3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
6 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.7 (2012-12-12) [stable]
10 Warnings about uninitialized yylloc in yyparse have been fixed.
12 Restored C90 compliance (yet no report was ever made).
14 ** Diagnostics are improved
16 *** Changes in the format of error messages
18 This used to be the format of many error reports:
20 input.y:2.7-12: %type redeclaration for exp
21 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
25 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
26 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
28 *** New format for error reports: carets
30 Caret errors have been added to Bison:
32 input.y:2.7-12: error: %type redeclaration for exp
35 input.y:1.7-12: previous declaration
41 input.y:3.20-23: error: ambiguous reference: '$exp'
42 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
44 input.y:3.1-3: refers to: $exp at $$
45 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
47 input.y:3.6-8: refers to: $exp at $1
48 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
50 input.y:3.14-16: refers to: $exp at $3
51 exp: exp '+' exp { $exp = $1 + $3; };
54 The default behaviour for now is still not to display these unless
55 explictly asked with -fcaret (or -fall). However, in a later release, it
56 will be made the default behavior (but may still be deactivated with
59 ** New value for %define variable: api.pure full
61 The %define variable api.pure requests a pure (reentrant) parser. However,
62 for historical reasons, using it in a location-tracking Yacc parser
63 resulted in a yyerror function that did not take a location as a
64 parameter. With this new value, the user may request a better pure parser,
65 where yyerror does take a location as a parameter (in location-tracking
68 The use of "%define api.pure true" is deprecated in favor of this new
69 "%define api.pure full".
71 ** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc, lalr1.java)
73 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
74 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
75 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
76 then responsible to define her type.
78 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
79 and position files: let one of them generate them, and the others just use
82 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
83 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
86 For consistency, lalr1.java's %define variables location_type and
87 position_type are deprecated in favor of api.location.type and
90 ** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
92 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
93 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
94 before re-throwing the exception.
96 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
99 ** Graph improvements in DOT and XSLT
101 The graphical presentation of the states is more readable: their shape is
102 now rectangular, the state number is clearly displayed, and the items are
103 numbered and left-justified.
105 The reductions are now explicitly represented as transitions to other
106 diamond shaped nodes.
108 These changes are present in both --graph output and xml2dot.xsl XSLT
109 processing, with minor (documented) differences.
111 ** %language is no longer an experimental feature.
113 The introduction of this feature, in 2.4, was four years ago. The
114 --language option and the %language directive are no longer experimental.
118 The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts resolution
119 have been fixed and extended.
121 Although introduced more than four years ago, XML and Graphviz reports
122 were not properly documented.
124 The translation of mid-rule actions is now described.
126 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
128 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
129 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
130 reporting them to us.
134 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
135 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
138 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
140 Nul characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
142 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
143 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
145 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
147 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
149 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
153 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
155 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
156 users to the appropriate place to report them.
158 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
160 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
161 generated, are removed.
163 All the generated headers are self-contained.
165 ** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
167 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
168 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
169 For instance the header generated from
171 %define api.prefix "calc"
172 %defines "lib/parse.h"
174 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
176 ** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
178 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
181 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
182 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
183 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
187 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
189 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
190 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
193 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
197 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
198 suite have been fixed.
200 ** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
202 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
203 invalid C++. This is fixed.
205 ** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
207 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
209 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
211 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
215 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
216 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
217 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
219 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
223 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
227 *** Type names are now properly escaped.
229 *** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
231 *** Stray @ or $ in actions
233 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
234 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
237 ** Type names in actions
239 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
240 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
242 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
244 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
245 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
247 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
251 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
252 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
256 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
257 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
260 *** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
262 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
265 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
266 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
268 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
271 *** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
273 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
274 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
275 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
276 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
279 ** Generated Parser Headers
281 *** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
283 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
284 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
289 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
291 *** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
293 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
294 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
296 int bar_parse (void);
300 #define yyparse bar_parse
303 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
304 single compilation unit.
306 *** Exported symbols in C++
308 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
309 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
310 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
314 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
317 ** New %define variable: api.prefix
319 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
320 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
321 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
322 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
323 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
324 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
325 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
327 The following examples compares both:
329 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
330 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
331 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
337 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
338 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
340 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
341 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
342 > # if defined YYDEBUG
344 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
346 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
349 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
353 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
354 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
357 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
358 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
359 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
360 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
365 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
366 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
367 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
370 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
371 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
374 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
376 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
378 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
380 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
384 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
386 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
388 ** glr.c improvements:
390 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
392 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
393 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
395 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
397 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
398 when -std is passed to GCC).
