3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
6 * Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.3 (2015-01-15) [stable]
10 *** C++ with Variants (lalr1.cc)
12 Problems with %destructor and '%define parse.assert' have been fixed.
14 *** Named %union support (yacc.c, glr.c)
16 Bison 3.0 introduced a regression on named %union such as
18 %union foo { int ival; };
20 The possibility to use a name was introduced "for Yacc compatibility".
21 It is however not required by POSIX Yacc, and its usefulness is not clear.
23 *** %define api.value.type union with %defines (yacc.c, glr.c)
25 The C parsers were broken when %defines was used together with "%define
26 api.value.type union".
28 *** Redeclarations are reported in proper order
38 /tmp/foo.yy:2.10-11: error: %printer redeclaration for FOO
41 /tmp/foo.yy:3.10-11: previous declaration
45 Now, the "previous" declaration is always the first one.
50 Bison now installs various files in its docdir (which defaults to
51 '/usr/local/share/doc/bison'), including the three fully blown examples
52 extracted from the documentation:
55 Reverse polish calculator, a simple introductory example.
57 Multi-function Calc, a calculator with memory and functions and located
60 a calculator in C++ using variant support and token constructors.
62 * Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.2 (2013-12-05) [stable]
66 *** Generated source files when errors are reported
68 When warnings are issued and -Werror is set, bison would still generate
69 the source files (*.c, *.h...). As a consequence, some runs of "make"
70 could fail the first time, but not the second (as the files were generated
73 This is fixed: bison no longer generates this source files, but, of
74 course, still produces the various reports (*.output, *.xml, etc.).
76 *** %empty is used in reports
78 Empty right-hand sides are denoted by '%empty' in all the reports (text,
79 dot, XML and formats derived from it).
81 *** YYERROR and variants
83 When C++ variant support is enabled, an error triggered via YYERROR, but
84 not caught via error recovery, resulted in a double deletion.
86 * Noteworthy changes in release 3.0.1 (2013-11-12) [stable]
90 *** Errors in caret diagnostics
92 On some platforms, some errors could result in endless diagnostics.
94 *** Fixes of the -Werror option
96 Options such as "-Werror -Wno-error=foo" were still turning "foo"
97 diagnostics into errors instead of warnings. This is fixed.
99 Actually, for consistency with GCC, "-Wno-error=foo -Werror" now also
100 leaves "foo" diagnostics as warnings. Similarly, with "-Werror=foo
101 -Wno-error", "foo" diagnostics are now errors.
105 As demonstrated in the documentation, one can now leave spaces between
110 The yacc.1 man page is no longer installed if --disable-yacc was
113 *** Fixes in the test suite
115 Bugs and portability issues.
117 * Noteworthy changes in release 3.0 (2013-07-25) [stable]
119 ** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
121 Like other GNU packages, Bison will start using some of the C99 features
122 for its own code, especially the definition of variables after statements.
123 The generated C parsers still aim at C90.
125 ** Backward incompatible changes
127 *** Obsolete features
129 Support for YYFAIL is removed (deprecated in Bison 2.4.2): use YYERROR.
131 Support for yystype and yyltype is removed (deprecated in Bison 1.875):
132 use YYSTYPE and YYLTYPE.
134 Support for YYLEX_PARAM and YYPARSE_PARAM is removed (deprecated in Bison
135 1.875): use %lex-param, %parse-param, or %param.
137 Missing semicolons at the end of actions are no longer added (as announced
140 *** Use of YACC='bison -y'
142 TL;DR: With Autoconf <= 2.69, pass -Wno-yacc to (AM_)YFLAGS if you use
145 Traditional Yacc generates 'y.tab.c' whatever the name of the input file.
146 Therefore Makefiles written for Yacc expect 'y.tab.c' (and possibly
147 'y.tab.h' and 'y.outout') to be generated from 'foo.y'.
149 To this end, for ages, AC_PROG_YACC, Autoconf's macro to look for an
150 implementation of Yacc, was using Bison as 'bison -y'. While it does
151 ensure compatible output file names, it also enables warnings for
152 incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc. In other words, 'bison -y' triggers
153 warnings for Bison extensions.
155 Autoconf 2.70+ fixes this incompatibility by using YACC='bison -o y.tab.c'
156 (which also generates 'y.tab.h' and 'y.output' when needed).
157 Alternatively, disable Yacc warnings by passing '-Wno-yacc' to your Yacc
158 flags (YFLAGS, or AM_YFLAGS with Automake).
