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1GNU Bison NEWS
2
3* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
5
6* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.90 (2013-05-30) [beta]
7
8** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
9
10 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
11 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
12 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
13
14** Backward incompatible changes
15
16*** Obsolete features
17
18 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
19
20 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
21 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
22
23 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
24 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
25
26 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
27 in the release 2.5).
28
29*** Use of YACC='bison -y'
30
31 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
32 Bison extensions.
33
34 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
35 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
36 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
37
38 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
39 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
40 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
41 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
42 warnings for Bison extensions.
43
44 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
45 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
46 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
47 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
48
49** Bug fixes
50
51*** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
52
53 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
54 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
55 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
56 preprocessor expansion:
57
58 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
59
60 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
61 identifiers for user-provided variables.
62
63*** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
64
65 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
66 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
67
68*** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
69
70** Diagnostics reported by Bison
71
72 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
73 Santet.
74
75*** Carets
76
77 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
78 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
79 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
80
81 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
82 the caret information only. For instance on:
83
84 %%
85 exp: 'a' | 'a';
86
87 Bison 2.7 reports:
88
89 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
90 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
91
92 Now bison reports:
93
94 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
95 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
96 exp: 'a' | 'a';
97 ^^^
98
99 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
100
101 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
102 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
103
104*** Enhancements of the -Werror option
105
106 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
107 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
108 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
109
110 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
111 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
112 errors (and only those):
113
114 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
115
116 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
117 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
118
119 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
120
121 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
122
123 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
124 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
125
126 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
127 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
128 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
129
130*** The display of warnings is now richer
131
132 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
133
134 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
135
136 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
137 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
138 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
139
140 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
141 with failure):
142
143 bison: warnings being treated as errors
144 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
145
146 it now reports:
147
148 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
149
150*** Deprecated constructs
151
152 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
153 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
154 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
155
156*** Useless semantic types
157
158 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
159 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
160 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
161 types that trigger the warning:
162
163 %token <type1> term
164 %type <type2> nterm
165 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
166 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
167 %%
168 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
169
170 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
171 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
172
173*** Undefined but unused symbols
174
175 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
176 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
177
178 %printer {} symbol1
179 %destructor {} symbol2
180 %type <type> symbol3
181 %%
182 exp: "a";
183
184*** Useless destructors or printers
185
186 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
187 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
188 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
189 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
190
191 %token <type1> token1
192 <type2> token2
193 <type3> token3
194 <type4> token4
195 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
196 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
197
198*** Conflicts
199
200 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
201 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
202
203 %glr-parser
204 %%
205 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
206
207 compare the previous version of bison:
208
209 $ bison foo.y
210 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
211 $ bison -Werror foo.y
212 bison: warnings being treated as errors
213 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
214
215 with the new behavior:
216
217 $ bison foo.y
218 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
219 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
220 $ bison -Werror foo.y
221 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
222 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
223
224 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
225
226 %expect 0
227 %glr-parser
228 %%
229 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
230
231 Former behavior:
232
233 $ bison bar.y
234 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
235 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
236 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
237
238 New one:
239
240 $ bison bar.y
241 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
242 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
243
244** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
245
246 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
247 with '-Wyacc'.
248
249** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
250
251 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
252 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
253 or more arguments. Instead of
254
255 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
256 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
257 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
258 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
259
260 one may now declare
261
262 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
263
264** Types of values for %define variables
265
266 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
267 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
268 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
269 foo {bar}'.
270
271 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
272
273 %define lr.type lalr
274
275 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
276
277 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
278
279 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
280
281** Variable api.token.prefix
282
283 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
284 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
285 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
286
287 %token FILE for ERROR
288 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
289 %%
290 start: FILE for ERROR;
291
292 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
293 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
294 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
295 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
296
297** Variable api.value.type
298
299 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
300 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
301 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
302
303 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
304
305 %union
306 {
307 int ival;
308 char *sval;
309 }
310 %token <ival> INT "integer"
311 %token <sval> STRING "string"
312 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
313 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
314
315 /* In yylex(). */
316 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
317 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
318
319 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
320
321 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
322 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
323 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
324
325 %define api.value.type union
326 %token <int> INT "integer"
327 %token <char *> STRING "string"
328 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
329 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
330
331 /* In yylex(). */
332 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
333 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
334
335 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
336 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
337
338 %define api.value.type variant
339 %token <int> INT "integer"
340 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
341
342 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
343 used to be used.
