4 * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
6 ** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives
10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
21 ** Java skeleton improvements
23 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
24 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
25 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
27 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
29 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
30 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
31 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
34 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
36 start: FILE for ERROR;
38 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
39 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
40 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
41 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
43 ** Variable api.namespace
45 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
46 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
48 ** Variable parse.error
50 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
51 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
52 %define parse.error "verbose".
54 ** Semantic predicates
56 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
57 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
58 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
59 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
60 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
63 * Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
65 ** Named References Support
67 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
68 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
71 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
72 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
75 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
76 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
78 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
80 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
81 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
83 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
84 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
85 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
87 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
88 will help to stabilize them.
90 ** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support
92 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
93 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
94 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
95 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in
96 parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
97 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
98 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
99 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
100 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
102 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
103 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
104 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
105 file with these directives:
109 %define lr.type canonical-lr
111 The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
112 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation
113 for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the
114 section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the
117 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
120 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now an error not a warning.
122 ** %define improvements.
124 *** Unrecognized variables are now an error not a warning.
126 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
128 *** Can now be invoked via the command line.
130 Each of these command-line options
133 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
136 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
138 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
140 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
142 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
143 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
144 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
145 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
147 *** Variables renamed.
149 The following %define variables
152 lr.keep_unreachable_states
157 lr.keep-unreachable-states
159 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
160 for backward compatibility.
162 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file.
164 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
165 within quotations marks. For example,
167 %define api.push-pull "push"
171 %define api.push-pull push
175 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables
176 (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position,
177 similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over
178 POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc
181 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it.
183 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
184 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
185 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
186 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
187 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
188 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
189 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
190 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
192 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
194 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
195 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
196 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
197 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
199 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
203 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
205 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
206 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
207 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
208 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
209 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
210 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
211 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
213 ** Character literals not of length one.
215 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
216 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
217 the following grammar to be the same token:
223 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
224 some future release, Bison will report an error instead.
226 ** Verbose error messages fixed for nonassociative tokens.
228 When %error-verbose is specified, syntax error messages produced by
229 the generated parser include the unexpected token as well as a list of
230 expected tokens. Previously, this list erroneously included tokens
231 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
232 were resolved with %nonassoc. Such tokens are now properly omitted
235 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions.
237 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
238 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
239 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
240 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
242 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC
244 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
245 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
246 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
247 and "last" members, instead of
249 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
253 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
254 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
258 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
264 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
268 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
269 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
273 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
277 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++
279 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
280 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
281 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
282 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
284 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (????-??-??):
286 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
287 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
289 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
292 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
294 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
297 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
298 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
299 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
300 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
302 ** Minor documentation fixes.
304 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
306 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
307 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
308 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
309 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
312 ** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
314 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
315 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
316 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
317 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
318 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
319 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
320 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
321 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
322 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
324 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
326 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
327 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
330 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
332 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
336 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
337 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
340 %code requires {CODE}
341 %code provides {CODE}
344 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
345 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
346 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
347 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
348 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
350 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
351 is still considered experimental.
353 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
355 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
356 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
357 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
358 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
359 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
362 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
363 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
364 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
365 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
366 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
367 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
368 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
370 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
372 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
373 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
374 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
375 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
376 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
377 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
378 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
379 be removed altogether.
381 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
382 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
383 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
384 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
385 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
386 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
387 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
388 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
389 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
390 2.4.2 is not necessary.
392 ** Internationalization.
394 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
395 message translations were not installed although supported by the
398 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
400 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
401 declarations have been fixed.
403 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
405 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
406 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
408 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
412 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
414 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
415 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
416 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
417 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
418 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
421 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
423 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
425 ** %language is an experimental feature.
427 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
428 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
429 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
430 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
433 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
435 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
438 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
440 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
445 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
449 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
450 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
454 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
455 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
456 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
457 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
458 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
460 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
461 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
463 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
465 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
466 feedback will help to stabilize it.
468 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
469 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
470 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
474 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
475 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
476 %skeleton to select it.