162 *** The epilogue is no longer affected by internal #defines (glr.c)
164 The glr.c skeleton uses defines such as #define yylval (yystackp->yyval) in
165 generated code. These weren't properly undefined before the inclusion of
166 the user epilogue, so functions such as the following were butchered by the
167 preprocessor expansion:
169 int yylex (YYSTYPE *yylval);
171 This is fixed: yylval, yynerrs, yychar, and yylloc are now valid
172 identifiers for user-provided variables.
174 *** stdio.h is no longer needed when locations are enabled (yacc.c)
176 Changes in Bison 2.7 introduced a dependency on FILE and fprintf when
177 locations are enabled. This is fixed.
179 *** Warnings about useless %pure-parser/%define api.pure are restored
181 ** Diagnostics reported by Bison
183 Most of these features were contributed by Théophile Ranquet and Victor
188 Version 2.7 introduced caret errors, for a prettier output. These are now
189 activated by default. The old format can still be used by invoking Bison
190 with -fno-caret (or -fnone).
192 Some error messages that reproduced excerpts of the grammar are now using
193 the caret information only. For instance on:
200 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
201 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts: exp: 'a' [-Wother]
205 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
206 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
210 and "bison -fno-caret" reports:
212 in.y: warning: 1 reduce/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-rr]
213 in.y:2.12-14: warning: rule useless in parser due to conflicts [-Wother]
215 *** Enhancements of the -Werror option
217 The -Werror=CATEGORY option is now recognized, and will treat specified
218 warnings as errors. The warnings need not have been explicitly activated
219 using the -W option, this is similar to what GCC 4.7 does.
221 For example, given the following command line, Bison will treat both
222 warnings related to POSIX Yacc incompatibilities and S/R conflicts as
223 errors (and only those):
225 $ bison -Werror=yacc,error=conflicts-sr input.y
227 If no categories are specified, -Werror will make all active warnings into
228 errors. For example, the following line does the same the previous example:
230 $ bison -Werror -Wnone -Wyacc -Wconflicts-sr input.y
232 (By default -Wconflicts-sr,conflicts-rr,deprecated,other is enabled.)
234 Note that the categories in this -Werror option may not be prefixed with
235 "no-". However, -Wno-error[=CATEGORY] is valid.
237 Note that -y enables -Werror=yacc. Therefore it is now possible to require
238 Yacc-like behavior (e.g., always generate y.tab.c), but to report
239 incompatibilities as warnings: "-y -Wno-error=yacc".
241 *** The display of warnings is now richer
243 The option that controls a given warning is now displayed:
245 foo.y:4.6: warning: type clash on default action: <foo> != <bar> [-Wother]
247 In the case of warnings treated as errors, the prefix is changed from
248 "warning: " to "error: ", and the suffix is displayed, in a manner similar
249 to GCC, as [-Werror=CATEGORY].
251 For instance, where the previous version of Bison would report (and exit
254 bison: warnings being treated as errors
255 input.y:1.1: warning: stray ',' treated as white space
259 input.y:1.1: error: stray ',' treated as white space [-Werror=other]
261 *** Deprecated constructs
263 The new 'deprecated' warning category flags obsolete constructs whose
264 support will be discontinued. It is enabled by default. These warnings
265 used to be reported as 'other' warnings.
267 *** Useless semantic types
269 Bison now warns about useless (uninhabited) semantic types. Since
270 semantic types are not declared to Bison (they are defined in the opaque
271 %union structure), it is %printer/%destructor directives about useless
272 types that trigger the warning:
276 %printer {} <type1> <type3>
277 %destructor {} <type2> <type4>
279 nterm: term { $$ = $1; };
281 3.28-34: warning: type <type3> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
282 4.28-34: warning: type <type4> is used, but is not associated to any symbol
284 *** Undefined but unused symbols
286 Bison used to raise an error for undefined symbols that are not used in
287 the grammar. This is now only a warning.
290 %destructor {} symbol2
295 *** Useless destructors or printers
297 Bison now warns about useless destructors or printers. In the following
298 example, the printer for <type1>, and the destructor for <type2> are
299 useless: all symbols of <type1> (token1) already have a printer, and all
300 symbols of type <type2> (token2) already have a destructor.
