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