478 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
480 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
481 feedback will help to stabilize it.
485 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
486 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
487 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
488 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
490 ** XML Automaton Report
492 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
493 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
494 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
496 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
497 %defines. For example:
501 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
502 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
503 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
506 ** Unreachable State Removal
508 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
509 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
510 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
512 1. Removes unreachable states.
514 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
515 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
516 directives in existing grammar files.
518 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
519 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
521 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
523 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
525 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
526 for further discussion.
528 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
530 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
531 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
532 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
533 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
534 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
535 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
536 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
539 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
542 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
545 %file-prefix "parser"
549 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
551 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
552 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
553 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
554 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
557 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
558 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
559 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
560 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
562 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
563 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
564 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
565 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
567 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
568 determine whether they should become permanent features.
570 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
572 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
573 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
576 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
578 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
579 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
581 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
583 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
584 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
585 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
587 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
588 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
590 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
592 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
595 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
596 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
597 declared semantic type tags.
599 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
600 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
603 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
604 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
605 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
606 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
608 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
609 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
612 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
615 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
616 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
617 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
619 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
620 completely removed from Bison.
622 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
624 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
625 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
626 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
627 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
628 and is required by POSIX.
630 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
631 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
633 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
637 %union { char *string; }
638 %token <string> STRING1
639 %token <string> STRING2
640 %type <string> string1
641 %type <string> string2
642 %union { char character; }
643 %token <character> CHR
644 %type <character> chr
645 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
646 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
647 %destructor { } <character>
649 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
650 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
651 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
652 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
653 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
655 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
656 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
659 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
660 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
661 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
662 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
663 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
665 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
666 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
668 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
669 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
670 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
671 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
672 declared after the first %union.
674 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
675 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
676 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
677 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
678 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
679 after the token definitions.
681 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
682 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
684 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
685 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
688 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
689 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
690 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
694 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
695 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
696 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
697 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
698 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
701 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
702 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
703 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
704 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
707 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
708 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
709 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
712 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
713 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
714 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
715 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
719 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
720 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
721 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
722 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
723 * Bison-generated definitions. */
726 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
727 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
729 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
730 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
732 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
733 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
736 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
738 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
739 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
741 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
742 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
744 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
746 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
747 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
748 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
750 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
752 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
754 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
755 their contents together.
757 ** New warning: unused values
758 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
759 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
761 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
765 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
766 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
767 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
769 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
770 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
772 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
775 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
776 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
777 values are used, e.g.:
779 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
780 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
783 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
784 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
786 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
788 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
789 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
791 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
792 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
793 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
794 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
796 ** %expect, %expect-rr
797 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
800 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
801 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
802 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
804 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
806 ** %require "VERSION"
807 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
808 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
810 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
811 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
812 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
813 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
814 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
816 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
817 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
818 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
819 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
821 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
822 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
824 ** DJGPP support added.
826 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
828 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
830 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
831 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
832 language is still English. For details, please see the new
833 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
834 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
835 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
837 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
838 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
839 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
840 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
842 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
843 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
844 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
846 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
847 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
848 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
849 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
850 unexpected "number"'.
852 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
854 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
856 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
857 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
858 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
859 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
860 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
862 - Error token location.
863 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
864 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
865 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
866 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
869 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
870 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
872 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
873 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
874 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
875 forget a closing quote.
877 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
881 - GLR grammars now support locations.
883 - New directive: %initial-action.
884 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
885 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
887 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
888 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
890 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
891 This is a GNU extension.
893 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
894 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
896 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
898 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
899 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
903 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
904 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
905 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
906 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
907 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
908 these violations will become errors again.
910 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
911 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
913 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
915 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
917 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
918 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
920 ** syntax error processing
922 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
923 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
926 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
927 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
930 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
932 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
933 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
937 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
938 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
939 compatibility with Yacc.
941 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
942 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
943 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
944 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
947 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
948 declared before use. C99 requires this.
950 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
951 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
953 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
954 output as "foo\\bar.y".
