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1 Bison News
2 ----------
3
4 * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
6 ** Java skeleton improvements:
7
8 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
9 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
10 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
11
12 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
13
14 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
15 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
16 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
17
18 %token FILE for ERROR
19 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
20 %%
21 start: FILE for ERROR;
22
23 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
24 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
25 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
26 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
27
28 ** Variable api.namespace
29
30 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
31 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
32
33 ** Variable parse.error
34
35 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
36 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
37 %define parse.error "verbose".
38
39 * Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
40
41 ** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support
42
43 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
44 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
45 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
46 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in
47 parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
48 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
49 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
50 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
51 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
52
53 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
54 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
55 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
56 file with these directives:
57
58 %define lr.type "LALR"
59 %define lr.type "IELR"
60 %define lr.type "canonical LR"
61
62 The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
63 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation
64 for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the
65 section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the
66 details.
67
68 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
69 stabilize them.
70
71 ** Multiple %define's for any variable is now an error not a warning.
72
73 ** %define can now be invoked via the command line.
74
75 Each of these command-line options
76
77 -D NAME[=VALUE]
78 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
79
80 -F NAME[=VALUE]
81 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
82
83 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
84
85 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
86
87 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
88 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
89 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
90 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
91
92 ** %define variables renamed.
93
94 The following %define variables
95
96 api.push_pull
97 lr.keep_unreachable_states
98
99 have been renamed to
100
101 api.push-pull
102 lr.keep-unreachable-states
103
104 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
105 for backward compatibility.
106
107 ** Symbols names
108
109 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables
110 (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position,
111 similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over
112 POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc
113 mode (--yacc).
114
115 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
116
117 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
118 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
119 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
120 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
121
122 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
123
124 instead of
125
126 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
127
128 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
129 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
130 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
131 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
132 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
133 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
134 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
135
136 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (????-??-??):
137
138 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
139
140 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
141
142 %{CODE%}
143
144 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
145 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
146
147 %code {CODE}
148 %code requires {CODE}
149 %code provides {CODE}
150 %code top {CODE}
151
152 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
153 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
154 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
155 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
156 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
157
158 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
159 is still considered experimental.
160
161 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
162
163 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
164 declarations have been fixed.
165
166 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
167
168 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
169 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
170
171 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
172
173 instead of
174
175 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
176
177 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
178 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
179 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
180 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
181 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
182 feature.
183
184 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
185
186 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
187
188 ** %language is an experimental feature.
189
190 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
191 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
192 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
193 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
194 in future releases.
195
196 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
197
198 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
199 fixed.
200
201 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
202
203 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
204 are now deprecated:
205
206 %define NAME "VALUE"
207
208 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
209
210 %define api.pure
211
212 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
213 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
214
215 ** Push Parsing
216
217 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
218 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
219 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
220 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
221 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
222
223 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
224 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
225
226 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
227
228 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
229 feedback will help to stabilize it.
230
231 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
232 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
233 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
234
235 ** Java
236
237 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
238 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
239 %skeleton to select it.
240
241 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
242
243 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
244 feedback will help to stabilize it.
245
246 ** %language
247
248 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
249 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
250 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
251 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
252
253 ** XML Automaton Report
254
255 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
256 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
257 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
258
259 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
260 %defines. For example:
261
262 %defines "parser.h"
263
264 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
265 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
266 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
267 instead of "unused".
268
269 ** Unreachable State Removal
270
271 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
272 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
273 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
274
275 1. Removes unreachable states.
276
277 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
278 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
279 directives in existing grammar files.
280
281 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
282 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
283
284 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
285
286 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
287
288 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
289 for further discussion.
290
291 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
292
293 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
294 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
295 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
296 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
297 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
298 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
299 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
300 code.
301
302 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
303 name.
304
305 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
306 deprecated:
307
308 %file-prefix "parser"
309 %name-prefix "c_"
310 %output "parser.c"
311
312 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
313
314 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
315 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
316 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
317 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
318 it:
319
320 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
321 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
322 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
323 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
324
325 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
326 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
327 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
328 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
329
330 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
331 determine whether they should become permanent features.
332
333 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
334
335 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
336 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
337 about unused $2 in:
338
339 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
340
341 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
342 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
343
344 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
345
346 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
347 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
348 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
349
350 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
351 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
352
353 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
354
355 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
356 %printer's:
357
358 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
359 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
360 declared semantic type tags.
361
362 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
363 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
364 type tags.
365
366 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
367 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
368 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
369 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
370
371 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
372 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
373 features.
374
375 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
376 details.
377
378 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
379 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
380 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
381
382 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
383 completely removed from Bison.
384
385 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
386
387 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
388 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
389 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
390 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
391 and is required by POSIX.
392
393 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
394 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
395
396 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
397
398 For example:
399
400 %union { char *string; }
401 %token <string> STRING1
402 %token <string> STRING2
403 %type <string> string1
404 %type <string> string2
405 %union { char character; }
406 %token <character> CHR
407 %type <character> chr
408 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
409 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
410 %destructor { } <character>
411
412 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
413 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
414 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
415 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
416 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
417
418 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
419 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
420 future versions.]
