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1Bison News
2----------
3
4* Changes in version 2.4.2 (????-??-??):
5
6** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
7
8** %code is now a permanent feature.
9
10 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
11
12 %{CODE%}
13
14 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
15 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
16
17 %code {CODE}
18 %code requires {CODE}
19 %code provides {CODE}
20 %code top {CODE}
21
22 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
23 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
24 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
25 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
26 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
27
28 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
29 is still considered experimental.
30
31** Internationalization.
32
33 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
34 message translations were not installed although supported by the
35 host system.
36
37* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
38
39** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
40 declarations have been fixed.
41
42** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
43
44 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
45 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
46
47 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
48
49 instead of
50
51 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
52
53 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
54 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
55 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
56 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
57 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
58 feature.
59
60** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
61
62* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
63
64** %language is an experimental feature.
65
66 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
67 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
68 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
69 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
70 in future releases.
71
72** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
73
74** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
75 fixed.
76
77* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
78
79** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
80 are now deprecated:
81
82 %define NAME "VALUE"
83
84** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
85
86 %define api.pure
87
88 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
89 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
90
91** Push Parsing
92
93 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
94 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
95 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
96 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
97 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
98
99 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
100 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
101
102 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
103
104 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
105 feedback will help to stabilize it.
106
107** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
108 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
109 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
110
111** Java
112
113 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
114 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
115 %skeleton to select it.
116
117 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
118
119 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
120 feedback will help to stabilize it.
121
122** %language
123
124 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
125 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
126 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
127 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
128
129** XML Automaton Report
130
131 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
132 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
133 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
134
135** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
136 %defines. For example:
137
138 %defines "parser.h"
139
140** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
141 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
142 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
143 instead of "unused".
144
145** Unreachable State Removal
146
147 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
148 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
149 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
150
151 1. Removes unreachable states.
152
153 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
154 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
155 directives in existing grammar files.
156
157 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
158 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
159
160 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
161
162 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
163
164 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
165 for further discussion.
166
167** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
168
169 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
170 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
171 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
172 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
173 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
174 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
175 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
176 code.
177
178** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
179 name.
180
181** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
182 deprecated:
183
184 %file-prefix "parser"
185 %name-prefix "c_"
186 %output "parser.c"
187
188** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
189
190 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
191 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
192 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
193 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
194 it:
195
196 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
197 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
198 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
199 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
200
201 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
202 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
203 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
204 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
205
206 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
207 determine whether they should become permanent features.
208
209** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
210
211 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
212 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
213 about unused $2 in:
214
215 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
216
217 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
218 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
219
220 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
221
222 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
223 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
224 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
225
226 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
227 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
228
229** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
230
231 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
232 %printer's:
233
234 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
235 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
236 declared semantic type tags.
237
238 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
239 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
240 type tags.
241
242 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
243 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
244 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
245 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
246
247 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
248 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
249 features.
250
251 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
252 details.
253
254** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
255 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
256 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
257
258** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
259 completely removed from Bison.
260
261* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
262
263** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
264 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
265 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
266 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
267 and is required by POSIX.
268
269** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
270 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
271
272** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
273
274 For example:
275
276 %union { char *string; }
277 %token <string> STRING1
278 %token <string> STRING2
279 %type <string> string1
280 %type <string> string2
281 %union { char character; }
282 %token <character> CHR
283 %type <character> chr
284 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
285 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
286 %destructor { } <character>
287
288 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
289 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
290 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
291 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
292 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
293
294 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
295 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
296 future versions.]
297
298** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
299 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
300 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
301 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
302 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
303
304** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
305 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
306
307 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
308 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
309 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
310 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
311 declared after the first %union.
312
313 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
314 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
315 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
316 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
317 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
318 after the token definitions.
319
320 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
321 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
322
323** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
324 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
325 %after-header.
326
327 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
328 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
329 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
330 convenient for you:
331
332 %before-header {
333 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
334 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
335 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
336 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
337 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
338 }
339 %start-header {
340 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
341 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
342 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
343 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
344 }
345 %union {
346 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
347 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
348 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
349 }
350 %end-header {
351 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
352 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
353 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
354 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
355 * definitions. */
356 }
357 %after-header {
358 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
359 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
360 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
361 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
362 * Bison-generated definitions. */
363 }
364
365 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
366 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
367
368 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
369 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
370
371** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
372 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
373 in a future release.
