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1Bison News
2----------
3
4Changes in version 2.1b:
5
6* %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
7
8* The C++ parsers export their token_type.
9
10Changes in version 2.1a, 2006-02-13:
11
12* Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
13 their contents together.
14
15* New warning: unused values
16 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
17 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
18
19 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
20 | exp "+" exp
21 ;
22
23 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
24 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
25 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
26
27 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
28 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
29 | exp "+" exp
30 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
31 ;
32
33 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
34 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
35 values are used, e.g.:
36
37 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
38 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
39 ;
40
41 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
42 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
43
44 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
45
46 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
47 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
48
49* %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
50 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
51 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
52 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
53
54* %expect, %expect-rr
55 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
56 instead of warnings.
57
58* GLR, YACC parsers.
59 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
60 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
61
62* Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
63
64* %require "VERSION"
65 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
66 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
67
68* lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
69 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
70 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
71 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
72 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
73
74 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
75 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
76 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
77 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
78
79 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
80 fail using `%require "2.1a"'.
81
82* DJGPP support added.
83
84Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
85
86* The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
87
88* Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
89 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
90 language is still English. For details, please see the new
91 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
92 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
93 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
94
95* Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
96 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
97 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
98 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
99
100* Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
101 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
102 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
103
104* When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
105 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
106 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
107 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
108 unexpected "number"'.
109
110Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
111
112* Possibly-incompatible changes
113
114 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
115 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
116 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
117 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
118 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
119
120 - Error token location.
121 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
122 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
123 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
124 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
125
126 - Semicolon changes:
127 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
128 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
129
130 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
131 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
132 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
133 forget a closing quote.
134
135 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
136
137* New features
138
139 - GLR grammars now support locations.
140
141 - New directive: %initial-action.
142 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
143 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
144
145 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
146 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
147
148 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
149 This is a GNU extension.
150
151 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
152 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and will be
153 removed.
154
155 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
156
157 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
158 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
159
160* Bug fixes
161
162 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
163 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
164 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
165 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
166 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
167 these violations will become errors again.
168
169 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
170 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
171
172 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
173\f
174Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
175
176* The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
177 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
178
179* syntax error processing
180
181 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
182 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
183
184 - %destructor
185 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
186 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
187
188 - %error-verbose
189 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
190
191 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
192 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
193
194* POSIX conformance
195
196 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
197 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
198 compatibility with Yacc.
199
200 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
201 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
202 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
203 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
204 be consistent.
205
206 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
207 declared before use. C99 requires this.
208
209 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
210 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
211
212 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
213 output as "foo\\bar.y".
214
215 - Yacc command and library now available
216 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
217 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
218 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
219 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
220
221 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
222
223 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
224 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
225 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
226
227* Other compatibility issues
228
229 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
230 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
231 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
232 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
233 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
234 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
235
236 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
237 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
238
239 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
240 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
241
242 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
243 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
244 withdrawn in a future release.
245
246* GLR parser notes
247
248 - GLR and inline
249 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
250 C keyword `inline'.
251
252 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
253 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
254
255* Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
256 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
257 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
258
259* #line in output files
260 - --no-line works properly.
261
262* Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
263 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
264 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
265 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
266\f
267Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
268
269* Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
270
271* Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
272
273* GLR parsers
274 Fix spurious parse errors.
275
276* Pure parsers
277 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
278 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
279
280* Type Clashes
281 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
282 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
283
284 untyped: ... typed;
285
286 but the converse remains an error:
287
288 typed: ... untyped;
289
290* Values of mid-rule actions
291 The following code:
292
293 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
294
295 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
296 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
297\f
298Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
299
300* GLR parsing
301 The declaration
302 %glr-parser
303 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
304 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
305 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
306 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
307
308 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
309 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
310
311* Output Directory
312 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
313 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
314 now creates `bar.c'.
315
316* Undefined token
317 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
318 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
319
320* Unknown token numbers
321 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
322 no longer the case.
323
324* Error token
325 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
326 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
327 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
328 will be mapped onto another number.
329
330* Verbose error messages
331 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
332 error recovery is possible.
333
334* End token
335 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
336
337* Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
338 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
339 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
340 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
341 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
342 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
343 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
344 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
345 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
346
347* Traces
348 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
349
350* Larger grammars
351 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
352 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
353 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
354 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
355
356* Explicit initial rule
357 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
358 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
359 graphs as rule 0.
360
361* Useless rules
362 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
363 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
364
365* Useless rules, useless nonterminals
366 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
367
368* Rules never reduced
369 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
370 reported.
