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1 Bison News
2 ----------
3
4 * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
6 ** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
7
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directive
10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
11
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
16
17 one may now declare
18
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
20
21 ** Java skeleton improvements
22
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".
26
27 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
28
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
32
33 %token FILE for ERROR
34 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
35 %%
36 start: FILE for ERROR;
37
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).
42
43 ** Variable api.namespace
44
45 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
46 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
47
48 ** Variable parse.error
49
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".
53
54 * Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
55
56 ** Named References Support
57
58 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
59 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
60 actions code.
61
62 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
63 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
64 as named references:
65
66 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
67 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
68
69 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
70
71 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
72 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
73
74 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
75 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
76 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
77
78 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
79 will help to stabilize them.
80
81 ** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support
82
83 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
84 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
85 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
86 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in
87 parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
88 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
89 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
90 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
91 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
92
93 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
94 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
95 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
96 file with these directives:
97
98 %define lr.type lalr
99 %define lr.type ielr
100 %define lr.type canonical-lr
101
102 The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
103 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation
104 for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the
105 section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the
106 details.
107
108 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
109 stabilize them.
110
111 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now an error not a warning.
112
113 ** %define improvements.
114
115 *** Unrecognized variables are now an error not a warning.
116
117 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
118
119 *** Can now be invoked via the command line.
120
121 Each of these command-line options
122
123 -D NAME[=VALUE]
124 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
125
126 -F NAME[=VALUE]
127 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
128
129 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
130
131 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
132
133 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
134 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
135 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
136 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
137
138 *** Variables renamed.
139
140 The following %define variables
141
142 api.push_pull
143 lr.keep_unreachable_states
144
145 have been renamed to
146
147 api.push-pull
148 lr.keep-unreachable-states
149
150 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
151 for backward compatibility.
152
153 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file.
154
155 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
156 within quotations marks. For example,
157
158 %define api.push-pull "push"
159
160 can be rewritten as
161
162 %define api.push-pull push
163
164 ** Symbol names.
165
166 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables
167 (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position,
168 similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over
169 POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc
170 mode (--yacc).
171
172 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
173
174 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
175 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
176 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
177 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
178
179 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
180
181 instead of
182
183 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
184
185 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
186 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
187 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
188 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
189 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
190 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
191 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
192
193 ** Character literals not of length one.
194
195 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
196 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
197 the following grammar to be the same token:
198
199 exp: exp '++'
200 | exp '+' exp
201 ;
202
203 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
204 some future release, Bison will report an error instead.
205
206 ** Verbose error messages fixed for nonassociative tokens.
207
208 When %error-verbose is specified, syntax error messages produced by
209 the generated parser include the unexpected token as well as a list of
210 expected tokens. Previously, this list erroneously included tokens
211 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
212 were resolved with %nonassoc. Such tokens are now properly omitted
213 from the list.
214
215 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (????-??-??):
216
217 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
218
219 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
220
221 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
222
223 %{CODE%}
224
225 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
226 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
227
228 %code {CODE}
229 %code requires {CODE}
230 %code provides {CODE}
231 %code top {CODE}
232
233 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
234 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
235 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
236 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
237 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
238
239 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
240 is still considered experimental.
241
242 ** Internationalization.
243
244 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
245 message translations were not installed although supported by the
246 host system.
247
248 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
249
250 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
251 declarations have been fixed.
252
253 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
254
255 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
256 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
257
258 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
259
260 instead of
261
262 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
263
264 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
265 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
266 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
267 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
268 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
269 feature.
270
271 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
272
273 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
274
275 ** %language is an experimental feature.
276
277 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
278 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
279 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
280 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
281 in future releases.
282
283 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
284
285 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
286 fixed.
287
288 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
289
290 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
291 are now deprecated:
292
293 %define NAME "VALUE"
294
295 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
296
297 %define api.pure
298
299 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
300 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
301
302 ** Push Parsing
303
304 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
305 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
306 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
307 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
308 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
309
310 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
311 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
312
313 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
314
315 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
316 feedback will help to stabilize it.
317
318 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
319 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
320 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
321
322 ** Java
323
324 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
325 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
326 %skeleton to select it.