344
345 %code requires
346 {
347 struct my_value
348 {
349 enum
350 {
351 is_int, is_string
352 } kind;
353 union
354 {
355 int ival;
356 char *sval;
357 } u;
358 };
359 }
360 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
361 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
362 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
363 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
364 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
365
366 /* In yylex(). */
367 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
368 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
369
370** Variable parse.error
371
372 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
373 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
374 verbose".
375
376** Renamed %define variables
377
378 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
379 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
380
381 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
382 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
383 namespace -> api.namespace
384 stype -> api.value.type
385
386** Semantic predicates
387
388 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
389
390 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
391 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
392 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
393 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
394 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
395 expressions.
396
397** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
398
399 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
400 reduce/reduce conflicts.
401
402** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
403
404 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
405
406 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
407 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
408 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
409 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
410
411 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
412 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
413 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
414
415 %right A B 'c' 'd'
416
417 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
418 input order is now preserved.
419
420 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
421 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
422 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
423
424** Useless precedence and associativity
425
426 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
427
428 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
429 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
430 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
431 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
432 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
433 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
434 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
435
436*** Precedence warning category
437
438 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
439 useless precedence and associativity directives.
440
441*** Useless associativity
442
443 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
444 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
445 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
446 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
447 For example:
448
449 %left '+'
450 %left '*'
451 %%
452 exp:
453 "number"
454 | exp '+' "number"
455 | exp '*' exp
456 ;
457
458 will produce a
459
460 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
461 %left '+'
462 ^^^
463
464*** Useless precedence
465
466 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
467 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
468 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
469 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
470
471 %precedence '='
472 %%
473 exp: "var" '=' "number";
474
475 will produce a
476
477 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
478 %precedence '='
479 ^^^
480
481*** Useless precedence and associativity
482
483 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
484 as follows:
485
486 %nonassoc '='
487 %%
488 exp: "var" '=' "number";
489
490 The warning is:
491
492 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
493 %nonassoc '='
494 ^^^
495
496** Empty rules
497
498 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
499
500 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
501 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
502 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
503 %empty. On the following grammar:
504
505 %%
506 s: a b c;
507 a: ;
508 b: %empty;
509 c: 'a' %empty;
510
511 bison reports:
512
513 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
514 a: {}
515 ^^
516 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
517 c: 'a' %empty {};
518 ^^^^^^
519
520** Java skeleton improvements
521
522 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
523 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
524 and "%define init_throws".
525 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
526
527 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
528 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
529
530** C++ skeletons improvements
531
532*** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
533
534 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
535 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
536 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
537
538*** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
539
540 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
541
542*** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
543
544 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
545 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
546 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
547 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
548 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
549 factory invoked by the user actions).
550
551*** %define api.value.type variant
552
553 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
554 from Théophile Ranquet.
555
556 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
557 instance:
558
559 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
560 %token <int> NUMBER;
561 %token SEMICOLON ";"
562 %type <::std::string> item;
563 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
564 %%
565 result:
566 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
567 ;
568
569 list:
570 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
571 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
572 ;
573
574 item:
575 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
576 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
577 ;
578
579*** %define api.token.constructor
580
581 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
582 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
583 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
584
585 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
586 {
587 parser::location_type loc = ...;
588 ...
589 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
590 ...
591 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
592 ...
593 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
594 ...
595 }
596
597*** C++ locations
598
599 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
600 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
601
602* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
603
604** Bug fixes
605
606*** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
607
608 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
609
610*** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
611
612* Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
613
614** Bug fixes
615
616 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
617
618 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
619
620** Diagnostics are improved
621
622 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
623
624*** Changes in the format of error messages
625
626 This used to be the format of many error reports:
627
628 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
629 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
630
631 It is now:
632
633 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
634 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
635
636*** New format for error reports: carets
637
638 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
639
640 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
641 %type <sval> exp
642 ^^^^^^
643 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
644 %type <ival> exp
645 ^^^^^^
646
647 or
648
649 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
650 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
651 ^^^^
652 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
653 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
654 ^^^
655 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
656 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
657 ^^^
658 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
659 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
660 ^^^
661
662 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
663 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
664 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
665 -fno-caret).
666
667** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
668
669 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
670 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
671 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
672 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
673 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
674 parsers).