374
375* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
376
377** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
378 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
379
380** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
381 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
382
383* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
384
385** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
386 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
387 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
388
389** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
390
391** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
392
393** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
394 their contents together.
395
396** New warning: unused values
397 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
398 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
399
400 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
401 | exp "+" exp
402 ;
403
404 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
405 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
406 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
407
408 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
409 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
410 | exp "+" exp
411 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
412 ;
413
414 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
415 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
416 values are used, e.g.:
417
418 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
419 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
420 ;
421
422 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
423 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
424
425 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
426
427 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
428 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
429
430** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
431 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
432 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
433 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
434
435** %expect, %expect-rr
436 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
437 instead of warnings.
438
439** GLR, YACC parsers.
440 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
441 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
442
443** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
444
445** %require "VERSION"
446 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
447 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
448
449** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
450 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
451 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
452 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
453 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
454
455 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
456 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
457 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
458 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
459
460 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
461 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
462
463** DJGPP support added.
464\f
465* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
466
467** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
468
469** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
470 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
471 language is still English. For details, please see the new
472 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
473 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
474 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
475
476** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
477 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
478 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
479 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
480
481** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
482 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
483 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
484
485** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
486 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
487 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
488 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
489 unexpected "number"'.
490\f
491* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
492
493** Possibly-incompatible changes
494
495 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
496 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
497 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
498 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
499 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
500
501 - Error token location.
502 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
503 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
504 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
505 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
506
507 - Semicolon changes:
508 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
509 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
510
511 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
512 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
513 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
514 forget a closing quote.
515
516 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
517
518** New features
519
520 - GLR grammars now support locations.
521
522 - New directive: %initial-action.
523 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
524 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
525
526 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
527 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
528
529 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
530 This is a GNU extension.
531
532 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
533 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
534
535 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
536
537 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
538 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
539
540** Bug fixes
541
542 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
543 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
544 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
545 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
546 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
547 these violations will become errors again.
548
549 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
550 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
551
552 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
553\f
554* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
555
556** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
557 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
558
559** syntax error processing
560
561 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
562 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
563
564 - %destructor
565 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
566 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
567
568 - %error-verbose
569 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
570
571 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
572 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
573
574** POSIX conformance
575
576 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
577 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
578 compatibility with Yacc.
579
580 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
581 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
582 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
583 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
584 be consistent.
585
586 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
587 declared before use. C99 requires this.
588
589 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
590 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
591
592 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
593 output as "foo\\bar.y".
594
595 - Yacc command and library now available
596 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
597 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
598 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
599 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
600
601 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
602
603 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
604 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
605 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
606
607** Other compatibility issues
608
609 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
610 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
611 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
612 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
613 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
614 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
615
616 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
617 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
618
619 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
620 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
621
622 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
623 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
624 withdrawn in a future release.
625
626** GLR parser notes
627
628 - GLR and inline
629 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
630 C keyword `inline'.
631
632 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
633 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
634
635** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
636 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
637 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
638
639** #line in output files
640 - --no-line works properly.
641
642** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
643 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
644 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
645 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
646\f
647* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
648
649** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
650
651** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
652
653** GLR parsers
654 Fix spurious parse errors.
655
656** Pure parsers
657 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
658 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
659
660** Type Clashes
661 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
662 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
663
664 untyped: ... typed;
665
666 but the converse remains an error:
667
668 typed: ... untyped;
669
670** Values of mid-rule actions
671 The following code:
672
673 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
674
675 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
676 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
677\f
678* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
679
680** GLR parsing
681 The declaration
682 %glr-parser
683 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
684 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
685 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
686 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
687
688 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
689 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
690
691** Output Directory
692 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
693 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
694 now creates `bar.c'.
695
696** Undefined token
697 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
698 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
699
700** Unknown token numbers
701 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
702 no longer the case.
703
704** Error token
705 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
706 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
707 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
708 will be mapped onto another number.
709
710** Verbose error messages
711 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
712 error recovery is possible.
713
714** End token
715 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
716
717** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
718 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
719 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
720 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
721 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
722 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
723 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
724 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
725 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
726
727** Traces
728 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
729
730** Larger grammars
731 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
732 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
733 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
734 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
735
736** Explicit initial rule
737 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
738 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
739 graphs as rule 0.
740
741** Useless rules
742 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
743 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
744
745** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
746 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
747
748** Rules never reduced
749 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
750 reported.
