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