675
676 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
677 "%define api.pure full".
678
679** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
680
681 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
682 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
683 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
684 then responsible to define her type.
685
686 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
687 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
688 them.
689
690 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
691 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
692 compatibility).
693
694 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
695 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
696 api.position.type.
697
698** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
699
700 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
701 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
702 before re-throwing the exception.
703
704 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
705 appreciated.
706
707** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
708
709 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
710
711 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
712 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
713 numbered and left-justified.
714
715 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
716 diamond shaped nodes.
717
718 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
719 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
720
721** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
722
723 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
724 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
725
726** Documentation
727
728 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
729 have been fixed and extended.
730
731 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
732 were not properly documented.
733
734 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
735
736* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
737
738 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
739 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
740 reporting them to us.
741
742** Bug fixes
743
744 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
745 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
746 3.2.
747
748 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
749
750 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
751
752 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
753 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
754
755* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
756
757 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
758
759* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
760
761** Bug fixes
762
763 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
764
765 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
766 users to the appropriate place to report them.
767
768 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
769
770 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
771 generated, are removed.
772
773 All the generated headers are self-contained.
774
775** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
776
777 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
778 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
779 For instance the header generated from
780
781 %define api.prefix "calc"
782 %defines "lib/parse.h"
783
784 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
785
786** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
787
788 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
789 warnings such as:
790
791 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
792 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
793 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
794 *++yyvsp = yylval;
795 ^
796
797 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
798
799 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
800 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
801 addressed.
802
803* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
804
805** Bug fixes
806
807 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
808 suite have been fixed.
809
810** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
811
812 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
813 invalid C++. This is fixed.
814
815** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
816
817 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
818
819* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
820
821 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
822
823** Future Changes
824
825 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
826 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
827 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
828
829 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
830
831 write:
832
833 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
834
835** Bug fixes
836
837*** Type names are now properly escaped.
838
839*** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
840
841*** Stray @ or $ in actions
842
843 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
844 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
845 now does.
846
847** Type names in actions
848
849 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
850 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
851
852 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
853
854 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
855 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
856
857* Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
858
859** Future changes
860
861 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
862 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
863
864*** K&R C parsers
865
866 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
867 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
868 compilers.
869
870*** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
871
872 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
873 YYLTYPE.
874
875 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
876 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
877
878 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
879 %error-verbose.
880
881*** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
882
883 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
884 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
885 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
886 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
887 it.
888
889** Generated Parser Headers
890
891*** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
892
893 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
894 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
895
896 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
897 # define YY_FOO_H
898 ...
899 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
900
901*** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
902
903 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
904 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
905
906 int bar_parse (void);
907
908 rather than
909
910 #define yyparse bar_parse
911 int yyparse (void);
912
913 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
914 single compilation unit.
915
916*** Exported symbols in C++
917
918 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
919 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
920 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
921
922*** YYLSP_NEEDED
923
924 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
925 longer defined.
926
927** New %define variable: api.prefix
928
929 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
930 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
931 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
932 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
933 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
934 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
935 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
936
937 The following examples compares both:
938
939 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
940 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
941 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
942 %% %%
943 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
944
945 bison generates:
946
947 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
948 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
949
950 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
951 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
952 > # if defined YYDEBUG
953 > # if YYDEBUG
954 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
955 > # else
956 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
957 > # endif
958 > # else
959 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
960 > # endif
961 # endif | # endif
962
963 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
964 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
965 # endif # endif
966
967 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
968 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
969 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
970 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
971 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
972 }; };
973 # endif # endif
974
975 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
976 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
977 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
978 { {
979 int ival; int ival;
980 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
981 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
982 #endif #endif
983
984 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
985
986 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
987
988 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
989
990* Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
991
992** Future changes:
993
994 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
995
996** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
997
998** glr.c improvements:
999
1000*** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
1001
1002 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1003 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
1004
1005*** __attribute__ is preserved:
1006
1007 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1008 when -std is passed to GCC).
1009
1010** lalr1.java: several fixes:
1011
1012 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1013 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
1014
1015** Changes for C++:
1016
1017*** C++11 compatibility:
1018
1019 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1020 or higher.
1021
1022*** Header guards
1023
1024 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1025 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1026
1027 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1028 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1029 ...
1030 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
1031
1032 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1033 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1034 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1035
1036 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1037
1038 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1039 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1040 ...