400 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
402 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
403 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
407 *** C++11 compatibility:
409 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
414 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
415 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
417 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
418 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
420 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
422 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
423 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
424 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
426 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
428 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
429 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
431 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
435 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
436 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
437 documentation were fixed.
439 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
441 ** Changes in the manual:
443 *** %printer is documented
445 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
446 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
448 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
449 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
451 *** Several improvements have been made:
453 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
454 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
455 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
456 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
460 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
462 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
463 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
465 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
467 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
469 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
470 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
472 *** The install-pdf target works properly:
474 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
475 halts in the middle of its course.
477 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
479 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
481 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
482 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
483 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
484 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
485 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
489 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
490 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
493 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
494 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
497 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
498 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
500 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
502 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
503 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
505 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
506 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
507 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
509 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
510 will help to stabilize them.
511 Contributed by Alex Rozenman.
513 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
515 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
516 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
517 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
518 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
519 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
520 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
521 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
522 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
523 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
525 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
526 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
527 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
528 file with these directives:
532 %define lr.type canonical-lr
534 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
535 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
536 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
539 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
542 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
544 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
545 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
546 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
547 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
548 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
549 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
550 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
551 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
552 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
553 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
556 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
557 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
558 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
559 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
562 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
563 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
564 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
565 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
566 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
567 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
568 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
569 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
572 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
573 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
575 %define parse.lac full
577 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
578 details including a few caveats.
580 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
583 ** %define improvements:
585 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
587 Each of these command-line options
590 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
593 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
595 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
597 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
599 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
600 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
601 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
602 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
604 *** Variables renamed:
606 The following %define variables
609 lr.keep_unreachable_states
614 lr.keep-unreachable-states
616 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
617 for backward compatibility.
619 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
621 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
622 within quotations marks. For example,
624 %define api.push-pull "push"
628 %define api.push-pull push
630 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
632 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
634 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
636 ** Character literals not of length one:
638 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
639 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
640 the following grammar to be the same token:
646 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
647 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
649 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
651 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
652 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
653 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
654 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
656 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
658 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
659 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
660 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
661 and "last" members, instead of
663 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
667 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
668 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
672 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
678 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
682 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
683 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
687 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
691 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
693 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
694 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
695 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
696 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
698 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
700 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
701 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
702 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
703 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
704 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
705 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
706 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
707 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
709 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
711 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
712 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
713 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
714 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
716 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
720 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
722 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
723 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
724 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
725 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
726 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
727 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
728 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
730 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
732 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
733 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
734 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
735 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
736 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
738 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
739 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
740 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
741 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
742 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
743 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
744 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
745 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
746 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
747 shifted or discarded.
749 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
750 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
751 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
752 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
754 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
755 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
756 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
757 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
758 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
759 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
760 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
761 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
762 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
763 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
764 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
765 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
768 ** Java skeleton fixes:
770 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
772 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
773 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
775 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
777 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
779 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
781 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
782 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
784 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
786 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
788 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
789 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
790 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
791 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
794 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
795 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
796 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
797 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
799 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
800 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
801 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
802 then have no effect on the conflict report.
804 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
806 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
807 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
809 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
811 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
813 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
814 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
815 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
816 suppress all warnings:
820 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
822 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
823 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
824 produced an assertion failure. For example:
828 This bug has been fixed.
830 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
832 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
833 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
835 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
838 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
840 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
843 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
844 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
845 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
846 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
848 ** Minor documentation fixes.
850 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
852 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
853 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
854 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
855 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
858 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
860 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
861 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
862 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
863 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
864 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
865 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
866 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
867 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
868 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
870 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
872 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
873 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
876 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
878 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
882 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
883 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
886 %code requires {CODE}
887 %code provides {CODE}
890 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
891 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
892 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
893 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
894 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
896 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
897 is still considered experimental.
899 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
901 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
902 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
903 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
904 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
905 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
908 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
909 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
910 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
911 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
912 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
913 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
914 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
916 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
918 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
919 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
920 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
921 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
922 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
923 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
924 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
925 be removed altogether.
927 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
928 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
929 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
930 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
931 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
932 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
933 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
934 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
935 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
936 2.4.2 is not necessary.
938 ** Internationalization.
940 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
941 message translations were not installed although supported by the
944 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
946 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
947 declarations have been fixed.
949 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
951 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
952 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
954 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
958 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
960 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
961 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
962 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
963 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
964 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
967 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
969 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
971 ** %language is an experimental feature.
973 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
974 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
975 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
976 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
979 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
981 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
984 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
986 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
991 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
995 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
996 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
1000 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
1001 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
1002 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
1003 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
1004 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
1006 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
1007 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
1009 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
1011 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1012 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1014 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
1015 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
1016 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
1020 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
1021 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
1022 %skeleton to select it.