371
372* Incorrect `Token not used'
373 On a grammar such as
374
375 %token useless useful
376 %%
377 exp: '0' %prec useful;
378
379 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
380 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
381
382* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
383 as they caused too many portability hassles.
384
385* Default locations
386 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
387 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
388 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
389 the computation of @$.
390
391* Token end-of-file
392 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
393 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
394 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
395 For instance
396 %token MYEOF 0
397 or
398 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
399
400* Semantic parser
401 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
402
403* New translations
404 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
405 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
406
407* Incorrect token definitions
408 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
409
410* Token definitions as enums
411 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
412 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
413 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
414
415* Reports
416 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
417 produces additional information:
418 - itemset
419 complete the core item sets with their closure
420 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e and later]
421 explicitly associate look-ahead tokens to items
422 - solved
423 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
424 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
425 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
426
427* Type clashes
428 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
429 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
430
431 %type <foo> bar
432 %%
433 bar: '0' {} '0';
434
435 This is fixed.
436
437* GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
438\f
439Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
440
441* C Skeleton
442 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
443 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
444 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
445
446 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
447 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
448 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
449 kludge will be disabled.
450
451 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
452 extended.
453\f
454Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
455
456* File name clashes are detected
457 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
458 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
459
460* A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
461 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
462 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
463 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
464 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
465 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
466
467* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
468 many portability hassles.
469
470* DJGPP support added.
471
472* Fix test suite portability problems.
473\f
474Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
475
476* Fix C++ issues
477 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
478 under some conditions.
479
480* Catch invalid @n
481 As is done with $n.
482\f
483Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
484
485* Fix Yacc output file names
486
487* Portability fixes
488
489* Italian, Dutch translations
490\f
491Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
492
493* Many Bug Fixes
494
495* GNU Gettext and %expect
496 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
497 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
498 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
499 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
500
501* Use of alloca in parsers
502 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
503 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
504
505 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
506 problems as on AIX.
507
508* yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
509
510* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
511 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
512
513* User Actions
514 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
515 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
516 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
517
518* Better C++ compliance
519 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
520 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
521
522* Reduced Grammars
523 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
524
525* 64 bit hosts
526 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
527
528* Error messages
529 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
530
531* %expect
532 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
533 any warning.
534
535* The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
536
537* Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
538
539* Swedish translation
540
541* Parse errors
542 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
543 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
544 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
545
546* Fixed parser memory leaks.
547 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
548 previous allocations were not freed.
549
550* Fixed verbose output file.
551 Some newlines were missing.
552 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
553
554* Fixed conflict report.
555 Option -v was needed to get the result.
556
557* %expect
558 Was not used.
559 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
560
561* Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
562
563* Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
564
565* Fixed some typos in the documentation.
566
567* %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
568 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
569
570* doc/refcard.tex is updated.
571
572* %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
573 New.
574
575* --output
576 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
577\f
578Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
579
580* `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
581 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
582 argument.
583
584* `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
585 experiment.
586
587* Portability fixes.
588\f
589Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
590
591* The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
592 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
593 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
594 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
595
596* Added `-g' and `--graph'.
597
598* The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
599
600* The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
601
602* Russian translation added.
603
604* NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
605
606* Added the old Bison reference card.
607
608* Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
609
610* Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
611
612* `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
613
614* Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
615 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
616
617* New directives.
618 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
619 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
620
621* @$
622 Automatic location tracking.
623\f
624Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
625
626* Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
627
628* Added NLS.
629
630* Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
631
632* There is now a FAQ.
633\f
634Changes in version 1.27:
635
636* The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
637 some systems has been fixed.
638\f
639Changes in version 1.26:
640
641* Bison now uses automake.
642
643* New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
644
645* Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
646
647* Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
648
649* A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
650
651* Problems when closing files should now be reported.
652
653* Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
654 not provide alloca().
655\f
656Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
657
658* Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
659the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
660
661* Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
662example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
663of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
664
665* The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
666and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
667table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
668purposes.
669
670* The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
671directives in the parser file.
672
673* The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
674Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
675
676* The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
677the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
678The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
679a switch statement body.
680\f
681Changes in version 1.23:
682
683The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
684passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
685actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
686by casting it to the proper pointer type.
687
688Line numbers in output file corrected.
689\f
690Changes in version 1.22:
691
692--help option added.
693\f
694Changes in version 1.20:
695
696Output file does not redefine const for C++.
697
698Local Variables:
699mode: outline
700End:
701
702-----
703
704Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
7052004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
706
707This file is part of Bison, the GNU Compiler Compiler.
708
709Bison is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
710it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
711the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
712any later version.
713
714Bison is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
715but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
716MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
717GNU General Public License for more details.
718
719You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
720along with autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
721the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
722Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.