302 %token <type1> token1
306 %printer {} token1 <type1> <type3>
307 %destructor {} token2 <type2> <type4>
311 The warnings and error messages about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce
312 conflicts have been normalized. For instance on the following foo.y file:
316 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
318 compare the previous version of bison:
321 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
322 $ bison -Werror foo.y
323 bison: warnings being treated as errors
324 foo.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
326 with the new behavior:
329 foo.y: warning: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Wconflicts-sr]
330 foo.y: warning: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Wconflicts-rr]
331 $ bison -Werror foo.y
332 foo.y: error: 1 shift/reduce conflict [-Werror=conflicts-sr]
333 foo.y: error: 2 reduce/reduce conflicts [-Werror=conflicts-rr]
335 When %expect or %expect-rr is used, such as with bar.y:
340 exp: exp '+' exp | '0' | '0';
345 bar.y: conflicts: 1 shift/reduce, 2 reduce/reduce
346 bar.y: expected 0 shift/reduce conflicts
347 bar.y: expected 0 reduce/reduce conflicts
352 bar.y: error: shift/reduce conflicts: 1 found, 0 expected
353 bar.y: error: reduce/reduce conflicts: 2 found, 0 expected
355 ** Incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
357 The 'yacc' category is no longer part of '-Wall', enable it explicitly
360 ** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
362 The new directive %param declares additional arguments to both yylex and
363 yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives support one
364 or more arguments. Instead of
366 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
367 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
368 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
369 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
373 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
375 ** Types of values for %define variables
377 Bison used to make no difference between '%define foo bar' and '%define
378 foo "bar"'. The former is now called a 'keyword value', and the latter a
379 'string value'. A third kind was added: 'code values', such as '%define
382 Keyword variables are used for fixed value sets, e.g.,
386 Code variables are used for value in the target language, e.g.,
388 %define api.value.type {struct semantic_type}
390 String variables are used remaining cases, e.g. file names.
392 ** Variable api.token.prefix
394 The variable api.token.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
395 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
396 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
398 %token FILE for ERROR
399 %define api.token.prefix {TOK_}
401 start: FILE for ERROR;
403 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
404 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
405 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
406 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
408 ** Variable api.value.type
410 This new %define variable supersedes the #define macro YYSTYPE. The use
411 of YYSTYPE is discouraged. In particular, #defining YYSTYPE *and* either
412 using %union or %defining api.value.type results in undefined behavior.
414 Either define api.value.type, or use "%union":
421 %token <ival> INT "integer"
422 %token <sval> STRING "string"
423 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <ival>
424 %destructor { free ($$); } <sval>
427 yylval.ival = 42; return INT;
428 yylval.sval = "42"; return STRING;
430 The %define variable api.value.type supports both keyword and code values.
432 The keyword value 'union' means that the user provides genuine types, not
433 union member names such as "ival" and "sval" above (WARNING: will fail if
434 -y/--yacc/%yacc is enabled).
436 %define api.value.type union
437 %token <int> INT "integer"
438 %token <char *> STRING "string"
439 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <int>
440 %destructor { free ($$); } <char *>
443 yylval.INT = 42; return INT;
444 yylval.STRING = "42"; return STRING;
446 The keyword value variant is somewhat equivalent, but for C++ special
447 provision is made to allow classes to be used (more about this below).
449 %define api.value.type variant
450 %token <int> INT "integer"
451 %token <std::string> STRING "string"
453 Code values (in braces) denote user defined types. This is where YYSTYPE
471 %define api.value.type {struct my_value}
472 %token <u.ival> INT "integer"
473 %token <u.sval> STRING "string"
474 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "%d", $$); } <u.ival>
475 %destructor { free ($$); } <u.sval>
478 yylval.u.ival = 42; return INT;
479 yylval.u.sval = "42"; return STRING;
481 ** Variable parse.error
483 This variable controls the verbosity of error messages. The use of the
484 %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of "%define parse.error
487 ** Renamed %define variables
489 The following variables have been renamed for consistency. Backward
490 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
492 lr.default-reductions -> lr.default-reduction
493 lr.keep-unreachable-states -> lr.keep-unreachable-state
494 namespace -> api.namespace
495 stype -> api.value.type
497 ** Semantic predicates
499 Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
501 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of the
502 form "%?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }", which cause syntax errors (as for
503 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
504 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they allow
505 the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of run-time
508 ** The directive %expect-rr is now an error in non GLR mode
510 It used to be an error only if used in non GLR mode, _and_ if there are
511 reduce/reduce conflicts.
513 ** Tokens are numbered in their order of appearance
515 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
517 With '%token A B', A had a number less than the one of B. However,
518 precedence declarations used to generate a reversed order. This is now
519 fixed, and introducing tokens with any of %token, %left, %right,
520 %precedence, or %nonassoc yields the same result.
522 When mixing declarations of tokens with a litteral character (e.g., 'a')
523 or with an identifier (e.g., B) in a precedence declaration, Bison
524 numbered the litteral characters first. For example
528 would lead to the tokens declared in this order: 'c' 'd' A B. Again, the
529 input order is now preserved.
531 These changes were made so that one can remove useless precedence and
532 associativity declarations (i.e., map %nonassoc, %left or %right to
533 %precedence, or to %token) and get exactly the same output.