327
328 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
329
330 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
331 feedback will help to stabilize it.
332
333 ** %language
334
335 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
336 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
337 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
338 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
339
340 ** XML Automaton Report
341
342 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
343 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
344 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
345
346 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
347 %defines. For example:
348
349 %defines "parser.h"
350
351 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
352 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
353 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
354 instead of "unused".
355
356 ** Unreachable State Removal
357
358 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
359 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
360 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
361
362 1. Removes unreachable states.
363
364 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
365 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
366 directives in existing grammar files.
367
368 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
369 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
370
371 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
372
373 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
374
375 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
376 for further discussion.
377
378 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
379
380 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
381 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
382 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
383 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
384 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
385 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
386 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
387 code.
388
389 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
390 name.
391
392 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
393 deprecated:
394
395 %file-prefix "parser"
396 %name-prefix "c_"
397 %output "parser.c"
398
399 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
400
401 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
402 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
403 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
404 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
405 it:
406
407 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
408 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
409 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
410 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
411
412 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
413 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
414 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
415 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
416
417 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
418 determine whether they should become permanent features.
419
420 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
421
422 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
423 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
424 about unused $2 in:
425
426 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
427
428 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
429 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
430
431 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
432
433 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
434 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
435 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
436
437 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
438 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
439
440 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
441
442 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
443 %printer's:
444
445 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
446 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
447 declared semantic type tags.
448
449 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
450 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
451 type tags.
452
453 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
454 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
455 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
456 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
457
458 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
459 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
460 features.
461
462 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
463 details.
464
465 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
466 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
467 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
468
469 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
470 completely removed from Bison.
471
472 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
473
474 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
475 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
476 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
477 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
478 and is required by POSIX.
479
480 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
481 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
482
483 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
484
485 For example:
486
487 %union { char *string; }
488 %token <string> STRING1
489 %token <string> STRING2
490 %type <string> string1
491 %type <string> string2
492 %union { char character; }
493 %token <character> CHR
494 %type <character> chr
495 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
496 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
497 %destructor { } <character>
498
499 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
500 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
501 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
502 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
503 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
504
505 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
506 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
507 future versions.]
508
509 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
510 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
511 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
512 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
513 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
514
515 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
516 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
517
518 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
519 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
520 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
521 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
522 declared after the first %union.
523
524 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
525 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
526 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
527 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
528 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
529 after the token definitions.
530
531 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
532 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
533
534 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
535 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
536 %after-header.
537
538 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
539 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
540 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
541 convenient for you:
542
543 %before-header {
544 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
545 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
546 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
547 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
548 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
549 }
550 %start-header {
551 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
552 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
553 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
554 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
555 }
556 %union {
557 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
558 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
559 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
560 }
561 %end-header {
562 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
563 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
564 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
565 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
566 * definitions. */
567 }
568 %after-header {
569 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
570 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
571 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
572 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
573 * Bison-generated definitions. */
574 }
575
576 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
577 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
578
579 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
580 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
581
582 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
583 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
584 in a future release.
585
586 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
587
588 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
589 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
590
591 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
592 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
593
594 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
595
596 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
597 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
598 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
599
600 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
601
602 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
603
604 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
605 their contents together.
606
607 ** New warning: unused values
608 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
609 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
610
611 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
612 | exp "+" exp
613 ;
614
615 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
616 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
617 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
618
619 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
620 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
621 | exp "+" exp
622 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
623 ;
624
625 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
626 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
627 values are used, e.g.:
628
629 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
630 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
631 ;
632
633 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
634 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
635
636 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
637
638 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
639 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
640
641 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
642 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
643 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
644 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
645
646 ** %expect, %expect-rr
647 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
648 instead of warnings.
649
650 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
651 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
652 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
653
654 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
655
656 ** %require "VERSION"
657 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
658 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
659
660 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
661 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
662 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
663 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
664 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
665
666 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
667 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
668 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
669 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
670
671 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
672 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
673
674 ** DJGPP support added.
