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