535 ** Useless precedence and associativity
537 Contributed by Valentin Tolmer.
539 When developing and maintaining a grammar, useless associativity and
540 precedence directives are common. They can be a nuisance: new ambiguities
541 arising are sometimes masked because their conflicts are resolved due to
542 the extra precedence or associativity information. Furthermore, it can
543 hinder the comprehension of a new grammar: one will wonder about the role
544 of a precedence, where in fact it is useless. The following changes aim
545 at detecting and reporting these extra directives.
547 *** Precedence warning category
549 A new category of warning, -Wprecedence, was introduced. It flags the
550 useless precedence and associativity directives.
552 *** Useless associativity
554 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared associativity that is never
555 used to resolve conflicts. In that case, using %precedence is sufficient;
556 the parsing tables will remain unchanged. Solving these warnings may raise
557 useless precedence warnings, as the symbols no longer have associativity.
571 warning: useless associativity for '+', use %precedence [-Wprecedence]
575 *** Useless precedence
577 Bison now warns about symbols with a declared precedence and no declared
578 associativity (i.e., declared with %precedence), and whose precedence is
579 never used. In that case, the symbol can be safely declared with %token
580 instead, without modifying the parsing tables. For example:
584 exp: "var" '=' "number";
588 warning: useless precedence for '=' [-Wprecedence]
592 *** Useless precedence and associativity
594 In case of both useless precedence and associativity, the issue is flagged
599 exp: "var" '=' "number";
603 warning: useless precedence and associativity for '=' [-Wprecedence]
609 With help from Joel E. Denny and Gabriel Rassoul.
611 Empty rules (i.e., with an empty right-hand side) can now be explicitly
612 marked by the new %empty directive. Using %empty on a non-empty rule is
613 an error. The new -Wempty-rule warning reports empty rules without
614 %empty. On the following grammar:
624 3.4-5: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
627 5.8-13: error: %empty on non-empty rule
631 ** Java skeleton improvements
633 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. Also, it
634 is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using "%code init"
635 and "%define init_throws".
636 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
638 The Java skeleton now supports push parsing.
639 Contributed by Dennis Heimbigner.
641 ** C++ skeletons improvements
643 *** The parser header is no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
645 Using %defines is now optional. Without it, the needed support classes
646 are defined in the generated parser, instead of additional files (such as
647 location.hh, position.hh and stack.hh).
649 *** Locations are no longer mandatory (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
651 Both lalr1.cc and glr.cc no longer require %location.
653 *** syntax_error exception (lalr1.cc)
655 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
656 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
657 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
658 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
659 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
660 factory invoked by the user actions).
662 *** %define api.value.type variant
664 This is based on a submission from Michiel De Wilde. With help
665 from Théophile Ranquet.
667 In this mode, complex C++ objects can be used as semantic values. For
670 %token <::std::string> TEXT;
673 %type <::std::string> item;
674 %type <::std::list<std::string>> list;
677 list { std::cout << $1 << std::endl; }
681 %empty { /* Generates an empty string list. */ }
682 | list item ";" { std::swap ($$, $1); $$.push_back ($2); }
686 TEXT { std::swap ($$, $1); }
687 | NUMBER { $$ = string_cast ($1); }
690 *** %define api.token.constructor
692 When variants are enabled, Bison can generate functions to build the
693 tokens. This guarantees that the token type (e.g., NUMBER) is consistent
694 with the semantic value (e.g., int):
696 parser::symbol_type yylex ()
698 parser::location_type loc = ...;
700 return parser::make_TEXT ("Hello, world!", loc);
702 return parser::make_NUMBER (42, loc);
704 return parser::make_SEMICOLON (loc);
710 There are operator- and operator-= for 'location'. Negative line/column
711 increments can no longer underflow the resulting value.
713 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.7.1 (2013-04-15) [stable]
717 *** Fix compiler attribute portability (yacc.c)
719 With locations enabled, __attribute__ was used unprotected.
721 *** Fix some compiler warnings (lalr1.cc)
723 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
727 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
729 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
731 ** Diagnostics are improved
733 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
735 *** Changes in the format of error messages
737 This used to be the format of many error reports:
739 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
740 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
744 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
745 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
747 *** New format for error reports: carets
749 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
751 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
754 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
760 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
761 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
763 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
764 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
766 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
767 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
769 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
770 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
773 The default behavior for now is still not to display these unless
774 explicitly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
775 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
778 ** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
780 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
781 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
782 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
783 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
784 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
787 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
788 "%define api.pure full".
790 ** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
792 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
793 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
794 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
795 then responsible to define her type.
797 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
798 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
801 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
802 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
805 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
806 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
809 ** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
811 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
812 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
813 before re-throwing the exception.
815 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
818 ** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
820 Contributed by Théophile Ranquet.
822 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
823 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
824 numbered and left-justified.