1024 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
1026 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
1027 feedback will help to stabilize it.
1028 Contributed by Paolo Bonzini.
1032 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
1033 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
1034 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
1035 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
1037 ** XML Automaton Report
1039 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
1040 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
1041 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
1042 Contributed by Wojciech Polak.
1044 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
1045 %defines. For example:
1049 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
1050 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
1051 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
1052 instead of "unused".
1054 ** Unreachable State Removal
1056 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
1057 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
1058 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
1060 1. Removes unreachable states.
1062 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
1063 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
1064 directives in existing grammar files.
1066 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
1067 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
1069 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
1071 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
1073 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
1074 for further discussion.
1076 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
1078 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
1079 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
1080 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
1081 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
1082 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
1083 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
1084 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
1087 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
1090 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
1093 %file-prefix "parser"
1097 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
1099 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
1100 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
1101 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
1102 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
1105 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
1106 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
1107 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
1108 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
1110 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
1111 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
1112 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
1113 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1115 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1116 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1118 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
1120 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1121 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1124 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1126 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1127 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1129 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1131 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1132 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1133 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1135 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1136 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1138 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1140 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
1143 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1144 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1145 declared semantic type tags.
1147 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1148 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1151 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1152 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
1153 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1154 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1156 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1157 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1160 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1163 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1164 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1165 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1167 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1168 completely removed from Bison.
1170 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1172 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1173 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1174 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1175 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1176 and is required by POSIX.
1178 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1179 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1181 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1185 %union { char *string; }
1186 %token <string> STRING1
1187 %token <string> STRING2
1188 %type <string> string1
1189 %type <string> string2
1190 %union { char character; }
1191 %token <character> CHR
1192 %type <character> chr
1193 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1194 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1195 %destructor { } <character>
1197 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
1198 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1199 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1200 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1201 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
1203 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1204 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1207 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1208 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
1209 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1210 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1211 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1213 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1214 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
1216 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
1217 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
1218 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1219 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
1220 declared after the first %union.
1222 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
1223 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1224 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1225 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1226 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1227 after the token definitions.
1229 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1230 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1232 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1233 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1236 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1237 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1238 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1242 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1243 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1244 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1245 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
1246 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
1249 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1250 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1251 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1252 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
1255 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1256 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1257 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
1260 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1261 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1262 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1263 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1267 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1268 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1269 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1270 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1271 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1274 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1275 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
1277 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1278 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1280 ** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
1281 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1282 in a future release.
1284 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
1286 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
1287 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1289 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
1290 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1292 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
1294 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
1295 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1296 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
1298 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
1300 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
1302 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
1303 their contents together.
1305 ** New warning: unused values
1306 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1307 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
1309 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
1313 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1314 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1315 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1317 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1318 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1320 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1323 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1324 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1325 values are used, e.g.:
1327 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1328 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1331 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1332 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1334 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1336 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1337 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
1339 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
1340 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1341 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1342 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
1344 ** %expect, %expect-rr
1345 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1346 instead of warnings.
1348 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
1349 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1350 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1352 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1354 ** %require "VERSION"
1355 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1356 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
1358 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
1359 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1360 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
1361 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1362 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
1364 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
1365 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
1366 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1367 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
1369 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1370 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1372 ** DJGPP support added.
1374 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1376 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
1378 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
1379 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1380 language is still English. For details, please see the new
1381 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1382 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1383 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1385 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1386 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1387 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1388 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1390 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
1391 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1392 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1394 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
1395 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1396 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1397 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1398 unexpected "number"'.
1400 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
1402 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
1404 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1405 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1406 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1407 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1408 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
1410 - Error token location.
1411 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1412 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1413 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1414 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
1416 - Semicolon changes:
1417 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1418 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
1420 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1421 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1422 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1423 forget a closing quote.
1425 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1429 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1431 - New directive: %initial-action.
1432 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1433 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1435 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1436 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1438 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
1439 This is a GNU extension.
1441 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
1442 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1444 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1446 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1447 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1451 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1452 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1453 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1454 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1455 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1456 these violations will become errors again.
1458 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1459 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1461 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1463 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1465 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1466 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1468 ** syntax error processing
1470 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1471 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1474 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1475 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1478 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1480 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1481 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1483 ** POSIX conformance
1485 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1486 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1487 compatibility with Yacc.
1489 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1490 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1491 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1492 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1495 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1496 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1498 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1499 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1501 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1502 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1504 - Yacc command and library now available
1505 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
1506 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1507 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1508 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1510 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1512 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1513 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1514 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1516 ** Other compatibility issues
1518 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1519 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1520 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1521 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1522 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
1523 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1525 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
1526 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1528 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1529 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
1531 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1532 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1533 withdrawn in a future release.