1041 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1042
1043*** C++ locations:
1044
1045 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1046 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1047 documentation were fixed.
1048
1049** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1050
1051** Changes in the manual:
1052
1053*** %printer is documented
1054
1055 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1056 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
1057
1058 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1059 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
1060
1061*** Several improvements have been made:
1062
1063 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1064 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1065 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1066 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
1067
1068** Building bison:
1069
1070*** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
1071
1072 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1073 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
1074
1075*** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1076
1077*** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
1078
1079 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1080 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
1081
1082*** The install-pdf target works properly:
1083
1084 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1085 halts in the middle of its course.
1086
1087* Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
1088
1089** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1090
1091 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1092 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1093 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1094 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1095 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1096
1097** Named references:
1098
1099 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1100 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1101 actions code.
1102
1103 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1104 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1105 as named references:
1106
1107 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
1108 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1109
1110 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1111
1112 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
1113 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1114
1115 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
1116 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1117 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1118
1119 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
1120 will help to stabilize them.
1121 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
1122
1123** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
1124
1125 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1126 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
1127 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
1128 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1129 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
1130 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1131 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1132 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1133 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1134
1135 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1136 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1137 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1138 file with these directives:
1139
1140 %define lr.type lalr
1141 %define lr.type ielr
1142 %define lr.type canonical-lr
1143
1144 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
1145 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1146 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
1147 manual.
1148
1149 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1150 stabilize them.
1151
1152** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1153
1154 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
1155
1156 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1157 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1158 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
1159 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
1160 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1161 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1162 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
1163 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
1164 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
1165 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1166 tokens.
1167
1168 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1169 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1170 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1171 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1172 inconsistent states.
1173
1174 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1175 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1176 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1177 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1178 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
1179 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1180 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1181 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1182 power.
1183
1184 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1185 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1186
1187 %define parse.lac full
1188
1189 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
1190 details including a few caveats.
1191
1192 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1193 stabilize it.
1194
1195** %define improvements:
1196
1197*** Can now be invoked via the command line:
1198
1199 Each of these command-line options
1200
1201 -D NAME[=VALUE]
1202 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1203
1204 -F NAME[=VALUE]
1205 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
1206
1207 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1208
1209 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
1210
1211 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1212 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1213 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
1214 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
1215
1216*** Variables renamed:
1217
1218 The following %define variables
1219
1220 api.push_pull
1221 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1222
1223 have been renamed to
1224
1225 api.push-pull
1226 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1227
1228 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1229 for backward compatibility.
1230
1231*** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
1232
1233 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1234 within quotations marks. For example,
1235
1236 %define api.push-pull "push"
1237
1238 can be rewritten as
1239
1240 %define api.push-pull push
1241
1242*** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
1243
1244*** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1245
1246** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1247
1248** Character literals not of length one:
1249
1250 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1251 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1252 the following grammar to be the same token:
1253
1254 exp: exp '++'
1255 | exp '+' exp
1256 ;
1257
1258 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1259 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1260
1261** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1262
1263 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1264 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1265 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1266 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1267
1268** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1269
1270 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1271 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
1272 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1273 and "last" members, instead of
1274
1275 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1276 do \
1277 if (N) \
1278 { \
1279 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1280 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1281 } \
1282 else \
1283 { \
1284 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1285 } \
1286 while (false)
1287
1288 use:
1289
1290 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1291 do \
1292 if (N) \
1293 { \
1294 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1295 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1296 } \
1297 else \
1298 { \
1299 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1300 } \
1301 while (false)
1302
1303** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1304
1305 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1306 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1307 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1308 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
1309
1310** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
1311
1312 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1313 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1314 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1315 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1316 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1317 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1318 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1319 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1320
1321** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
1322
1323 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1324 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1325 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1326 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1327
1328 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1329
1330 instead of
1331
1332 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1333
1334 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1335 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1336 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1337 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1338 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1339 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1340 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1341
1342** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1343
1344 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1345 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1346 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1347 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1348 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
1349
1350*** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1351 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1352 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1353 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1354 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
1355 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
1356 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1357 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1358 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1359 shifted or discarded.
1360
1361*** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1362 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1363 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1364 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1365
1366*** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
1367 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1368 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1369 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1370 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1371 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1372 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1373 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1374 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1375 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1376 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1377 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1378 by default.
