.
614
615 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
cff03fb2 616 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
75ad86ee 617
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618 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
619
620 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
621
622 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
623 for further discussion.
624
d6fb461d 625** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
b1cc23c4 626
c373bf8b 627 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
88c78747
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628 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
629 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
630 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
631 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
632 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
633 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
634 code.
635
d6fb461d 636** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
59da312b 637 name.
1bb2bd75 638
d6fb461d 639** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
02975b9a
JD
640 deprecated:
641
642 %file-prefix "parser"
643 %name-prefix "c_"
644 %output "parser.c"
645
d6fb461d 646** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
c373bf8b
JD
647
648 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
8e0a5e9e
JD
649 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
650 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
651 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
652 it:
653
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654 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
655 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
656 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
657 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
8e0a5e9e 658
61fee93e
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659 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
660 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
8e0a5e9e
JD
661 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
662 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
663
664 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
665 determine whether they should become permanent features.
666
d6fb461d 667** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
17bd8a73
JD
668
669 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
670 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
671 about unused $2 in:
672
673 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
674
675 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
676 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
677
678 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
679
680 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
681 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
682 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
683
59da312b 684 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
17bd8a73
JD
685 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
686
d6fb461d 687** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
c373bf8b
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688
689 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
12e35840
JD
690 %printer's:
691
692 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
693 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
694 declared semantic type tags.
695
3ebecc24 696 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
12e35840
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697 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
698 type tags.
699
700 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
3ebecc24 701 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
12e35840
JD
702 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
703 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
704
85894313
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705 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
706 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
707 features.
708
12e35840
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709 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
710 details.
711
d6fb461d 712** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
ab7f29f8
JD
713 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
714 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
715
d6fb461d 716** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
b1cc23c4
JD
717 completely removed from Bison.
718
d6fb461d 719* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
742e4900 720
d6fb461d 721** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
ddc8ede1
PE
722 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
723 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
724 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
725 and is required by POSIX.
726
d6fb461d 727** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
cd48d21d
AD
728 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
729
d6fb461d 730** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
ec5479ce
JD
731
732 For example:
733
b2a0b7ca
JD
734 %union { char *string; }
735 %token <string> STRING1
736 %token <string> STRING2
737 %type <string> string1
738 %type <string> string2
739 %union { char character; }
740 %token <character> CHR
741 %type <character> chr
742 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
743 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
744 %destructor { } <character>
745
746 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
747 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
748 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
749 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
750 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
ec5479ce 751
85894313
JD
752 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
753 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
754 future versions.]
755
d6fb461d 756** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
b931235e
JD
757 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
758 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
759 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
760 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
761
d6fb461d 762** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
34f98f46 763 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
9bc0dd67
JD
764
765 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
766 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
34f98f46
JD
767 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
768 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
ddc8ede1 769 declared after the first %union.
9bc0dd67 770
34f98f46 771 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
9bc0dd67
JD
772 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
773 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
774 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
775 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
776 after the token definitions.
777
778 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
779 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
780
d6fb461d 781** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
34f98f46
JD
782 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
783 %after-header.
784
785 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
786 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
787 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
788 convenient for you:
789
790 %before-header {
791 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
792 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
793 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
794 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
795 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
796 }
797 %start-header {
798 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
799 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
800 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
801 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
9bc0dd67
JD
802 }
803 %union {
34f98f46
JD
804 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
805 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
806 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
9bc0dd67 807 }
34f98f46
JD
808 %end-header {
809 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
810 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
811 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
812 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
813 * definitions. */
9bc0dd67 814 }
34f98f46
JD
815 %after-header {
816 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
817 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
818 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
819 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
820 * Bison-generated definitions. */
821 }
822
823 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
824 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
9bc0dd67 825
85894313
JD
826 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
827 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
828
d6fb461d 829** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
9e6e7ed2
PE
830 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
831 in a future release.
742e4900 832
d6fb461d 833* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
4ad3ed84 834
d6fb461d 835** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
4ad3ed84
PE
836 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
837
d6fb461d 838** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
4ad3ed84
PE
839 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
840
d6fb461d 841* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
193d7c70 842
d6fb461d 843** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
193d7c70
PE
844 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
845 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
5f4236a0 846
d6fb461d 847** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
aa08666d 848
d6fb461d 849** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
5f4236a0 850
d6fb461d 851** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
d6ca7905
PE
852 their contents together.