675 \f
676 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
677
678 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
679
680 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
681 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
682 language is still English. For details, please see the new
683 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
684 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
685 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
686
687 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
688 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
689 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
690 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
691
692 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
693 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
694 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
695
696 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
697 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
698 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
699 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
700 unexpected "number"'.
701 \f
702 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
703
704 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
705
706 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
707 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
708 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
709 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
710 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
711
712 - Error token location.
713 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
714 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
715 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
716 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
717
718 - Semicolon changes:
719 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
720 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
721
722 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
723 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
724 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
725 forget a closing quote.
726
727 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
728
729 ** New features
730
731 - GLR grammars now support locations.
732
733 - New directive: %initial-action.
734 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
735 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
736
737 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
738 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
739
740 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
741 This is a GNU extension.
742
743 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
744 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
745
746 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
747
748 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
749 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
750
751 ** Bug fixes
752
753 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
754 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
755 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
756 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
757 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
758 these violations will become errors again.
759
760 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
761 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
762
763 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
764 \f
765 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
766
767 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
768 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
769
770 ** syntax error processing
771
772 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
773 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
774
775 - %destructor
776 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
777 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
778
779 - %error-verbose
780 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
781
782 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
783 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
784
785 ** POSIX conformance
786
787 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
788 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
789 compatibility with Yacc.
790
791 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
792 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
793 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
794 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
795 be consistent.
796
797 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
798 declared before use. C99 requires this.
799
800 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
801 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
802
803 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
804 output as "foo\\bar.y".
805
806 - Yacc command and library now available
807 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
808 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
809 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
810 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
811
812 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
813
814 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
815 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
816 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
817
818 ** Other compatibility issues
819
820 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
821 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
822 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
823 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
824 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
825 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
826
827 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
828 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
829
830 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
831 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
832
833 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
834 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
835 withdrawn in a future release.
836
837 ** GLR parser notes
838
839 - GLR and inline
840 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
841 C keyword `inline'.
842
843 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
844 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
845
846 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
847 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
848 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
849
850 ** #line in output files
851 - --no-line works properly.
852
853 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
854 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
855 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
856 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
857 \f
858 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
859
860 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
861
862 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
863
864 ** GLR parsers
865 Fix spurious parse errors.
866
867 ** Pure parsers
868 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
869 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
870
871 ** Type Clashes
872 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
873 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
874
875 untyped: ... typed;
876
877 but the converse remains an error:
878
879 typed: ... untyped;
880
881 ** Values of mid-rule actions
882 The following code:
883
884 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
885
886 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
887 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
888 \f
889 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
890
891 ** GLR parsing
892 The declaration
893 %glr-parser
894 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
895 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
896 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
897 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
898
899 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
900 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
901
902 ** Output Directory
903 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
904 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
905 now creates `bar.c'.
906
907 ** Undefined token
908 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
909 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
910
911 ** Unknown token numbers
912 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
913 no longer the case.
914
915 ** Error token
916 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
917 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
918 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
919 will be mapped onto another number.
920
921 ** Verbose error messages
922 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
923 error recovery is possible.
924
925 ** End token
926 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
927
928 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
929 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
930 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
931 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
932 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
933 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
934 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
935 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
936 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
937
938 ** Traces
939 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
940
941 ** Larger grammars
942 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
943 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
944 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
945 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
946
947 ** Explicit initial rule
948 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
949 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
950 graphs as rule 0.
951
952 ** Useless rules
953 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
954 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
955
956 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
957 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
958
959 ** Rules never reduced
960 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
961 reported.
962
963 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
964 On a grammar such as
965
966 %token useless useful
967 %%
968 exp: '0' %prec useful;
969
970 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
971 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
972
973 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
974 as they caused too many portability hassles.
975
976 ** Default locations
977 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
978 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
979 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
980 the computation of @$.