1379
1380** Java skeleton fixes:
1381
1382*** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1383
1384*** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1385 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
1386
1387*** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1388
1389** -W/--warnings fixes:
1390
1391*** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
1392
1393 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1394 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1395
1396 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1397
1398*** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1399
1400 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1401 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
1402 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
1403 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1404 example:
1405
1406 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1407 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1408 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1409 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1410
1411 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1412 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1413 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1414 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1415
1416*** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
1417
1418 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1419 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1420
1421 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1422
1423*** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
1424
1425 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
1426 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1427 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1428 suppress all warnings:
1429
1430 bison -Wnone gram.y
1431
1432** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1433
1434 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1435 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1436 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1437
1438 %left END 0
1439
1440 This bug has been fixed.
1441
1442* Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
1443
1444** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1445 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1446
1447** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1448 been fixed.
1449
1450** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1451
1452** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1453 been fixed.
1454
1455** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1456 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1457 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1458 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1459
1460** Minor documentation fixes.
1461
1462* Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
1463
1464** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1465 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
1466 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1467 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
1468 affected platforms.
1469
1470** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
1471
1472 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1473 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1474 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1475 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1476 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1477 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1478 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
1479 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1480 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
1481
1482** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1483
1484** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1485 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1486 avoided.
1487
1488** %code is now a permanent feature.
1489
1490 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1491
1492 %{CODE%}
1493
1494 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1495 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1496
1497 %code {CODE}
1498 %code requires {CODE}
1499 %code provides {CODE}
1500 %code top {CODE}
1501
1502 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1503 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1504 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1505 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1506 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1507
1508 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1509 is still considered experimental.
1510
1511** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1512
1513 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1514 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1515 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1516 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1517 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1518 specified by POSIX.
1519
1520 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1521 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1522 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1523 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1524 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
1525 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1526 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1527
1528 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1529
1530 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1531 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1532 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1533 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1534 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1535 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
1536 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1537 be removed altogether.
1538
1539 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1540 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1541 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1542 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1543 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
1544 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1545 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1546 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1547 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1548 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1549
1550** Internationalization.
1551
1552 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1553 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1554 host system.
1555
1556* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
1557
1558** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1559 declarations have been fixed.
1560
1561** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1562
1563 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1564 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1565
1566 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1567
1568 instead of
1569
1570 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1571
1572 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
1573 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1574 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1575 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1576 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1577 feature.
1578
1579** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
1580
1581* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
1582
1583** %language is an experimental feature.
1584
1585 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1586 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1587 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1588 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1589 in future releases.
1590
1591** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
1592
1593** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
1594 fixed.
1595
1596* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
1597
1598** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
1599 are now deprecated:
1600
1601 %define NAME "VALUE"
1602
1603** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
1604
1605 %define api.pure
1606
1607 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1608 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1609
1610** Push Parsing
1611
1612 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
1613 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1614 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
1615 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1616 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1617
1618 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1619 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1620
1621 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
1622
1623 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1624 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1625
1626** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
1627 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1628 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
1629
1630** Java
1631
1632 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
1633 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
1634 %skeleton to select it.
1635
1636 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
1637
1638 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1639 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1640 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
1641
1642** %language
1643
1644 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
1645 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1646 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1647 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
1648
1649** XML Automaton Report
1650
1651 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
1652 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
1653 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
1654 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
1655
1656** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
1657 %defines. For example:
1658
1659 %defines "parser.h"
1660
1661** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
1662 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1663 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1664 instead of "unused".
1665
1666** Unreachable State Removal
1667
1668 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
1669 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1670 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
1671
1672 1. Removes unreachable states.
1673
1674 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1675 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1676 directives in existing grammar files.
1677
1678 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
1679 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
1680
1681 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1682
1683 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1684
1685 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
1686 for further discussion.
1687
1688** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
1689
1690 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1691 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
1692 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1693 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1694 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1695 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
1696 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
1697 code.
1698
1699** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
1700 name.
1701
1702** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
1703 deprecated:
1704
1705 %file-prefix "parser"
1706 %name-prefix "c_"
1707 %output "parser.c"
1708
1709** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
1710
1711 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
1712 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1713 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1714 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1715 it:
1716
1717 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1718 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1719 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1720 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
1721
1722 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1723 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1724 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
1725 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1726
1727 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1728 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1729
1730** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
1731
1732 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1733 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1734 about unused $2 in:
1735
1736 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1737
1738 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1739 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1740
1741 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1742
1743 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1744 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1745 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1746
1747 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1748 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1749
1750** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1751
1752 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
1753 %printer's:
1754
1755 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1756 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1757 declared semantic type tags.