826 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
827 diamond shaped nodes.
829 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
830 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
832 ** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
834 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
835 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
839 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
840 have been fixed and extended.
842 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
843 were not properly documented.
845 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
847 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
849 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
850 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
851 reporting them to us.
855 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
856 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
859 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
861 Null characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
863 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
864 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
866 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
868 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
870 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
874 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
876 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
877 users to the appropriate place to report them.
879 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
881 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
882 generated, are removed.
884 All the generated headers are self-contained.
886 ** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
888 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
889 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
890 For instance the header generated from
892 %define api.prefix "calc"
893 %defines "lib/parse.h"
895 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
897 ** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
899 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
902 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
903 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
904 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
908 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
910 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
911 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
914 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
918 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
919 suite have been fixed.
921 ** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
923 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
924 invalid C++. This is fixed.
926 ** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
928 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
930 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
932 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
936 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
937 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
938 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
940 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
944 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
948 *** Type names are now properly escaped.
950 *** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
952 *** Stray @ or $ in actions
954 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
955 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
958 ** Type names in actions
960 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
961 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
963 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
965 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
966 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
968 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
972 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
973 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
977 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
978 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
981 *** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
983 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
986 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
987 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
989 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
992 *** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
994 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
995 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
996 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
997 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
1000 ** Generated Parser Headers
1002 *** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
1004 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
1005 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
1010 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
1012 *** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
1014 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
1015 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
1017 int bar_parse (void);
1021 #define yyparse bar_parse
1024 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
1025 single compilation unit.
1027 *** Exported symbols in C++
1029 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
1030 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
1031 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
1035 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
1038 ** New %define variable: api.prefix
1040 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
1041 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
1042 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
1043 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
1044 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
1045 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
1046 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
1048 The following examples compares both:
1050 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
1051 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
1052 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
1058 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
1059 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
1061 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
1062 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
1063 > # if defined YYDEBUG
1065 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
1067 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1070 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
1074 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
1075 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
1078 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
1079 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
1080 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
1081 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
1086 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
1087 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
1088 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
1091 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
1092 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
1095 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
1097 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
1099 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
1101 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
1105 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
1107 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
1109 ** glr.c improvements:
1111 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
1113 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
1114 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
1116 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
1118 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
1119 when -std is passed to GCC).
1121 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
1123 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
1124 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
1128 *** C++11 compatibility:
1130 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
1135 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
1136 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
1138 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
1139 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
1141 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
1143 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
1144 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
1145 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
1147 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
1149 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1150 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1152 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
1156 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
1157 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
1158 documentation were fixed.
1160 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
1162 ** Changes in the manual:
1164 *** %printer is documented
1166 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
1167 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
1169 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
1170 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
1172 *** Several improvements have been made:
1174 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
1175 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
1176 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
1177 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
1181 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
1183 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
1184 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
1186 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
1188 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
1190 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
1191 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
1193 *** The install-pdf target works properly:
1195 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
1196 halts in the middle of its course.
1198 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
1200 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
1202 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
1203 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
1204 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
1205 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
1206 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
1208 ** Named references:
1210 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
1211 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
1214 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
1215 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
1216 as named references:
1218 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
1219 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
1221 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
1223 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
1224 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
1226 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
1227 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
1228 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
1230 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
1231 will help to stabilize them.
1232 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
1234 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
1236 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
1237 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
1238 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
1239 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
1240 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
1241 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
1242 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
1243 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
1244 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
1246 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
1247 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
1248 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
1249 file with these directives:
1251 %define lr.type lalr
1252 %define lr.type ielr
1253 %define lr.type canonical-lr
1255 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
1256 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
1257 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
1260 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1263 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling
1265 Contributed by Joel E. Denny.
1267 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
1268 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
1269 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
1270 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
1271 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
1272 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
1273 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
1274 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
1275 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
1276 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
1279 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
1280 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
1281 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
1282 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
1283 inconsistent states.
1285 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
1286 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
1287 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
1288 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
1289 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
1290 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
1291 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
1292 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
1295 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
1296 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
1298 %define parse.lac full
1300 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
1301 details including a few caveats.
1303 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
1306 ** %define improvements:
1308 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
1310 Each of these command-line options
1313 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
1316 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
1318 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
1320 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
1322 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
1323 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
1324 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
1325 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
1327 *** Variables renamed:
1329 The following %define variables
1332 lr.keep_unreachable_states
1334 have been renamed to
1337 lr.keep-unreachable-states
1339 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
1340 for backward compatibility.