751
752** Incorrect `Token not used'
753 On a grammar such as
754
755 %token useless useful
756 %%
757 exp: '0' %prec useful;
758
759 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
760 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
761
762** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
763 as they caused too many portability hassles.
764
765** Default locations
766 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
767 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
768 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
769 the computation of @$.
770
771** Token end-of-file
772 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
773 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
774 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
775 For instance
776 %token MYEOF 0
777 or
778 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
779
780** Semantic parser
781 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
782
783** New translations
784 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
785 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
786
787** Incorrect token definitions
788 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
789
790** Token definitions as enums
791 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
792 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
793 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
794
795** Reports
796 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
797 produces additional information:
798 - itemset
799 complete the core item sets with their closure
800 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
801 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
802 - solved
803 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
804 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
805 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
806
807** Type clashes
808 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
809 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
810
811 %type <foo> bar
812 %%
813 bar: '0' {} '0';
814
815 This is fixed.
816
817** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
818\f
819* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
820
821** C Skeleton
822 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
823 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
824 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
825
826 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
827 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
828 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
829 kludge will be disabled.
830
831 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
832 extended.
833\f
834* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
835
836** File name clashes are detected
837 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
838 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
839
840** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
841 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
842 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
843 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
844 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
845 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
846
847** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
848 many portability hassles.
849
850** DJGPP support added.
851
852** Fix test suite portability problems.
853\f
854* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
855
856** Fix C++ issues
857 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
858 under some conditions.
859
860** Catch invalid @n
861 As is done with $n.
862\f
863* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
864
865** Fix Yacc output file names
866
867** Portability fixes
868
869** Italian, Dutch translations
870\f
871* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
872
873** Many Bug Fixes
874
875** GNU Gettext and %expect
876 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
877 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
878 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
879 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
880
881** Use of alloca in parsers
882 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
883 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
884
885 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
886 problems as on AIX.
887
888** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
889
890** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
891 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
892
893** User Actions
894 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
895 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
896 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
897
898** Better C++ compliance
899 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
900 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
901
902** Reduced Grammars
903 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
904
905** 64 bit hosts
906 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
907
908** Error messages
909 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
910
911** %expect
912 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
913 any warning.
914
915** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
916
917** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
918
919** Swedish translation
920
921** Parse errors
922 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
923 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
924 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
925
926** Fixed parser memory leaks.
927 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
928 previous allocations were not freed.
929
930** Fixed verbose output file.
931 Some newlines were missing.
932 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
933
934** Fixed conflict report.
935 Option -v was needed to get the result.
936
937** %expect
938 Was not used.
939 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
940
941** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
942
943** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
944
945** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
946
947** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
948 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
949
950** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
951
952** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
953 New.
954
955** --output
956 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
957\f
958* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
959
960** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
961 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
962 argument.
963
964** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
965 experiment.
966
967** Portability fixes.
968\f
969* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
970
971** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
972 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
973 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
974 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
975
976** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
977
978** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
979
980** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
981
982** Russian translation added.
983
984** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
985
986** Added the old Bison reference card.
987
988** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
989
990** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
991
992** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
993
994** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
995 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
996
997** New directives.
998 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
999 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1000
1001** @$
1002 Automatic location tracking.
1003\f
1004* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1005
1006** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1007
1008** Added NLS.
1009
1010** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1011
1012** There is now a FAQ.
1013\f
1014* Changes in version 1.27:
1015
1016** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1017 some systems has been fixed.
1018\f
1019* Changes in version 1.26:
1020
1021** Bison now uses automake.
1022
1023** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1024
1025** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1026
1027** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1028
1029** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1030
1031** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1032
1033** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1034 not provide alloca().
1035\f
1036* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1037
1038** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1039the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1040
1041** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1042example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1043of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1044
1045** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1046and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1047table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1048purposes.
1049
1050** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1051directives in the parser file.
1052
1053** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1054Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1055
1056** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1057the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1058The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1059a switch statement body.
1060\f
1061* Changes in version 1.23:
1062
1063The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1064passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1065actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1066by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1067
1068Line numbers in output file corrected.
1069\f
1070* Changes in version 1.22:
1071
1072--help option added.
1073\f
1074* Changes in version 1.20:
1075
1076Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1077
1078Local Variables:
1079mode: outline
1080End:
1081
1082-----
1083
1084Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
10852004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1086
1087This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1088
1089This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1090it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1091the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1092(at your option) any later version.
1093
1094This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1095but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1096MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1097GNU General Public License for more details.
1098
1099You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1100along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.