1758
1759 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1760 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1761 type tags.
1762
1763 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1764 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
1765 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1766 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1767
1768 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1769 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1770 features.
1771
1772 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1773 details.
1774
1775** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1776 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1777 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1778
1779** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1780 completely removed from Bison.
1781
1782* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1783
1784** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1785 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1786 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1787 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1788 and is required by POSIX.
1789
1790** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1791 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1792
1793** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1794
1795 For example:
1796
1797 %union { char *string; }
1798 %token <string> STRING1
1799 %token <string> STRING2
1800 %type <string> string1
1801 %type <string> string2
1802 %union { char character; }
1803 %token <character> CHR
1804 %type <character> chr
1805 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1806 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1807 %destructor { } <character>
1808
1809 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
1810 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1811 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1812 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1813 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
1814
1815 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1816 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1817 future versions.]
1818
1819** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1820 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
1821 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1822 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1823 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1824
1825** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1826 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
1827
1828 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
1829 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
1830 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1831 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
1832 declared after the first %union.
1833
1834 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
1835 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1836 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1837 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1838 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1839 after the token definitions.
1840
1841 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1842 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1843
1844** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1845 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1846 %after-header.
1847
1848 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1849 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1850 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1851 convenient for you:
1852
1853 %before-header {
1854 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1855 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1856 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1857 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
1858 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
1859 }
1860 %start-header {
1861 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1862 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1863 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1864 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
1865 }
1866 %union {
1867 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1868 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1869 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
1870 }
1871 %end-header {
1872 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1873 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1874 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1875 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1876 * definitions. */
1877 }
1878 %after-header {
1879 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1880 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1881 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1882 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1883 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1884 }
1885
1886 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1887 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
1888
1889 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1890 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1891
1892** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
1893 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1894 in a future release.
1895
1896* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
1897
1898** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
1899 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1900
1901** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
1902 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1903
1904* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
1905
1906** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
1907 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1908 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
1909
1910** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
1911
1912** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
1913
1914** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
1915 their contents together.
1916
1917** New warning: unused values
1918 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1919 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
1920
1921 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
1922 | exp "+" exp
1923 ;
1924
1925 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1926 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1927 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1928
1929 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1930 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1931 | exp "+" exp
1932 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1933 ;
1934
1935 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1936 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1937 values are used, e.g.:
1938
1939 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1940 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1941 ;
1942
1943 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1944 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1945
1946 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1947
1948 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1949 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
1950
1951** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
1952 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1953 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1954 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
1955
1956** %expect, %expect-rr
1957 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1958 instead of warnings.
1959
1960** GLR, YACC parsers.
1961 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1962 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1963
1964** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1965
1966** %require "VERSION"
1967 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1968 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
1969
1970** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
1971 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1972 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
1973 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1974 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
1975
1976 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
1977 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
1978 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1979 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
1980
1981 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1982 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1983
1984** DJGPP support added.
1985\f
1986* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1987
1988** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
1989
1990** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
1991 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1992 language is still English. For details, please see the new
1993 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1994 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1995 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1996
1997** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1998 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1999 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2000 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2001
2002** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
2003 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2004 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2005
2006** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
2007 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2008 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2009 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2010 unexpected "number"'.
2011\f
2012* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
2013
2014** Possibly-incompatible changes
2015
2016 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2017 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2018 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2019 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2020 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
2021
2022 - Error token location.
2023 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2024 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2025 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2026 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
2027
2028 - Semicolon changes:
2029 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2030 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
2031
2032 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2033 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2034 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2035 forget a closing quote.
2036
2037 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
2038
2039** New features
2040
2041 - GLR grammars now support locations.
2042
2043 - New directive: %initial-action.
2044 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2045 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
2046
2047 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2048 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
2049
2050 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
2051 This is a GNU extension.
2052
2053 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
2054 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
2055
2056 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
2057
2058 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2059 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
2060
2061** Bug fixes
2062
2063 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2064 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2065 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2066 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2067 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2068 these violations will become errors again.