853
d6fb461d 854** New warning: unused values
4d7bc38c
PE
855 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
856 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
affac613 857
8f3596a6 858 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
721be13c
PE
859 | exp "+" exp
860 ;
affac613 861
8f3596a6
AD
862 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
863 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
4e26c69e 864 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
affac613 865
4e26c69e
PE
866 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
867 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
868 | exp "+" exp
869 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
721be13c 870 ;
affac613 871
4e26c69e
PE
872 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
873 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
874 values are used, e.g.:
721be13c 875
8f3596a6 876 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
721be13c
PE
877 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
878 ;
879
84866159
AD
880 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
881 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
882
883 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
884
721be13c
PE
885 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
886 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
affac613 887
d6fb461d 888** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
9d9b8b70
PE
889 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
890 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
891 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
a85284cf 892
d6fb461d 893** %expect, %expect-rr
035aa4a0
PE
894 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
895 instead of warnings.
896
d6fb461d 897** GLR, YACC parsers.
4e26c69e
PE
898 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
899 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
4b367315 900
d6fb461d 901** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
ad6a9b97 902
d6fb461d 903** %require "VERSION"
4e26c69e
PE
904 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
905 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
b50d2359 906
d6fb461d 907** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
e14d0ab6
AD
908 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
909 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
fb9712a9
AD
910 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
911 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
912
913 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
914 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
b50d2359
AD
915 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
916 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
fb9712a9 917
b50d2359 918 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
ab8d9dc5 919 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
fb9712a9 920
d6fb461d 921** DJGPP support added.
193d7c70 922\f
d6fb461d 923* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1ce59070 924
d6fb461d 925** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
e14d0ab6 926
d6fb461d 927** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
baf785db
PE
928 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
929 language is still English. For details, please see the new
0410a6e0
PE
930 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
931 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
932 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1ce59070 933
d6fb461d 934** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1a059451
PE
935 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
936 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
937 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
938
d6fb461d 939** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
258b75ca
PE
940 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
941 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
942
d6fb461d 943** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
72f000b0
PE
944 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
945 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
946 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
947 unexpected "number"'.
193d7c70 948\f
d6fb461d 949* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
efeed023 950
d6fb461d 951** Possibly-incompatible changes
d7e14fc0 952
82de6b0d
PE
953 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
954 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
955 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
956 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
957 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
8dd162d3 958
82de6b0d
PE
959 - Error token location.
960 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
961 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
962 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
963 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
18d192f0 964
82de6b0d
PE
965 - Semicolon changes:
966 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
967 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
e342c3be 968
82de6b0d
PE
969 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
970 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
971 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
972 forget a closing quote.
8dd162d3 973
82de6b0d 974 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
f74b6f91 975
d6fb461d 976** New features
1452af69 977
82de6b0d 978 - GLR grammars now support locations.
4febdd96 979
82de6b0d
PE
980 - New directive: %initial-action.
981 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
982 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1452af69 983
82de6b0d
PE
984 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
985 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1452af69 986
82de6b0d
PE
987 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
988 This is a GNU extension.
4febdd96 989
82de6b0d 990 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
9e6e7ed2 991 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1452af69 992
82de6b0d 993 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1452af69 994
82de6b0d
PE
995 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
996 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
6040d338 997
d6fb461d 998** Bug fixes
d5a3fe37 999
82de6b0d
PE
1000 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1001 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1002 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1003 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1004 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1005 these violations will become errors again.
3473d0f8 1006
82de6b0d
PE
1007 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1008 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
d600ee67 1009
82de6b0d 1010 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
d600ee67 1011\f
d6fb461d 1012* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
963fcc17 1013
d6fb461d 1014** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
dc546b0f 1015 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
75eb3bc4 1016
d6fb461d 1017** syntax error processing
75eb3bc4 1018
dc546b0f
PE
1019 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1020 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
75eb3bc4 1021
dc546b0f
PE
1022 - %destructor
1023 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1024 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
20daca06 1025
dc546b0f
PE
1026 - %error-verbose
1027 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
74724a70 1028
dc546b0f
PE
1029 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1030 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
d1de5372 1031
d6fb461d 1032** POSIX conformance
d1de5372 1033
dc546b0f
PE
1034 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1035 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1036 compatibility with Yacc.
74724a70 1037
dc546b0f
PE
1038 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1039 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1040 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1041 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1042 be consistent.
