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1Bison News
2----------
3
4Changes in version 1.875a, 2003-02-01:
5
6* For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
7 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
8 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
9 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
10 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
11 these violations will become errors again.
12
13* New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
14 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
15\f
16Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
17
18* The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
19 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
20
21* syntax error processing
22
23 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
24 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
25
26 - %destructor
27 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
28 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
29
30 - %error-verbose
31 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
32
33 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
34 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
35
36* POSIX conformance
37
38 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
39 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
40 compatibility with Yacc.
41
42 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
43 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
44 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
45 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
46 be consistent.
47
48 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
49 declared before use. C99 requires this.
50
51 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
52 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
53
54 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
55 output as "foo\\bar.y".
56
57 - Yacc command and library now available
58 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
59 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
60 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
61 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
62
63 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
64
65 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
66 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
67 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
68
69* Other compatibility issues
70
71 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
72 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
73 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
74 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
75 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
76 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
77
78 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
79 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
80
81 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
82 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
83
84 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
85 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
86 withdrawn in a future release.
87
88* GLR parser notes
89
90 - GLR and inline
91 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
92 C keyword `inline'.
93
94 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
95 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
96
97* Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
98 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
99 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
100
101* #line in output files
102 - --no-line works properly.
103
104* Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
105 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
106 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
107 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
108\f
109Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
110
111* Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
112
113* Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
114
115* GLR parsers
116 Fix spurious parse errors.
117
118* Pure parsers
119 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
120 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
121
122* Type Clashes
123 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
124 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
125
126 untyped: ... typed;
127
128 but the converse remains an error:
129
130 typed: ... untyped;
131
132* Values of mid-rule actions
133 The following code:
134
135 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
136
137 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
138 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
139\f
140Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
141
142* GLR parsing
143 The declaration
144 %glr-parser
145 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
146 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
147 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
148 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
149
150 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
151 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
152
153* Output Directory
154 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
155 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
156 now creates `bar.c'.
157
158* Undefined token
159 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
160 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
161
162* Unknown token numbers
163 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
164 no longer the case.
165
166* Error token
167 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
168 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
169 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
170 will be mapped onto another number.
171
172* Verbose error messages
173 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
174 error recovery is possible.
175
176* End token
177 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
178
179* Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
180 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
181 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
182 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
183 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
184 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
185 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
186 <http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-bison/2002-May/001452.html>.
187
188* Traces
189 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
190
191* Larger grammars
192 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
193 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
194 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
195 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
196
197* Explicit initial rule
198 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
199 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
200 graphs as rule 0.
201
202* Useless rules
203 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
204 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
205
206* Useless rules, useless nonterminals
207 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
208
209* Rules never reduced
210 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
211 reported.
212
213* Incorrect `Token not used'
214 On a grammar such as
215
216 %token useless useful
217 %%
218 exp: '0' %prec useful;
219
220 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
221 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
222
223* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
224 as they caused too many portability hassles.
225
226* Default locations
227 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
228 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
229 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
230 the computation of @$.
231
232* Token end-of-file
233 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
234 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
235 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
236 For instance
237 %token MYEOF 0
238 or
239 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
240
241* Semantic parser
242 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
243
244* New translations
245 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
246 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
247
248* Incorrect token definitions
249 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
250
251* Token definitions as enums
252 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
253 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
254 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
255
256* Reports
257 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
258 produces additional information:
259 - itemset
260 complete the core item sets with their closure
261 - lookahead
262 explicitly associate lookaheads to items
263 - solved
264 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
265 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
266 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
267
268* Type clashes
269 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
270 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
271
272 %type <foo> bar
273 %%
274 bar: '0' {} '0';
275
276 This is fixed.
277
278* GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
279\f
280Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
281
282* C Skeleton
283 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
284 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
285 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
286
287 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
288 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
289 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
290 kludge will be disabled.
291
292 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
293 extended.
294\f
295Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
296
297* File name clashes are detected
298 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
299 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
300
301* A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
302 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
303 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
304 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
305 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
306 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
307
308* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
309 many portability hassles.
310
311* DJGPP support added.
312
313* Fix test suite portability problems.
314\f
315Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
316
317* Fix C++ issues
318 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
319 under some conditions.
320
321* Catch invalid @n
322 As is done with $n.
323\f
324Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
325
326* Fix Yacc output file names
327
328* Portability fixes
329
330* Italian, Dutch translations
331\f
332Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
333
334* Many Bug Fixes
335
336* GNU Gettext and %expect
337 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
338 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
339 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
340 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
341
342* Use of alloca in parsers
343 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
344 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
345
346 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
347 problems as on AIX.
348
349* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
350 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
351
352* User Actions
353 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
354 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
355 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
356
357* Better C++ compliance
358 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
359 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
360
361* Reduced Grammars
362 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
363
364* 64 bit hosts
365 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
366
367* Error messages
368 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
369
370* %expect
371 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
372 any warning.
373
374* The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
375
376* Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
377
378* Swedish translation
379
380* Parse errors
381 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
382 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
383 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
384
385* Fixed parser memory leaks.
386 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
387 previous allocations were not freed.
388
389* Fixed verbose output file.
390 Some newlines were missing.
391 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
392
393* Fixed conflict report.
394 Option -v was needed to get the result.
395
396* %expect
397 Was not used.
398 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
399
400* Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
401
402* Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
403
404* Fixed some typos in the documentation.
405
406* %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
407 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
408
409* doc/refcard.tex is updated.
410
411* %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
412 New.
413
414* --output
415 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
416\f
417Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
418
419* `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
420 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
421 argument.
422
423* `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
424 experiment.
425
426* Portability fixes.
427\f
428Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
429
430* The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
431 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
432 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
433 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
434
435* Added `-g' and `--graph'.
436
437* The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
438
439* The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
440
441* Russian translation added.
442
443* NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
444
445* Added the old Bison reference card.
446
447* Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
448
449* Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
450
451* `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
452
453* Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
454 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
455
456* New directives.
457 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
458 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
459
460* @$
461 Automatic location tracking.
462\f
463Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
464
465* Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
466
467* Added NLS.
468
469* Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
470
471* There is now a FAQ.
472\f
473Changes in version 1.27:
474
475* The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
476 some systems has been fixed.
477\f
478Changes in version 1.26:
479
480* Bison now uses automake.
481
482* New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
483
484* Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
485
486* Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
487
488* A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
489
490* Problems when closing files should now be reported.
491
492* Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
493 not provide alloca().
494\f
495Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
496
497* Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
498the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
499
500* Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
501example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
502of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
503
504* The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
505and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
506table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
507purposes.
508
509* The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
510directives in the parser file.
511
512* The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
513Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
514
515* The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
516the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
517The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
518a switch statement body.
519\f
520Changes in version 1.23:
521
522The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
523passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
524actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
525by casting it to the proper pointer type.
526
527Line numbers in output file corrected.
528\f
529Changes in version 1.22:
530
531--help option added.
532\f
533Changes in version 1.20:
534
535Output file does not redefine const for C++.
536
537Local Variables:
538mode: outline
539End:
540
541-----
542
543Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
544Free Software Foundation, Inc.
545
546This file is part of Bison, the GNU Compiler Compiler.
547
548Bison is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
549it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
550the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
551any later version.
552
553Bison is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
554but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
555MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
556GNU General Public License for more details.
557
558You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
559along with autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
560the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
561Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.