1342 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
1344 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
1345 within quotations marks. For example,
1347 %define api.push-pull "push"
1351 %define api.push-pull push
1353 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
1355 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
1357 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
1359 ** Character literals not of length one:
1361 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
1362 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
1363 the following grammar to be the same token:
1369 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
1370 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
1372 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
1374 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
1375 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
1376 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
1377 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
1379 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
1381 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
1382 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
1383 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
1384 and "last" members, instead of
1386 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1390 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
1391 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
1395 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
1401 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
1405 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
1406 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
1410 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
1414 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
1416 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
1417 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
1418 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
1419 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
1421 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
1423 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1424 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
1425 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
1426 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
1427 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
1428 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
1429 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
1430 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
1432 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
1434 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
1435 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
1436 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
1437 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
1439 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1443 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1445 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
1446 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
1447 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
1448 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
1449 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
1450 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
1451 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
1453 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
1455 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1456 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
1457 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
1458 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
1459 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
1461 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
1462 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
1463 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
1464 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
1465 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
1466 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
1467 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
1468 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
1469 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
1470 shifted or discarded.
1472 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
1473 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
1474 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
1475 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
1477 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
1478 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
1479 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
1480 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
1481 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
1482 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
1483 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
1484 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
1485 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
1486 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
1487 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
1488 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
1491 ** Java skeleton fixes:
1493 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
1495 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
1496 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
1498 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
1500 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
1502 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
1504 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
1505 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1507 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
1509 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
1511 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
1512 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
1513 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
1514 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
1517 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
1518 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
1519 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
1520 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
1522 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
1523 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
1524 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
1525 then have no effect on the conflict report.
1527 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
1529 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
1530 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
1532 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
1534 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
1536 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
1537 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
1538 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
1539 suppress all warnings:
1543 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
1545 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
1546 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
1547 produced an assertion failure. For example:
1551 This bug has been fixed.
1553 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
1555 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
1556 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
1558 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
1561 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
1563 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
1566 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
1567 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
1568 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
1569 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
1571 ** Minor documentation fixes.
1573 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
1575 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
1576 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
1577 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
1578 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
1581 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
1583 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
1584 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
1585 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
1586 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
1587 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
1588 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
1589 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
1590 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
1591 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
1593 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
1595 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
1596 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
1599 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
1601 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
1605 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
1606 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
1609 %code requires {CODE}
1610 %code provides {CODE}
1613 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
1614 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1615 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
1616 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
1617 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
1619 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
1620 is still considered experimental.
1622 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
1624 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
1625 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
1626 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
1627 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
1628 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
1631 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
1632 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
1633 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
1634 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
1635 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
1636 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
1637 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
1639 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
1641 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
1642 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
1643 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
1644 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
1645 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
1646 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
1647 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
1648 be removed altogether.
1650 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
1651 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
1652 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
1653 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
1654 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
1655 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
1656 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
1657 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
1658 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
1659 2.4.2 is not necessary.
1661 ** Internationalization.
1663 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
1664 message translations were not installed although supported by the
1667 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
1669 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
1670 declarations have been fixed.
1672 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
1674 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
1675 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
1677 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
1681 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
1683 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
1684 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
1685 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
1686 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
1687 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
1690 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
1692 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
1694 ** %language is an experimental feature.
1696 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
1697 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
1698 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
1699 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
1702 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
1704 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
1707 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
1709 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
1712 %define NAME "VALUE"
1714 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
1718 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
1719 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1723 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
1724 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1725 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
1726 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1727 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1729 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1730 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1732 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
1734 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1735 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1737 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
1738 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1739 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
1743 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
1744 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
1745 %skeleton to select it.
1747 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
1749 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1750 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1751 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
1755 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
1756 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1757 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1758 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
1760 ** XML Automaton Report
1762 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
1763 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
1764 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
1765 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
1767 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
1768 %defines. For example:
1772 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
1773 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1774 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1775 instead of "unused".
1777 ** Unreachable State Removal
1779 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
1780 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1781 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
1783 1. Removes unreachable states.
1785 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1786 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1787 directives in existing grammar files.
1789 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
1790 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
1792 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1794 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1796 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
1797 for further discussion.
1799 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
1801 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1802 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
1803 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1804 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1805 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1806 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
1807 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
1810 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
1813 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
1816 %file-prefix "parser"
1820 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
1822 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
1823 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1824 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1825 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1828 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1829 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1830 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1831 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
1833 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1834 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1835 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
1836 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1838 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1839 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1841 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
1843 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1844 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1847 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1849 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1850 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1852 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1854 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1855 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1856 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1858 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1859 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1861 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1863 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
1866 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1867 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1868 declared semantic type tags.
1870 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1871 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1874 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1875 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
1876 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1877 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1879 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1880 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1883 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1886 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1887 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1888 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1890 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1891 completely removed from Bison.
1893 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1895 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1896 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1897 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1898 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1899 and is required by POSIX.