421
422 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
423 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
424 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
425 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
426 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
427
428 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
429 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
430
431 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
432 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
433 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
434 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
435 declared after the first %union.
436
437 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
438 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
439 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
440 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
441 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
442 after the token definitions.
443
444 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
445 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
446
447 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
448 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
449 %after-header.
450
451 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
452 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
453 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
454 convenient for you:
455
456 %before-header {
457 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
458 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
459 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
460 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
461 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
462 }
463 %start-header {
464 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
465 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
466 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
467 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
468 }
469 %union {
470 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
471 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
472 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
473 }
474 %end-header {
475 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
476 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
477 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
478 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
479 * definitions. */
480 }
481 %after-header {
482 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
483 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
484 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
485 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
486 * Bison-generated definitions. */
487 }
488
489 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
490 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
491
492 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
493 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
494
495 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
496 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
497 in a future release.
498
499 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
500
501 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
502 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
503
504 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
505 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
506
507 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
508
509 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
510 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
511 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
512
513 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
514
515 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
516
517 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
518 their contents together.
519
520 ** New warning: unused values
521 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
522 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
523
524 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
525 | exp "+" exp
526 ;
527
528 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
529 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
530 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
531
532 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
533 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
534 | exp "+" exp
535 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
536 ;
537
538 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
539 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
540 values are used, e.g.:
541
542 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
543 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
544 ;
545
546 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
547 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
548
549 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
550
551 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
552 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
553
554 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
555 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
556 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
557 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
558
559 ** %expect, %expect-rr
560 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
561 instead of warnings.
562
563 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
564 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
565 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
566
567 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
568
569 ** %require "VERSION"
570 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
571 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
572
573 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
574 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
575 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
576 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
577 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
578
579 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
580 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
581 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
582 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
583
584 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
585 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
586
587 ** DJGPP support added.
588 \f
589 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
590
591 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
592
593 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
594 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
595 language is still English. For details, please see the new
596 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
597 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
598 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
599
600 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
601 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
602 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
603 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
604
605 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
606 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
607 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
608
609 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
610 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
611 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
612 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
613 unexpected "number"'.
614 \f
615 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
616
617 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
618
619 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
620 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
621 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
622 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
623 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
624
625 - Error token location.
626 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
627 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
628 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
629 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
630
631 - Semicolon changes:
632 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
633 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
634
635 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
636 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
637 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
638 forget a closing quote.
639
640 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
641
642 ** New features
643
644 - GLR grammars now support locations.
645
646 - New directive: %initial-action.
647 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
648 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
649
650 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
651 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
652
653 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
654 This is a GNU extension.
655
656 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
657 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
658
659 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
660
661 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
662 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
663
664 ** Bug fixes
665
666 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
667 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
668 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
669 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
670 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
671 these violations will become errors again.
672
673 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
674 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
675
676 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
677 \f
678 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
679
680 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
681 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
682
683 ** syntax error processing
684
685 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
686 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
687
688 - %destructor
689 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
690 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
691
692 - %error-verbose
693 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
694
695 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
696 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
697
698 ** POSIX conformance
699
700 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
701 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
702 compatibility with Yacc.
703
704 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
705 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
706 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
707 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
708 be consistent.
709
710 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
711 declared before use. C99 requires this.
712
713 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
714 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
715
716 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
717 output as "foo\\bar.y".
718
719 - Yacc command and library now available
720 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
721 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
722 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
723 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
724
725 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
726
727 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
728 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
729 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
730
731 ** Other compatibility issues
732
733 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
734 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
735 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
736 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
737 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
738 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
739
740 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
741 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
742
743 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
744 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
745
746 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
747 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
748 withdrawn in a future release.
749
750 ** GLR parser notes
751
752 - GLR and inline
753 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
754 C keyword `inline'.
755
756 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
757 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
758
759 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
760 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
761 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
762
763 ** #line in output files
764 - --no-line works properly.
765
766 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
767 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
768 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
769 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
770 \f
771 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
772
773 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
774
775 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
776
777 ** GLR parsers
778 Fix spurious parse errors.
779
780 ** Pure parsers
781 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
782 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
783
784 ** Type Clashes
785 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
786 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
787
788 untyped: ... typed;
789
790 but the converse remains an error:
791
792 typed: ... untyped;
793
794 ** Values of mid-rule actions
795 The following code:
796
797 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
798
799 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
800 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
801 \f
802 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
803
804 ** GLR parsing
805 The declaration
806 %glr-parser
807 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
808 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
809 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
810 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
811
812 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
813 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
814
815 ** Output Directory
816 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
817 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
818 now creates `bar.c'.
819
820 ** Undefined token
821 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
822 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
823
824 ** Unknown token numbers
825 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
826 no longer the case.
827
828 ** Error token
829 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
830 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
831 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
832 will be mapped onto another number.
833
834 ** Verbose error messages
835 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
836 error recovery is possible.
