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1Bison News
2----------
3
4Changes in version 2.3a+ (????-??-??):
5
6* The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
7 are now deprecated:
8
9 %define NAME "VALUE"
10
11* The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
12
13 %define api.pure
14
15 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
16 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
17
18* Push Parsing
19
20 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
21 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
22 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
23 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
24 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
25
26 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
27 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
28
29 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
30
31* The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
32 not VCG format.
33
34* An experimental directive %language specifies the language of the
35 generated parser, which can be C (the default) or C++. This
36 directive affects the skeleton used, and the names of the generated
37 files if the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
38
39* The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
40 %defines. For example:
41
42 %defines "parser.h"
43
44* When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
45 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
46 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
47 instead of "unused".
48
49* Unreachable State Removal
50
51 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
52 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
53 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
54
55 1. Removes unreachable states.
56
57 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
58 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
59 directives in existing grammar files.
60
61 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
62 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
63
64 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
65
66 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
67
68 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
69 for further discussion.
70
71* Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
72
73 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
74 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
75 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
76 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
77 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
78 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
79 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
80 code.
81
82* --report-file=FILE is a new flag to override the default `.output' file name.
83
84* The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
85 deprecated:
86
87 %file-prefix "parser"
88 %name-prefix "c_"
89 %output "parser.c"
90
91* An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
92
93 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
94 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
95 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
96 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
97 it:
98
99 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
100 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
101 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
102 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
103
104 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
105 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
106 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
107 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
108
109 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
110 determine whether they should become permanent features.
111
112* Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
113
114 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
115 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
116 about unused $2 in:
117
118 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
119
120 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
121 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
122
123 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
124
125 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
126 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
127 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
128
129 To enable these warnings, specify the flag `--warnings=midrule-values' or
130 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
131
132* Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
133
134 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
135 %printer's:
136
137 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
138 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
139 declared semantic type tags.
140
141 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
142 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
143 type tags.
144
145 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
146 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
147 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
148 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
149
150 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
151 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
152 features.
153
154 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
155 details.
156
157* %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
158 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
159 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
160
161* The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
162 completely removed from Bison.
163
164Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
165
166* Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
167 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
168 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
169 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
170 and is required by POSIX.
171
172* Locations columns and lines start at 1.
173 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
174
175* You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
176
177 For example:
178
179 %union { char *string; }
180 %token <string> STRING1
181 %token <string> STRING2
182 %type <string> string1
183 %type <string> string2
184 %union { char character; }
185 %token <character> CHR
186 %type <character> chr
187 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
188 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
189 %destructor { } <character>
190
191 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
192 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
193 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
194 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
195 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
196
197 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
198 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
199 future versions.]
200
201* Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
202 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
203 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
204 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
205 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
206
207* Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
208 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
209
210 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
211 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
212 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
213 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
214 declared after the first %union.
215
216 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
217 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
218 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
219 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
220 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
221 after the token definitions.
222
223 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
224 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
225
226* Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
227 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
228 %after-header.
229
230 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
231 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
232 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
233 convenient for you:
234
235 %before-header {
236 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
237 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
238 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
239 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
240 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
241 }
242 %start-header {
243 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
244 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
245 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
246 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
247 }
248 %union {
249 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
250 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
251 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
252 }
253 %end-header {
254 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
255 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
256 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
257 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
258 * definitions. */
259 }
260 %after-header {
261 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
262 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
263 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
264 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
265 * Bison-generated definitions. */
266 }
267
268 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
269 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
270
271 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
272 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
273
274* The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
275 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
276 in a future release.
277
278Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
279
280* GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
281 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
282
283* It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
284 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
285
286Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
287
288* The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
289 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
290 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
291
292* %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
293
294* The C++ parsers export their token_type.
295
296* Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
297 their contents together.
298
299* New warning: unused values
300 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
301 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
302
303 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
304 | exp "+" exp
305 ;
306
307 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
308 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
309 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
310
311 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
312 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
313 | exp "+" exp
314 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
315 ;
316
317 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
318 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
319 values are used, e.g.:
320
321 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
322 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
323 ;
324
325 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
326 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
327
328 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
329
330 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
331 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
332
333* %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
334 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
335 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
336 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
337
338* %expect, %expect-rr
339 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
340 instead of warnings.
341
342* GLR, YACC parsers.
343 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
344 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
345
346* Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
347
348* %require "VERSION"
349 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
350 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
351
352* lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
353 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
354 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
355 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
356 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
357
358 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
359 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
360 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
361 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
362
363 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
364 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
365
366* DJGPP support added.
367\f
368Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
369
370* The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
371
372* Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
373 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
374 language is still English. For details, please see the new
375 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
376 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
377 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
378
379* Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
380 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
381 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
382 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
383
384* Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
385 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
386 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
387
388* When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
389 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
390 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
391 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
392 unexpected "number"'.
393\f
394Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
395
396* Possibly-incompatible changes
397
398 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
399 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
400 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
401 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
402 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
403
404 - Error token location.
405 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
406 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
407 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
408 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
409
410 - Semicolon changes:
411 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
412 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
413
414 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
415 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
416 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
417 forget a closing quote.
418
419 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
420
421* New features
422
423 - GLR grammars now support locations.
424
425 - New directive: %initial-action.
426 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
427 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
428
429 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
430 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
431
432 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
433 This is a GNU extension.
434
435 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
436 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
437
438 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
439
440 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
441 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
442
443* Bug fixes
444
445 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
446 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
447 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
448 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
449 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
450 these violations will become errors again.
451
452 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
453 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
454
455 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
456\f
457Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
458
459* The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
460 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
461
462* syntax error processing
463
464 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
465 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
466
467 - %destructor
468 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
469 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
470
471 - %error-verbose
472 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
473
474 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
475 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
476
477* POSIX conformance
478
479 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
480 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
481 compatibility with Yacc.
482
483 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
484 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
485 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
486 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
487 be consistent.
488
489 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
490 declared before use. C99 requires this.
491
492 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
493 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
494
495 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
496 output as "foo\\bar.y".
497
498 - Yacc command and library now available
499 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
500 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
501 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
502 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
503
504 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
505
506 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
507 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
508 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
509
510* Other compatibility issues
511
512 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
513 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
514 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
515 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
516 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
517 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
518
519 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
520 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
521
522 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
523 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
524
525 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
526 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
527 withdrawn in a future release.
528
529* GLR parser notes
530
531 - GLR and inline
532 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
533 C keyword `inline'.
534
535 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
536 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
537
538* Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
539 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
540 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
541
542* #line in output files
543 - --no-line works properly.
544
545* Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
546 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
547 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
548 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
549\f
550Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
551
552* Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
553
554* Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
555
556* GLR parsers
557 Fix spurious parse errors.
558
559* Pure parsers
560 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
561 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
562
563* Type Clashes
564 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
565 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
566
567 untyped: ... typed;
568
569 but the converse remains an error:
570
571 typed: ... untyped;
572
573* Values of mid-rule actions
574 The following code:
575
576 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
577
578 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
579 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
580\f
581Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
582
583* GLR parsing
584 The declaration
585 %glr-parser
586 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
587 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
588 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
589 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
590
591 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
592 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
593
594* Output Directory
595 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
596 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
597 now creates `bar.c'.
598
599* Undefined token
600 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
601 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
602
603* Unknown token numbers
604 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
605 no longer the case.
606
607* Error token
608 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
609 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
610 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
611 will be mapped onto another number.
612
613* Verbose error messages
614 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
615 error recovery is possible.
616
617* End token
618 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
619
620* Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
621 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
622 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
623 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
624 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
625 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
626 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
627 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
628 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
629
630* Traces
631 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
632
633* Larger grammars
634 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
635 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
636 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
637 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
638
639* Explicit initial rule
640 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
641 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
642 graphs as rule 0.
643
644* Useless rules
645 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
646 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
647
648* Useless rules, useless nonterminals
649 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
650
651* Rules never reduced
652 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
653 reported.
654
655* Incorrect `Token not used'
656 On a grammar such as
657
658 %token useless useful
659 %%
660 exp: '0' %prec useful;
661
662 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
663 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
664
665* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
666 as they caused too many portability hassles.
667
668* Default locations
669 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
670 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
671 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
672 the computation of @$.