1901 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1902 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1904 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1908 %union { char *string; }
1909 %token <string> STRING1
1910 %token <string> STRING2
1911 %type <string> string1
1912 %type <string> string2
1913 %union { char character; }
1914 %token <character> CHR
1915 %type <character> chr
1916 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1917 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1918 %destructor { } <character>
1920 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
1921 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1922 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1923 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1924 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
1926 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1927 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1930 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1931 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
1932 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1933 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1934 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1936 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1937 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
1939 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
1940 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
1941 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1942 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
1943 declared after the first %union.
1945 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
1946 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1947 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1948 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1949 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1950 after the token definitions.
1952 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1953 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1955 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1956 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1959 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1960 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1961 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1965 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1966 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1967 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1968 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
1969 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
1972 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1973 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1974 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1975 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
1978 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1979 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1980 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
1983 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1984 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1985 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1986 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1990 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1991 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1992 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1993 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1994 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1997 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1998 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
2000 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
2001 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
2003 ** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
2004 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
2005 in a future release.
2007 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
2009 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
2010 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
2012 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
2013 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
2015 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
2017 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
2018 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
2019 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
2021 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
2023 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
2025 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
2026 their contents together.
2028 ** New warning: unused values
2029 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
2030 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
2032 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
2036 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
2037 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
2038 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
2040 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
2041 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
2043 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
2046 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
2047 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
2048 values are used, e.g.:
2050 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
2051 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
2054 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
2055 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
2057 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
2059 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
2060 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
2062 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
2063 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
2064 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
2065 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
2067 ** %expect, %expect-rr
2068 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
2069 instead of warnings.
2071 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
2072 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
2073 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
2075 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
2077 ** %require "VERSION"
2078 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
2079 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
2081 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
2082 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
2083 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
2084 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
2085 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
2087 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
2088 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
2089 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
2090 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
2092 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
2093 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
2095 ** DJGPP support added.
2097 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
2099 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
2101 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
2102 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
2103 language is still English. For details, please see the new
2104 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
2105 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
2106 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
2108 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
2109 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
2110 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
2111 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
2113 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
2114 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
2115 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
2117 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
2118 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
2119 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
2120 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
2121 unexpected "number"'.
2123 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
2125 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
2127 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
2128 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
2129 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
2130 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
2131 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
2133 - Error token location.
2134 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
2135 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
2136 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
2137 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
2139 - Semicolon changes:
2140 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
2141 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
2143 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
2144 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
2145 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
2146 forget a closing quote.
2148 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
2152 - GLR grammars now support locations.
2154 - New directive: %initial-action.
2155 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
2156 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
2158 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
2159 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
2161 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
2162 This is a GNU extension.
2164 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
2165 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
2167 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
2169 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
2170 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
2174 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
2175 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
2176 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
2177 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
2178 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
2179 these violations will become errors again.
2181 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
2182 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
2184 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
2186 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
2188 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
2189 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
2191 ** syntax error processing
2193 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
2194 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
2197 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
2198 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
2201 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
2203 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
2204 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
2206 ** POSIX conformance
2208 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
2209 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
2210 compatibility with Yacc.
2212 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
2213 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
2214 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
2215 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
2218 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
2219 declared before use. C99 requires this.
2221 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
2222 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
2224 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
2225 output as "foo\\bar.y".
2227 - Yacc command and library now available
2228 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
2229 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
2230 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
2231 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
2233 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
2235 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
2236 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
2237 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
2239 ** Other compatibility issues
2241 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
2242 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
2243 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
2244 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
2245 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
2246 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
2248 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
2249 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
2251 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
2252 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
2254 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
2255 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
2256 withdrawn in a future release.
2261 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
2264 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
2265 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
2267 ** %parse-param and %lex-param
2268 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
2269 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
2272 - a single argument only can be added,
2273 - their types are weak (void *),
2274 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
2275 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
2277 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
2280 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
2281 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
2282 %parse-param {int *randomness}
2284 results in the following signatures:
2286 int yylex (int *nastiness);
2287 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2289 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
2291 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
2292 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
2294 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
2295 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
2296 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
2298 ** #line in output files
2299 - --no-line works properly.
2301 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
2302 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
2303 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
2304 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
2306 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
2308 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
2310 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
2313 Fix spurious parse errors.
2316 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
2317 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
2320 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
2321 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
2325 but the converse remains an error:
2329 ** Values of mid-rule actions
2332 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
2334 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
2335 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
2337 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
2342 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
2343 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
2344 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
2345 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
2347 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
2348 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
2351 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
2352 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
2353 now creates "bar.c".
2356 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
2357 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
2359 ** Unknown token numbers
2360 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
2364 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
2365 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
2366 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
2367 will be mapped onto another number.