74724a70 1043
dc546b0f
PE
1044 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1045 declared before use. C99 requires this.
d1de5372 1046
dc546b0f
PE
1047 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1048 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
d1de5372 1049
dc546b0f
PE
1050 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1051 output as "foo\\bar.y".
6780ca7a 1052
dc546b0f
PE
1053 - Yacc command and library now available
1054 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1055 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1056 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1057 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
6e649e65 1058
dc546b0f 1059 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
6e649e65 1060
dc546b0f
PE
1061 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1062 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1063 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
9501dc6e 1064
d6fb461d 1065** Other compatibility issues
886a425c 1066
dc546b0f
PE
1067 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1068 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1069 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1070 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1071 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1072 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
72f889cc 1073
dc546b0f
PE
1074 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1075 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
886a425c 1076
dc546b0f
PE
1077 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1078 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
437c2d80 1079
dc546b0f
PE
1080 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1081 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1082 withdrawn in a future release.
2a8d363a 1083
d6fb461d 1084** GLR parser notes
2a8d363a 1085
dc546b0f
PE
1086 - GLR and inline
1087 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1088 C keyword `inline'.
959e5f51 1089
dc546b0f
PE
1090 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1091 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
900c5db5 1092
d6fb461d 1093** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
dc546b0f
PE
1094 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1095 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
6e40b4eb 1096
d6fb461d 1097** #line in output files
dc546b0f 1098 - --no-line works properly.
6e40b4eb 1099
d6fb461d 1100** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
6e40b4eb
AD
1101 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1102 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1103 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
d600ee67 1104\f
d6fb461d 1105* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
7933f2b5 1106
d6fb461d 1107** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
7933f2b5 1108
d6fb461d 1109** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
7933f2b5 1110
d6fb461d 1111** GLR parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1112 Fix spurious parse errors.
1113
d6fb461d 1114** Pure parsers
f50adbbd
AD
1115 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1116 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1117
d6fb461d 1118** Type Clashes
d90c934c
AD
1119 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1120 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1121
1122 untyped: ... typed;
1123
1124 but the converse remains an error:
1125
1126 typed: ... untyped;
1127
d6fb461d 1128** Values of mid-rule actions
d90c934c
AD
1129 The following code:
1130
1131 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1132
1133 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1134 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
d600ee67 1135\f
d6fb461d 1136* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
adc8c848 1137
d6fb461d 1138** GLR parsing
676385e2
PH
1139 The declaration
1140 %glr-parser
1141 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1142 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
e8832397 1143 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
676385e2
PH
1144 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1145
7933f2b5 1146 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
420f93c8
PE
1147 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1148
d6fb461d 1149** Output Directory
8c165d89 1150 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
e88dbdbf 1151 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
8c165d89
AD
1152 now creates `bar.c'.
1153
d6fb461d 1154** Undefined token
007a50a4 1155 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
e88dbdbf 1156 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
007a50a4 1157
d6fb461d 1158** Unknown token numbers
e88dbdbf 1159 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
007a50a4
AD
1160 no longer the case.
1161
d6fb461d 1162** Error token
e88dbdbf 1163 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
23c5a174
AD
1164 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1165 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1166 will be mapped onto another number.
1167
d6fb461d 1168** Verbose error messages
e88dbdbf 1169 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
217598da
AD
1170 error recovery is possible.
1171
d6fb461d 1172** End token
217598da
AD
1173 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1174
d6fb461d 1175** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
68cd8af3
PE
1176 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1177 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1178 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1179 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1180 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1181 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
337116ba
PE
1182 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1183 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
68cd8af3 1184
d6fb461d 1185** Traces
5504898e
AD
1186 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1187
d6fb461d 1188** Larger grammars
a861a339
PE
1189 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1190 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1191 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1192 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355e7c1c 1193
d6fb461d 1194** Explicit initial rule
643a5994
AD
1195 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1196 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1197 graphs as rule 0.
23c5a174 1198
d6fb461d 1199** Useless rules
643a5994 1200 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
77714df2 1201 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
23c5a174 1202
d6fb461d 1203** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
6b98e4b5
AD
1204 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1205
d6fb461d 1206** Rules never reduced
e8832397
AD
1207 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1208 reported.
1209
d6fb461d 1210** Incorrect `Token not used'
11652ab3
AD
1211 On a grammar such as
1212
1213 %token useless useful
1214 %%
1215 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1216
1217 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1218 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1219
d6fb461d 1220** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
77714df2 1221 as they caused too many portability hassles.