837
838 ** End token
839 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
840
841 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
842 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
843 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
844 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
845 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
846 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
847 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
848 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
849 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
850
851 ** Traces
852 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
853
854 ** Larger grammars
855 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
856 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
857 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
858 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
859
860 ** Explicit initial rule
861 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
862 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
863 graphs as rule 0.
864
865 ** Useless rules
866 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
867 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
868
869 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
870 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
871
872 ** Rules never reduced
873 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
874 reported.
875
876 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
877 On a grammar such as
878
879 %token useless useful
880 %%
881 exp: '0' %prec useful;
882
883 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
884 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
885
886 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
887 as they caused too many portability hassles.
888
889 ** Default locations
890 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
891 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
892 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
893 the computation of @$.
894
895 ** Token end-of-file
896 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
897 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
898 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
899 For instance
900 %token MYEOF 0
901 or
902 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
903
904 ** Semantic parser
905 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
906
907 ** New translations
908 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
909 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
910
911 ** Incorrect token definitions
912 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
913
914 ** Token definitions as enums
915 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
916 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
917 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
918
919 ** Reports
920 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
921 produces additional information:
922 - itemset
923 complete the core item sets with their closure
924 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
925 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
926 - solved
927 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
928 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
929 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
930
931 ** Type clashes
932 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
933 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
934
935 %type <foo> bar
936 %%
937 bar: '0' {} '0';
938
939 This is fixed.
940
941 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
942 \f
943 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
944
945 ** C Skeleton
946 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
947 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
948 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
949
950 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
951 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
952 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
953 kludge will be disabled.
954
955 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
956 extended.
957 \f
958 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
959
960 ** File name clashes are detected
961 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
962 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
963
964 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
965 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
966 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
967 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
968 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
969 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
970
971 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
972 many portability hassles.
973
974 ** DJGPP support added.
975
976 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
977 \f
978 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
979
980 ** Fix C++ issues
981 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
982 under some conditions.
983
984 ** Catch invalid @n
985 As is done with $n.
986 \f
987 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
988
989 ** Fix Yacc output file names
990
991 ** Portability fixes
992
993 ** Italian, Dutch translations
994 \f
995 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
996
997 ** Many Bug Fixes
998
999 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1000 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1001 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1002 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1003 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1004
1005 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1006 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1007 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1008
1009 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1010 problems as on AIX.
1011
1012 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1013
1014 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1015 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1016
1017 ** User Actions
1018 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1019 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1020 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1021
1022 ** Better C++ compliance
1023 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1024 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1025
1026 ** Reduced Grammars
1027 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1028
1029 ** 64 bit hosts
1030 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1031
1032 ** Error messages
1033 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1034
1035 ** %expect
1036 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1037 any warning.
1038
1039 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1040
1041 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1042
1043 ** Swedish translation
1044
1045 ** Parse errors
1046 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1047 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1048 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1049
1050 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1051 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1052 previous allocations were not freed.
1053
1054 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1055 Some newlines were missing.
1056 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1057
1058 ** Fixed conflict report.
1059 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1060
1061 ** %expect
1062 Was not used.
1063 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1064
1065 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1066
1067 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1068
1069 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1070
1071 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1072 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1073
1074 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1075
1076 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1077 New.
1078
1079 ** --output
1080 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1081 \f
1082 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1083
1084 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1085 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1086 argument.
1087
1088 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1089 experiment.
1090
1091 ** Portability fixes.
1092 \f
1093 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1094
1095 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1096 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1097 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1098 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1099
1100 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1101
1102 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1103
1104 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1105
1106 ** Russian translation added.
1107
1108 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1109
1110 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1111
1112 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1113
1114 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1115
1116 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1117
1118 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1119 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1120
1121 ** New directives.
1122 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1123 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1124
1125 ** @$
1126 Automatic location tracking.
1127 \f
1128 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1129
1130 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1131
1132 ** Added NLS.
1133
1134 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1135
1136 ** There is now a FAQ.
1137 \f
1138 * Changes in version 1.27:
1139
1140 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1141 some systems has been fixed.
1142 \f
1143 * Changes in version 1.26:
1144
1145 ** Bison now uses automake.
1146
1147 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1148
1149 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1150
1151 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1152
1153 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1154
1155 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1156
1157 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1158 not provide alloca().
1159 \f
1160 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1161
1162 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1163 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1164
1165 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1166 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1167 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1168
1169 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1170 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1171 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1172 purposes.
1173
1174 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1175 directives in the parser file.
1176
1177 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1178 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1179
1180 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1181 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1182 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1183 a switch statement body.
1184 \f
1185 * Changes in version 1.23:
1186
1187 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1188 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1189 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1190 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1191
1192 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1193 \f
1194 * Changes in version 1.22:
1195
1196 --help option added.
1197 \f
1198 * Changes in version 1.20:
1199
1200 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1201
1202 Local Variables:
1203 mode: outline
1204 End:
1205
1206 -----
1207
1208 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
1209 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1210
1211 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1212
1213 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1214 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1215 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1216 (at your option) any later version.
1217
1218 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1219 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1220 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1221 GNU General Public License for more details.
1222
1223 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1224 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.