2369 ** Verbose error messages
2370 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
2371 error recovery is possible.
2374 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
2376 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
2377 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
2378 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
2379 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
2380 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
2381 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
2382 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
2383 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
2384 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
2387 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
2390 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
2391 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
2392 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
2393 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
2395 ** Explicit initial rule
2396 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
2397 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
2401 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
2402 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
2404 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
2405 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
2407 ** Rules never reduced
2408 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
2411 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
2412 On a grammar such as
2414 %token useless useful
2416 exp: '0' %prec useful;
2418 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
2419 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
2421 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
2422 as they caused too many portability hassles.
2424 ** Default locations
2425 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
2426 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
2427 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
2428 the computation of @$.
2430 ** Token end-of-file
2431 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
2432 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
2433 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
2437 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
2440 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
2443 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
2444 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
2446 ** Incorrect token definitions
2449 bison used to output
2452 ** Token definitions as enums
2453 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
2454 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
2455 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
2458 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
2459 produces additional information:
2461 complete the core item sets with their closure
2462 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
2463 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
2465 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
2466 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
2467 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
2470 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
2471 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
2479 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
2481 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
2484 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
2485 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
2486 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
2488 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
2489 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
2490 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
2491 kludge will be disabled.
2493 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
2496 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
2498 ** File name clashes are detected
2499 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
2500 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
2502 ** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
2503 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
2504 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
2505 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
2506 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
2507 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
2509 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
2510 many portability hassles.
2512 ** DJGPP support added.
2514 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
2516 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
2519 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
2520 under some conditions.
2525 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
2527 ** Fix Yacc output file names
2529 ** Portability fixes
2531 ** Italian, Dutch translations
2533 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
2537 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
2538 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
2539 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
2540 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
2541 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
2543 ** Use of alloca in parsers
2544 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
2545 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
2547 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
2550 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
2552 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
2553 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
2556 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
2557 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
2558 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
2560 ** Better C++ compliance
2561 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
2562 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
2565 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
2568 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
2571 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
2574 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
2577 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
2579 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
2581 ** Swedish translation
2584 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
2585 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
2586 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
2588 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
2589 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
2590 previous allocations were not freed.
2592 ** Fixed verbose output file.
2593 Some newlines were missing.
2594 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
2596 ** Fixed conflict report.
2597 Option -v was needed to get the result.
2601 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
2603 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
2605 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
2607 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
2609 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
2610 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
2612 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
2614 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
2618 New, aliasing "--output-file".
2620 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
2622 ** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
2623 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
2626 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
2629 ** Portability fixes.
2631 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
2633 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
2634 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
2635 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
2636 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
2638 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
2640 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2642 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
2644 ** Russian translation added.
2646 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
2648 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
2650 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
2652 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
2654 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
2656 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
2657 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
2660 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
2661 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
2664 Automatic location tracking.
2666 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
2668 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
2672 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
2674 ** There is now a FAQ.
2676 * Changes in version 1.27:
2678 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
2679 some systems has been fixed.
2681 * Changes in version 1.26:
2683 ** Bison now uses Automake.
2685 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
2687 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
2689 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
2691 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
2693 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
2695 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
2696 not provide alloca().
2698 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
2700 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
2701 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
2703 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
2704 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
2705 of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
2707 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
2708 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
2709 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
2712 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
2713 directives in the parser file.
2715 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
2716 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
2718 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
2719 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
2720 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
2721 a switch statement body.
2723 * Changes in version 1.23:
2725 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2726 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2727 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2728 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
2730 Line numbers in output file corrected.
2732 * Changes in version 1.22:
2734 --help option added.
2736 * Changes in version 1.20:
2738 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
2742 Copyright (C) 1995-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2744 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
2746 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2747 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2748 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2749 (at your option) any later version.
2751 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2752 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2753 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2754 GNU General Public License for more details.
2756 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2757 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2759 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2760 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2761 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2762 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2763 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2764 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2765 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2766 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2767 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2768 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2769 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2770 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2771 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
2772 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
2773 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
2774 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2775 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
2776 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp Wother nterm arg init
2777 LocalWords: TOK calc yyo fval Wconflicts parsers yystackp yyval yynerrs
2778 LocalWords: Théophile Ranquet Santet fno fnone stype associativity Tolmer
2779 LocalWords: Wprecedence Rassoul Wempty Paolo Bonzini parser's Michiel loc
2780 LocalWords: redeclaration sval fcaret reentrant XSLT xsl Wmaybe yyvsp Tedi
2781 LocalWords: pragmas noreturn untyped Rozenman unexpanded Wojciech Polak
2782 LocalWords: Alexandre MERCHANTABILITY yytype