981
982 ** Token end-of-file
983 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
984 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
985 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
986 For instance
987 %token MYEOF 0
988 or
989 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
990
991 ** Semantic parser
992 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
993
994 ** New translations
995 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
996 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
997
998 ** Incorrect token definitions
999 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
1000
1001 ** Token definitions as enums
1002 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1003 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1004 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1005
1006 ** Reports
1007 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1008 produces additional information:
1009 - itemset
1010 complete the core item sets with their closure
1011 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1012 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1013 - solved
1014 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1015 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1016 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1017
1018 ** Type clashes
1019 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1020 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1021
1022 %type <foo> bar
1023 %%
1024 bar: '0' {} '0';
1025
1026 This is fixed.
1027
1028 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1029 \f
1030 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1031
1032 ** C Skeleton
1033 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1034 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1035 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1036
1037 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1038 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1039 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1040 kludge will be disabled.
1041
1042 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1043 extended.
1044 \f
1045 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1046
1047 ** File name clashes are detected
1048 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1049 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1050
1051 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1052 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1053 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1054 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1055 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1056 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1057
1058 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1059 many portability hassles.
1060
1061 ** DJGPP support added.
1062
1063 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1064 \f
1065 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1066
1067 ** Fix C++ issues
1068 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1069 under some conditions.
1070
1071 ** Catch invalid @n
1072 As is done with $n.
1073 \f
1074 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1075
1076 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1077
1078 ** Portability fixes
1079
1080 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1081 \f
1082 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1083
1084 ** Many Bug Fixes
1085
1086 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1087 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1088 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1089 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1090 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1091
1092 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1093 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1094 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1095
1096 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1097 problems as on AIX.
1098
1099 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1100
1101 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1102 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1103
1104 ** User Actions
1105 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1106 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1107 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1108
1109 ** Better C++ compliance
1110 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1111 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1112
1113 ** Reduced Grammars
1114 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1115
1116 ** 64 bit hosts
1117 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1118
1119 ** Error messages
1120 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1121
1122 ** %expect
1123 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1124 any warning.
1125
1126 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1127
1128 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1129
1130 ** Swedish translation
1131
1132 ** Parse errors
1133 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1134 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1135 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1136
1137 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1138 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1139 previous allocations were not freed.
1140
1141 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1142 Some newlines were missing.
1143 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1144
1145 ** Fixed conflict report.
1146 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1147
1148 ** %expect
1149 Was not used.
1150 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1151
1152 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1153
1154 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1155
1156 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1157
1158 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1159 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1160
1161 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1162
1163 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1164 New.
1165
1166 ** --output
1167 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1168 \f
1169 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1170
1171 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1172 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1173 argument.
1174
1175 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1176 experiment.
1177
1178 ** Portability fixes.
1179 \f
1180 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1181
1182 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1183 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1184 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1185 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1186
1187 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1188
1189 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1190
1191 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1192
1193 ** Russian translation added.
1194
1195 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1196
1197 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1198
1199 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1200
1201 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1202
1203 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1204
1205 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1206 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1207
1208 ** New directives.
1209 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1210 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1211
1212 ** @$
1213 Automatic location tracking.
1214 \f
1215 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1216
1217 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1218
1219 ** Added NLS.
1220
1221 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1222
1223 ** There is now a FAQ.
1224 \f
1225 * Changes in version 1.27:
1226
1227 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1228 some systems has been fixed.
1229 \f
1230 * Changes in version 1.26:
1231
1232 ** Bison now uses automake.
1233
1234 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1235
1236 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1237
1238 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1239
1240 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1241
1242 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1243
1244 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1245 not provide alloca().
1246 \f
1247 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1248
1249 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1250 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1251
1252 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1253 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1254 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1255
1256 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1257 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1258 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1259 purposes.
1260
1261 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1262 directives in the parser file.
1263
1264 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1265 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1266
1267 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1268 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1269 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1270 a switch statement body.
1271 \f
1272 * Changes in version 1.23:
1273
1274 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1275 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1276 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1277 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1278
1279 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1280 \f
1281 * Changes in version 1.22:
1282
1283 --help option added.
1284 \f
1285 * Changes in version 1.20:
1286
1287 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1288
1289 Local Variables:
1290 mode: outline
1291 End:
1292
1293 -----
1294
1295 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
1296 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1297
1298 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1299
1300 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1301 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1302 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1303 (at your option) any later version.
1304
1305 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1306 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1307 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1308 GNU General Public License for more details.
1309
1310 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1311 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.