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