0179dd65 1222
d6fb461d 1223** Default locations
b2d52318
AD
1224 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1225 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1226 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1227 the computation of @$.
adc8c848 1228
d6fb461d 1229** Token end-of-file
b7c49edf
AD
1230 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1231 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
a861a339 1232 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
b7c49edf 1233 For instance
7bd6c77e 1234 %token MYEOF 0
b7c49edf 1235 or
7bd6c77e 1236 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
fdbcd8e2 1237
d6fb461d 1238** Semantic parser
fdbcd8e2
AD
1239 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1240
d6fb461d 1241** New translations
a861a339 1242 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
84614e13
AD
1243 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1244
d6fb461d 1245** Incorrect token definitions
e88dbdbf 1246 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
b87f8b21 1247
d6fb461d 1248** Token definitions as enums
77714df2
AD
1249 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1250 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
e88dbdbf 1251 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
77714df2 1252
d6fb461d 1253** Reports
ec3bc396
AD
1254 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1255 produces additional information:
b408954b
AD
1256 - itemset
1257 complete the core item sets with their closure
9e6e7ed2
PE
1258 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1259 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
b408954b
AD
1260 - solved
1261 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1262 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1263 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
ec3bc396 1264
d6fb461d 1265** Type clashes
9af3fbce
AD
1266 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1267 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1268
1269 %type <foo> bar
1270 %%
1271 bar: '0' {} '0';
1272
1273 This is fixed.
a861a339 1274
d6fb461d 1275** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
f987e9d2 1276\f
d6fb461d 1277* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
76551463 1278
d6fb461d 1279** C Skeleton
76551463
AD
1280 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1281 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1282 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1283
1284 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1285 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1286 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1287 kludge will be disabled.
1288
1289 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1290 extended.
76551463 1291\f
d6fb461d 1292* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
76551463 1293
d6fb461d 1294** File name clashes are detected
76551463
AD
1295 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1296 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1297
d6fb461d 1298** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
76551463
AD
1299 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1300 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1301 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1302 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1303 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1304
d6fb461d 1305** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
76551463
AD
1306 many portability hassles.
1307
d6fb461d 1308** DJGPP support added.
76551463 1309
d6fb461d 1310** Fix test suite portability problems.
76551463 1311\f
d6fb461d 1312* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
76551463 1313
d6fb461d 1314** Fix C++ issues
76551463
AD
1315 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1316 under some conditions.
1317
d6fb461d 1318** Catch invalid @n
76551463
AD
1319 As is done with $n.
1320\f
d6fb461d 1321* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
76551463 1322
d6fb461d 1323** Fix Yacc output file names
76551463 1324
d6fb461d 1325** Portability fixes
76551463 1326
d6fb461d 1327** Italian, Dutch translations
76551463 1328\f
d6fb461d 1329* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
52d1aeee 1330
d6fb461d 1331** Many Bug Fixes
52d1aeee 1332
d6fb461d 1333** GNU Gettext and %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1334 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1335 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1336 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1337 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1338
d6fb461d 1339** Use of alloca in parsers
52d1aeee
MA
1340 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1341 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1342
1343 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1344 problems as on AIX.
1345
d6fb461d 1346** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
b47dbebe 1347
d6fb461d 1348** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
52d1aeee
MA
1349 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1350
d6fb461d 1351** User Actions
52d1aeee
MA
1352 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1353 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1354 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1355
d6fb461d 1356** Better C++ compliance
52d1aeee 1357 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
76551463 1358 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
52d1aeee 1359
d6fb461d 1360** Reduced Grammars
52d1aeee
MA
1361 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1362
d6fb461d 1363** 64 bit hosts
52d1aeee
MA
1364 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1365
d6fb461d 1366** Error messages
52d1aeee
MA
1367 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1368
d6fb461d 1369** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1370 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1371 any warning.
1372
d6fb461d 1373** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
52d1aeee 1374
d6fb461d 1375** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
52d1aeee 1376
d6fb461d 1377** Swedish translation
52d1aeee 1378
d6fb461d 1379** Parse errors
52d1aeee
MA
1380 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1381 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1382 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1383
d6fb461d 1384** Fixed parser memory leaks.
52d1aeee
MA
1385 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1386 previous allocations were not freed.
1387
d6fb461d 1388** Fixed verbose output file.
52d1aeee
MA
1389 Some newlines were missing.
1390 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1391
d6fb461d 1392** Fixed conflict report.