2069
2070 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2071 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
2072
2073 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
2074\f
2075* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
2076
2077** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
2078 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
2079
2080** syntax error processing
2081
2082 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2083 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
2084
2085 - %destructor
2086 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2087 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
2088
2089 - %error-verbose
2090 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
2091
2092 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2093 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
2094
2095** POSIX conformance
2096
2097 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2098 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2099 compatibility with Yacc.
2100
2101 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2102 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2103 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2104 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
2105 be consistent.
2106
2107 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2108 declared before use. C99 requires this.
2109
2110 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2111 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
2112
2113 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2114 output as "foo\\bar.y".
2115
2116 - Yacc command and library now available
2117 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
2118 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2119 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2120 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
2121
2122 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
2123
2124 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2125 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2126 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
2127
2128** Other compatibility issues
2129
2130 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2131 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2132 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2133 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2134 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
2135 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
2136
2137 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
2138 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
2139
2140 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
2141 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
2142
2143 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
2144 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2145 withdrawn in a future release.
2146
2147** GLR parser notes
2148
2149 - GLR and inline
2150 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
2151 C keyword "inline".
2152
2153 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2154 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
2155
2156** %parse-param and %lex-param
2157 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2158 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2159 shortcomings:
2160
2161 - a single argument only can be added,
2162 - their types are weak (void *),
2163 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
2164 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2165
2166 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2167 For instance:
2168
2169 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2170 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2171 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2172
2173 results in the following signatures:
2174
2175 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2176 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2177
2178 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2179
2180 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2181 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2182
2183** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
2184 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
2185 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
2186
2187** #line in output files
2188 - --no-line works properly.
2189
2190** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
2191 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2192 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2193 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
2194\f
2195* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
2196
2197** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
2198
2199** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
2200
2201** GLR parsers
2202 Fix spurious parse errors.
2203
2204** Pure parsers
2205 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2206 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2207
2208** Type Clashes
2209 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2210 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2211
2212 untyped: ... typed;
2213
2214 but the converse remains an error:
2215
2216 typed: ... untyped;
2217
2218** Values of mid-rule actions
2219 The following code:
2220
2221 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
2222
2223 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2224 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
2225\f
2226* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
2227
2228** GLR parsing
2229 The declaration
2230 %glr-parser
2231 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2232 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
2233 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
2234 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2235
2236 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
2237 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2238
2239** Output Directory
2240 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
2241 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2242 now creates "bar.c".
2243
2244** Undefined token
2245 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
2246 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
2247
2248** Unknown token numbers
2249 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
2250 no longer the case.
2251
2252** Error token
2253 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
2254 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2255 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2256 will be mapped onto another number.
2257
2258** Verbose error messages
2259 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
2260 error recovery is possible.
2261
2262** End token
2263 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
2264
2265** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
2266 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2267 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2268 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2269 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2270 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2271 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
2272 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2273 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
2274
2275** Traces
2276 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2277
2278** Larger grammars
2279 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2280 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2281 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2282 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
2283
2284** Explicit initial rule
2285 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2286 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2287 graphs as rule 0.
2288
2289** Useless rules
2290 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
2291 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
2292
2293** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
2294 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2295
2296** Rules never reduced
2297 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2298 reported.
2299
2300** Incorrect "Token not used"
2301 On a grammar such as
2302
2303 %token useless useful
2304 %%
2305 exp: '0' %prec useful;
2306
2307 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
2308 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
2309
2310** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
2311 as they caused too many portability hassles.
2312
2313** Default locations
2314 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2315 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2316 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2317 the computation of @$.
2318
2319** Token end-of-file
2320 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2321 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
2322 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
2323 For instance
2324 %token MYEOF 0
2325 or
2326 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
2327
2328** Semantic parser
2329 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2330
2331** New translations
2332 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
2333 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2334
2335** Incorrect token definitions
2336 When given
2337 %token 'a' "A"
2338 bison used to output
2339 #define 'a' 65
2340
2341** Token definitions as enums
2342 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2343 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
2344 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
2345
2346** Reports
2347 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2348 produces additional information:
2349 - itemset
2350 complete the core item sets with their closure
2351 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
2352 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
2353 - solved
2354 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2355 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2356 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
2357
2358** Type clashes
2359 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2360 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2361
2362 %type <foo> bar
2363 %%
2364 bar: '0' {} '0';
2365
2366 This is fixed.
2367
2368** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
2369\f
2370* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
2371
2372** C Skeleton
2373 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2374 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2375 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2376
2377 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2378 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2379 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2380 kludge will be disabled.