673
674* Token end-of-file
675 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
676 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
677 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
678 For instance
679 %token MYEOF 0
680 or
681 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
682
683* Semantic parser
684 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
685
686* New translations
687 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
688 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
689
690* Incorrect token definitions
691 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
692
693* Token definitions as enums
694 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
695 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
696 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
697
698* Reports
699 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
700 produces additional information:
701 - itemset
702 complete the core item sets with their closure
703 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
704 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
705 - solved
706 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
707 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
708 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
709
710* Type clashes
711 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
712 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
713
714 %type <foo> bar
715 %%
716 bar: '0' {} '0';
717
718 This is fixed.
719
720* GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
721\f
722Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
723
724* C Skeleton
725 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
726 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
727 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
728
729 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
730 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
731 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
732 kludge will be disabled.
733
734 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
735 extended.
736\f
737Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
738
739* File name clashes are detected
740 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
741 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
742
743* A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
744 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
745 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
746 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
747 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
748 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
749
750* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
751 many portability hassles.
752
753* DJGPP support added.
754
755* Fix test suite portability problems.
756\f
757Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
758
759* Fix C++ issues
760 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
761 under some conditions.
762
763* Catch invalid @n
764 As is done with $n.
765\f
766Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
767
768* Fix Yacc output file names
769
770* Portability fixes
771
772* Italian, Dutch translations
773\f
774Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
775
776* Many Bug Fixes
777
778* GNU Gettext and %expect
779 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
780 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
781 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
782 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
783
784* Use of alloca in parsers
785 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
786 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
787
788 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
789 problems as on AIX.
790
791* yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
792
793* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
794 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
795
796* User Actions
797 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
798 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
799 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
800
801* Better C++ compliance
802 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
803 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
804
805* Reduced Grammars
806 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
807
808* 64 bit hosts
809 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
810
811* Error messages
812 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
813
814* %expect
815 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
816 any warning.
817
818* The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
819
820* Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
821
822* Swedish translation
823
824* Parse errors
825 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
826 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
827 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
828
829* Fixed parser memory leaks.
830 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
831 previous allocations were not freed.
832
833* Fixed verbose output file.
834 Some newlines were missing.
835 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
836
837* Fixed conflict report.
838 Option -v was needed to get the result.
839
840* %expect
841 Was not used.
842 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
843
844* Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
845
846* Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
847
848* Fixed some typos in the documentation.
849
850* %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
851 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
852
853* doc/refcard.tex is updated.
854
855* %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
856 New.
857
858* --output
859 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
860\f
861Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
862
863* `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
864 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
865 argument.
866
867* `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
868 experiment.
869
870* Portability fixes.
871\f
872Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
873
874* The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
875 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
876 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
877 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
878
879* Added `-g' and `--graph'.
880
881* The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
882
883* The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
884
885* Russian translation added.
886
887* NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
888
889* Added the old Bison reference card.
890
891* Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
892
893* Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
894
895* `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
896
897* Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
898 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
899
900* New directives.
901 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
902 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
903
904* @$
905 Automatic location tracking.
906\f
907Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
908
909* Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
910
911* Added NLS.
912
913* Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
914
915* There is now a FAQ.
916\f
917Changes in version 1.27:
918
919* The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
920 some systems has been fixed.
921\f
922Changes in version 1.26:
923
924* Bison now uses automake.
925
926* New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
927
928* Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
929
930* Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
931
932* A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
933
934* Problems when closing files should now be reported.
935
936* Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
937 not provide alloca().
938\f
939Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
940
941* Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
942the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
943
944* Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
945example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
946of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
947
948* The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
949and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
950table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
951purposes.
952
953* The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
954directives in the parser file.
955
956* The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
957Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
958
959* The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
960the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
961The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
962a switch statement body.
963\f
964Changes in version 1.23:
965
966The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
967passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
968actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
969by casting it to the proper pointer type.
970
971Line numbers in output file corrected.
972\f
973Changes in version 1.22:
974
975--help option added.
976\f
977Changes in version 1.20:
978
979Output file does not redefine const for C++.
980
981Local Variables:
982mode: outline
983End:
984
985-----
986
987Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
9882004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
989
990This file is part of Bison, the GNU Compiler Compiler.
991
992This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
993it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
994the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
995(at your option) any later version.
996
997This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
998but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
999MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1000GNU General Public License for more details.
1001
1002You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1003along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.