52d1aeee
MA
1393 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1394
d6fb461d 1395** %expect
52d1aeee
MA
1396 Was not used.
1397 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1398
d6fb461d 1399** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
52d1aeee 1400
d6fb461d 1401** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
52d1aeee 1402
d6fb461d 1403** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
52d1aeee 1404
d6fb461d 1405** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
52d1aeee
MA
1406 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1407
d6fb461d 1408** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
52d1aeee 1409
d6fb461d 1410** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
52d1aeee
MA
1411 New.
1412
d6fb461d 1413** --output
52d1aeee
MA
1414 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1415\f
d6fb461d 1416* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
342b8b6e 1417
d6fb461d 1418** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
fdac0091 1419 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
342b8b6e
AD
1420 argument.
1421
d6fb461d 1422** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
342b8b6e
AD
1423 experiment.
1424
d6fb461d 1425** Portability fixes.
f987e9d2 1426\f
d6fb461d 1427* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
342b8b6e 1428
d6fb461d 1429** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
342b8b6e
AD
1430 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1431 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1432 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1433
d6fb461d 1434** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
f87a2205 1435
d6fb461d 1436** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
f2b5126e 1437
d6fb461d 1438** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
234a3be3 1439
d6fb461d 1440** Russian translation added.
f87a2205 1441
d6fb461d 1442** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
f87a2205 1443
d6fb461d 1444** Added the old Bison reference card.
c33638bb 1445
d6fb461d 1446** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
6deb4447 1447
d6fb461d 1448** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
cd5bd6ac 1449
d6fb461d 1450** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
62ab6972 1451
d6fb461d 1452** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
cd5bd6ac
AD
1453 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1454
d6fb461d 1455** New directives.
4ecbf796
MA
1456 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1457 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
f987e9d2 1458
d6fb461d 1459** @$
f987e9d2 1460 Automatic location tracking.
f87a2205 1461\f
d6fb461d 1462* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
d2e00347 1463
d6fb461d 1464** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
d2e00347 1465
d6fb461d 1466** Added NLS.
d2e00347 1467
d6fb461d 1468** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
d2e00347 1469
d6fb461d 1470** There is now a FAQ.
d2e00347 1471\f
d6fb461d 1472* Changes in version 1.27:
5c31c3c2 1473
d6fb461d 1474** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
5c31c3c2
JT
1475 some systems has been fixed.
1476\f
d6fb461d 1477* Changes in version 1.26:
4be07551 1478
d6fb461d 1479** Bison now uses automake.
4be07551 1480
d6fb461d 1481** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
4be07551 1482
d6fb461d 1483** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
4be07551 1484
d6fb461d 1485** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
4be07551 1486
d6fb461d 1487** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
f51dbca1 1488
d6fb461d 1489** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
f51dbca1 1490
d6fb461d 1491** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
f51dbca1 1492 not provide alloca().
4be07551 1493\f
d6fb461d 1494* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
df8878c5 1495
d6fb461d 1496** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
df8878c5 1497the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
8c44d3ec 1498
d6fb461d 1499** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
df8878c5
RS
1500example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1501of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1502
d6fb461d 1503** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
df8878c5
RS
1504and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1505table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1506purposes.
1507
d6fb461d 1508** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
df8878c5
RS
1509directives in the parser file.
1510
d6fb461d 1511** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
df8878c5
RS
1512Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1513
d6fb461d 1514** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
df8878c5
RS
1515the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1516The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1517a switch statement body.
1518\f
d6fb461d 1519* Changes in version 1.23:
6780ca7a 1520
4d019228
DM
1521The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1522passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1523actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1524by casting it to the proper pointer type.
6780ca7a 1525
6780ca7a 1526Line numbers in output file corrected.
6780ca7a 1527\f
d6fb461d 1528* Changes in version 1.22:
6780ca7a
DM
1529
1530--help option added.
6780ca7a 1531\f
d6fb461d 1532* Changes in version 1.20:
6780ca7a
DM
1533
1534Output file does not redefine const for C++.
9f4503d6
AD
1535
1536Local Variables:
1537mode: outline
1538End:
76551463
AD
1539
1540-----
1541
c932d613 1542Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
76551463 1543
8defe11b 1544This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
76551463 1545
f16b0819 1546This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
76551463 1547it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
f16b0819
PE
1548the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1549(at your option) any later version.
76551463 1550
f16b0819 1551This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
76551463
AD
1552but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1553MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1554GNU General Public License for more details.
1555
1556You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
f16b0819 1557along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.