956 - Yacc command and library now available
957 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
958 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
959 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
960 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
962 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
964 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
965 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
966 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
968 ** Other compatibility issues
970 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
971 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
972 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
973 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
974 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
975 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
977 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
978 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
980 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
981 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
983 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
984 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
985 withdrawn in a future release.
990 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
993 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
994 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
996 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
997 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
998 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1000 ** #line in output files
1001 - --no-line works properly.
1003 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1004 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1005 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1006 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1008 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1010 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1012 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1015 Fix spurious parse errors.
1018 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1019 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1022 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1023 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1027 but the converse remains an error:
1031 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1034 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1036 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1037 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1039 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1044 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1045 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1046 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1047 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1049 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1050 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1053 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1054 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
1055 now creates `bar.c'.
1058 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1059 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1061 ** Unknown token numbers
1062 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1066 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1067 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1068 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1069 will be mapped onto another number.
1071 ** Verbose error messages
1072 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
1073 error recovery is possible.
1076 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1078 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1079 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1080 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1081 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1082 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1083 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1084 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1085 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1086 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1089 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1092 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1093 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1094 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1095 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1097 ** Explicit initial rule
1098 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1099 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1103 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1104 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1106 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1107 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1109 ** Rules never reduced
1110 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1113 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
1114 On a grammar such as
1116 %token useless useful
1118 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1120 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1121 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1123 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1124 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1126 ** Default locations
1127 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1128 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1129 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1130 the computation of @$.
1132 ** Token end-of-file
1133 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1134 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1135 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
1139 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1142 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1145 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1146 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1148 ** Incorrect token definitions
1149 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
1151 ** Token definitions as enums
1152 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1153 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1154 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1157 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1158 produces additional information:
1160 complete the core item sets with their closure
1161 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1162 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1164 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1165 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1166 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1169 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1170 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1178 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1180 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1183 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1184 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1185 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1187 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1188 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1189 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1190 kludge will be disabled.
1192 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1195 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1197 ** File name clashes are detected
1198 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1199 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1201 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1202 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1203 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1204 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1205 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1206 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1208 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1209 many portability hassles.
1211 ** DJGPP support added.
1213 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1215 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1218 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1219 under some conditions.
1224 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1226 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1228 ** Portability fixes
1230 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1232 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1236 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1237 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1238 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1239 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1240 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1242 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1243 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1244 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1246 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1249 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1251 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1252 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1255 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1256 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1257 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1259 ** Better C++ compliance
1260 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1261 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1264 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1267 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1270 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1273 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1276 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1278 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1280 ** Swedish translation
1283 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1284 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1285 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1287 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1288 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1289 previous allocations were not freed.
1291 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1292 Some newlines were missing.
1293 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1295 ** Fixed conflict report.
1296 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1300 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1302 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1304 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1306 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1308 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1309 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1311 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1313 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1317 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1319 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1321 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1322 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1325 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1328 ** Portability fixes.
1330 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1332 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1333 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1334 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1335 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1337 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1339 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1341 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1343 ** Russian translation added.
1345 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1347 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1349 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1351 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1353 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1355 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1356 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1359 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1360 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1363 Automatic location tracking.
1365 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1367 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1371 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1373 ** There is now a FAQ.
1375 * Changes in version 1.27:
1377 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1378 some systems has been fixed.
1380 * Changes in version 1.26:
1382 ** Bison now uses automake.
1384 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1386 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1388 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1390 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1392 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1394 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1395 not provide alloca().
1397 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1399 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1400 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1402 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1403 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1404 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1406 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1407 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1408 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1411 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1412 directives in the parser file.
1414 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1415 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1417 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1418 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1419 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1420 a switch statement body.
1422 * Changes in version 1.23:
1424 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1425 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1426 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1427 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1429 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1431 * Changes in version 1.22:
1433 --help option added.
1435 * Changes in version 1.20:
1437 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1445 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
1446 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation,
1449 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1451 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1452 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1453 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1454 (at your option) any later version.
1456 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1457 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1458 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1459 GNU General Public License for more details.
1461 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1462 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.