1538 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1541 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1542 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
1544 ** %parse-param and %lex-param
1545 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1546 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1549 - a single argument only can be added,
1550 - their types are weak (void *),
1551 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
1552 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1554 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1557 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1558 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1559 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1561 results in the following signatures:
1563 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1564 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1566 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1568 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1569 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1571 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1572 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
1573 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1575 ** #line in output files
1576 - --no-line works properly.
1578 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1579 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1580 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1581 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1583 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1585 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1587 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1590 Fix spurious parse errors.
1593 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1594 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1597 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1598 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1602 but the converse remains an error:
1606 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1609 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1611 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1612 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1614 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1619 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1620 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1621 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1622 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1624 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1625 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1628 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1629 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1630 now creates "bar.c".
1633 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1634 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1636 ** Unknown token numbers
1637 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1641 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1642 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1643 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1644 will be mapped onto another number.
1646 ** Verbose error messages
1647 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
1648 error recovery is possible.
1651 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
1653 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1654 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1655 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1656 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1657 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1658 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1659 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1660 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1661 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1664 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1667 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1668 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1669 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1670 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1672 ** Explicit initial rule
1673 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1674 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1678 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1679 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1681 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1682 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1684 ** Rules never reduced
1685 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1688 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
1689 On a grammar such as
1691 %token useless useful
1693 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1695 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1696 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
1698 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1699 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1701 ** Default locations
1702 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1703 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1704 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1705 the computation of @$.
1707 ** Token end-of-file
1708 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1709 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1710 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
1714 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1717 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1720 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1721 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1723 ** Incorrect token definitions
1726 bison used to output
1729 ** Token definitions as enums
1730 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1731 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1732 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1735 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1736 produces additional information:
1738 complete the core item sets with their closure
1739 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1740 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1742 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1743 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1744 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1747 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1748 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1756 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1758 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1761 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1762 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1763 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1765 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1766 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1767 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1768 kludge will be disabled.
1770 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1773 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1775 ** File name clashes are detected
1776 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1777 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
1779 ** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1780 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1781 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1782 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1783 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1784 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1786 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1787 many portability hassles.
1789 ** DJGPP support added.
1791 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1793 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1796 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1797 under some conditions.
1802 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1804 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1806 ** Portability fixes
1808 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1810 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1814 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1815 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1816 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1817 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1818 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
1820 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1821 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1822 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1824 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1827 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1829 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1830 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1833 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1834 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1835 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1837 ** Better C++ compliance
1838 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1839 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1842 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1845 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1848 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1851 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1854 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1856 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1858 ** Swedish translation
1861 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1862 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1863 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1865 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1866 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1867 previous allocations were not freed.
1869 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1870 Some newlines were missing.
1871 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1873 ** Fixed conflict report.
1874 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1878 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1880 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1882 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1884 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1886 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1887 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1889 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1891 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1895 New, aliasing "--output-file".
1897 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1899 ** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1900 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
1903 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
1906 ** Portability fixes.
1908 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1910 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1911 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1912 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1913 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1915 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
1917 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1919 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1921 ** Russian translation added.
1923 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1925 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1927 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
1929 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
1931 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
1933 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1934 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1937 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1938 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
1941 Automatic location tracking.
1943 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1945 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1949 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1951 ** There is now a FAQ.
1953 * Changes in version 1.27:
1955 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1956 some systems has been fixed.
1958 * Changes in version 1.26:
1960 ** Bison now uses Automake.
1962 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1964 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1966 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1968 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1970 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1972 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1973 not provide alloca().
1975 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1977 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1978 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1980 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1981 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1982 of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
1984 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1985 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1986 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1989 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1990 directives in the parser file.
1992 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1993 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1995 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1996 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1997 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1998 a switch statement body.
2000 * Changes in version 1.23:
2002 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
2003 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
2004 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
2005 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
2007 Line numbers in output file corrected.
2009 * Changes in version 1.22:
2011 --help option added.
2013 * Changes in version 1.20:
2015 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
2019 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2021 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
2023 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2024 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2025 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2026 (at your option) any later version.
2028 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2029 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2030 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2031 GNU General Public License for more details.
2033 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2034 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2036 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
2037 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
2038 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
2039 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
2040 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
2041 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
2042 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
2043 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
2044 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
2045 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
2046 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
2047 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
2048 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
2049 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
2050 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
2051 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
2052 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
2053 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp calc yyo fval Wmaybe
2054 LocalWords: yyvsp pragmas noreturn java's