2381
2382 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2383 extended.
2384\f
2385* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
2386
2387** File name clashes are detected
2388 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
2389 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
2390
2391** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
2392 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2393 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2394 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2395 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2396 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2397
2398** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
2399 many portability hassles.
2400
2401** DJGPP support added.
2402
2403** Fix test suite portability problems.
2404\f
2405* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
2406
2407** Fix C++ issues
2408 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2409 under some conditions.
2410
2411** Catch invalid @n
2412 As is done with $n.
2413\f
2414* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
2415
2416** Fix Yacc output file names
2417
2418** Portability fixes
2419
2420** Italian, Dutch translations
2421\f
2422* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
2423
2424** Many Bug Fixes
2425
2426** GNU Gettext and %expect
2427 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2428 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2429 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
2430 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
2431
2432** Use of alloca in parsers
2433 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2434 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2435
2436 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2437 problems as on AIX.
2438
2439** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
2440
2441** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
2442 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2443
2444** User Actions
2445 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2446 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2447 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2448
2449** Better C++ compliance
2450 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
2451 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
2452
2453** Reduced Grammars
2454 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2455
2456** 64 bit hosts
2457 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2458
2459** Error messages
2460 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2461
2462** %expect
2463 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2464 any warning.
2465
2466** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
2467
2468** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
2469
2470** Swedish translation
2471
2472** Parse errors
2473 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2474 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2475 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2476
2477** Fixed parser memory leaks.
2478 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2479 previous allocations were not freed.
2480
2481** Fixed verbose output file.
2482 Some newlines were missing.
2483 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2484
2485** Fixed conflict report.
2486 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2487
2488** %expect
2489 Was not used.
2490 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2491
2492** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
2493
2494** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
2495
2496** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
2497
2498** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
2499 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2500
2501** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
2502
2503** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
2504 New.
2505
2506** --output
2507 New, aliasing "--output-file".
2508\f
2509* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
2510
2511** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2512 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
2513 argument.
2514
2515** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
2516 experiment.
2517
2518** Portability fixes.
2519\f
2520* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
2521
2522** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
2523 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2524 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
2525 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
2526
2527** Added "-g" and "--graph".
2528
2529** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2530
2531** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
2532
2533** Russian translation added.
2534
2535** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
2536
2537** Added the old Bison reference card.
2538
2539** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
2540
2541** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
2542
2543** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
2544
2545** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
2546 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2547
2548** New directives.
2549 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2550 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
2551
2552** @$
2553 Automatic location tracking.
2554\f
2555* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
2556
2557** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
2558
2559** Added NLS.
2560
2561** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
2562
2563** There is now a FAQ.
2564\f
2565* Changes in version 1.27:
2566
2567** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
2568 some systems has been fixed.
2569\f
2570* Changes in version 1.26:
2571
2572** Bison now uses Automake.
2573
2574** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
2575
2576** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
2577
2578** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
2579
2580** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
2581
2582** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
2583
2584** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
2585 not provide alloca().
2586\f
2587* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
2588
2589** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
2590the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
2591
2592** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
2593example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
2594of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
2595
2596** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
2597and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2598table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2599purposes.
2600
2601** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
2602directives in the parser file.
2603
2604** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
2605Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2606
2607** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
2608the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2609The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2610a switch statement body.
2611\f
2612* Changes in version 1.23:
2613
2614The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2615passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2616actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2617by casting it to the proper pointer type.
2618
2619Line numbers in output file corrected.
2620\f
2621* Changes in version 1.22:
2622
2623--help option added.
2624\f
2625* Changes in version 1.20:
2626
2627Output file does not redefine const for C++.
2628
2629-----
2630
2631Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2632
2633This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
2634
2635This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2636it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2637the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2638(at your option) any later version.
2639
2640This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2641but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2642MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2643GNU General Public License for more details.
2644
2645You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2646along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2647
2648 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2649 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2650 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2651 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2652 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2653 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2654 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2655 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2656 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2657 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2658 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2659 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2660 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
2661 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
2662 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
2663 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2664 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
2665 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
2666 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2667 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2668 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2669 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2670 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
2671 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype
2672
2673Local Variables:
2674mode: outline
2675fill-column: 76
2676End: