3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
6 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.5 (2012-11-07) [stable]
8 We consider compiler warnings about Bison generated parsers to be bugs.
9 Rather than working around them in your own project, please consider
14 Warnings about uninitialized yylval and/or yylloc for push parsers with a
15 pure interface have been fixed for GCC 4.0 up to 4.8, and Clang 2.9 to
18 Other issues in the test suite have been addressed.
20 Nul characters are correctly displayed in error messages.
22 When possible, yylloc is correctly initialized before calling yylex. It
23 is no longer necessary to initialize it in the %initial-action.
25 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2012-10-23) [stable]
27 Bison 2.6.3's --version was incorrect. This release fixes this issue.
29 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2012-10-22) [stable]
33 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
35 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
36 users to the appropriate place to report them.
38 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
40 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
41 generated, are removed.
43 All the generated headers are self-contained.
45 ** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
47 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
48 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
49 For instance the header generated from
51 %define api.prefix "calc"
52 %defines "lib/parse.h"
54 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
56 ** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
58 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
61 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
62 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
63 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
67 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
69 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
70 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
73 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
77 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
78 suite have been fixed.
80 ** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
82 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
83 invalid C++. This is fixed.
85 ** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
87 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
89 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
91 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
95 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
96 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
97 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
99 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
103 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
107 *** Type names are now properly escaped.
109 *** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
111 *** Stray @ or $ in actions
113 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
114 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
117 ** Type names in actions
119 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
120 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
122 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
124 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
125 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
127 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
131 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
132 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
136 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
137 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
140 *** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
142 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
145 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
146 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
148 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
151 *** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
153 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
154 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
155 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
156 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
159 ** Generated Parser Headers
161 *** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
163 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
164 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
169 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
171 *** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
173 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
174 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
176 int bar_parse (void);
180 #define yyparse bar_parse
183 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
184 single compilation unit.
186 *** Exported symbols in C++
188 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
189 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
190 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
194 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
197 ** New %define variable: api.prefix
199 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
200 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
201 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
202 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
203 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
204 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
205 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
207 The following examples compares both:
209 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
210 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
211 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
217 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
218 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
220 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
221 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
222 > # if defined YYDEBUG
224 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
226 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
229 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
233 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
234 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
237 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
238 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
239 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
240 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
245 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
246 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
247 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
250 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
251 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
254 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
256 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
258 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
260 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
264 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
266 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
268 ** glr.c improvements:
270 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
272 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
273 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
275 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
277 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
278 when -std is passed to GCC).
280 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
282 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
283 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
287 *** C++11 compatibility:
289 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
294 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
295 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
297 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
298 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
300 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
302 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
303 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
304 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
306 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
308 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
309 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
311 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
315 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
316 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
317 documentation were fixed.
319 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
321 ** Changes in the manual:
323 *** %printer is documented
325 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
326 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
328 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
329 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
331 *** Several improvements have been made:
333 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
334 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
335 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
336 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
340 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
342 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
343 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
345 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
347 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
349 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
350 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
352 *** The install-pdf target works properly:
354 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
355 halts in the middle of its course.
357 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
359 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
361 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
362 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
363 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
364 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
365 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
369 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
370 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
373 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
374 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
377 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
378 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
380 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
382 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
383 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
385 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
386 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
387 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
389 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
390 will help to stabilize them.
392 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
394 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
395 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
396 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
397 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
398 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
399 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
400 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
401 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
402 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
404 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
405 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
406 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
407 file with these directives:
411 %define lr.type canonical-lr
413 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
414 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
415 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
418 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
421 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
423 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
424 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
425 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
426 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
427 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
428 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
429 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
430 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
431 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
432 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
435 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
436 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
437 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
438 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
441 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
442 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
443 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
444 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
445 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
446 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
447 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
448 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
451 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
452 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
454 %define parse.lac full
456 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
457 details including a few caveats.
459 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
462 ** %define improvements:
464 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
466 Each of these command-line options
469 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
472 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
474 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
476 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
478 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
479 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
480 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
481 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
483 *** Variables renamed:
485 The following %define variables
488 lr.keep_unreachable_states
493 lr.keep-unreachable-states
495 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
496 for backward compatibility.
498 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
500 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
501 within quotations marks. For example,
503 %define api.push-pull "push"
507 %define api.push-pull push
509 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
511 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
513 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
515 ** Character literals not of length one:
517 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
518 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
519 the following grammar to be the same token:
525 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
526 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
528 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
530 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
531 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
532 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
533 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
535 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
537 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
538 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
539 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
540 and "last" members, instead of
542 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
546 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
547 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
551 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
557 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
561 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
562 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
566 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
570 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
572 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
573 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
574 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
575 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
577 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
579 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
580 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
581 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
582 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
583 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
584 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
585 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
586 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
588 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
590 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
591 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
592 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
593 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
595 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
599 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
601 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
602 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
603 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
604 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
605 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
606 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
607 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
609 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
611 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
612 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
613 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
614 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
615 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
617 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
618 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
619 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
620 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
621 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
622 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
623 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
624 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
625 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
626 shifted or discarded.
628 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
629 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
630 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
631 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
633 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
634 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
635 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
636 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
637 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
638 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
639 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
640 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
641 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
642 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
643 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
644 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
647 ** Java skeleton fixes:
649 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
651 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
652 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
654 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
656 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
658 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
660 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
661 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
663 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
665 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
667 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
668 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
669 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
670 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
673 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
674 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
675 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
676 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
678 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
679 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
680 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
681 then have no effect on the conflict report.
683 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
685 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
686 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
688 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
690 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
692 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
693 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
694 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
695 suppress all warnings:
699 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
701 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
702 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
703 produced an assertion failure. For example:
707 This bug has been fixed.
709 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
711 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
712 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
714 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
717 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
719 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
722 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
723 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
724 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
725 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
727 ** Minor documentation fixes.
729 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
731 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
732 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
733 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
734 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
737 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
739 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
740 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
741 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
742 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
743 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
744 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
745 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
746 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
747 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
749 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
751 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
752 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
755 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
757 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
761 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
762 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
765 %code requires {CODE}
766 %code provides {CODE}
769 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
770 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
771 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
772 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
773 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
775 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
776 is still considered experimental.
778 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
780 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
781 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
782 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
783 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
784 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
787 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
788 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
789 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
790 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
791 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
792 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
793 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
795 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
797 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
798 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
799 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
800 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
801 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
802 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
803 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
804 be removed altogether.
806 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
807 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
808 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
809 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
810 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
811 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
812 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
813 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
814 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
815 2.4.2 is not necessary.
817 ** Internationalization.
819 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
820 message translations were not installed although supported by the
823 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
825 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
826 declarations have been fixed.
828 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
830 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
831 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
833 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
837 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
839 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
840 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
841 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
842 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
843 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
846 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
848 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
850 ** %language is an experimental feature.
852 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
853 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
854 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
855 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
858 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
860 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
863 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
865 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
870 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
874 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
875 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
879 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
880 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
881 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
882 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
883 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
885 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
886 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
888 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
890 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
891 feedback will help to stabilize it.
893 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
894 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
895 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
899 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
900 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
901 %skeleton to select it.
903 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
905 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
906 feedback will help to stabilize it.
910 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
911 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
912 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
913 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
915 ** XML Automaton Report
917 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
918 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
919 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
921 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
922 %defines. For example:
926 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
927 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
928 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
931 ** Unreachable State Removal
933 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
934 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
935 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
937 1. Removes unreachable states.
939 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
940 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
941 directives in existing grammar files.
943 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
944 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
946 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
948 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
950 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
951 for further discussion.
953 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
955 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
956 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
957 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
958 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
959 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
960 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
961 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
964 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
967 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
970 %file-prefix "parser"
974 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
976 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
977 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
978 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
979 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
982 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
983 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
984 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
985 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
987 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
988 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
989 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
990 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
992 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
993 determine whether they should become permanent features.
995 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
997 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
998 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1001 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1003 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1004 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1006 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1008 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1009 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1010 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1012 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1013 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1015 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1017 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
1020 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1021 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1022 declared semantic type tags.
1024 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1025 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1028 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1029 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
1030 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1031 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1033 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1034 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1037 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1040 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1041 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1042 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1044 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1045 completely removed from Bison.
1047 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1049 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1050 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1051 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1052 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1053 and is required by POSIX.
1055 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1056 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1058 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1062 %union { char *string; }
1063 %token <string> STRING1
1064 %token <string> STRING2
1065 %type <string> string1
1066 %type <string> string2
1067 %union { char character; }
1068 %token <character> CHR
1069 %type <character> chr
1070 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1071 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1072 %destructor { } <character>
1074 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
1075 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1076 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1077 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1078 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
1080 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1081 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1084 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1085 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
1086 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1087 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1088 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1090 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1091 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
1093 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
1094 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
1095 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1096 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
1097 declared after the first %union.
1099 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
1100 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1101 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1102 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1103 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1104 after the token definitions.
1106 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1107 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1109 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1110 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1113 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1114 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1115 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1119 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1120 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1121 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1122 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
1123 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
1126 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1127 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1128 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1129 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
1132 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1133 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1134 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
1137 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1138 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1139 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1140 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1144 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1145 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1146 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1147 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1148 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1151 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1152 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
1154 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1155 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1157 ** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
1158 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1159 in a future release.
1161 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
1163 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
1164 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1166 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
1167 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1169 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
1171 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
1172 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1173 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
1175 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
1177 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
1179 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
1180 their contents together.
1182 ** New warning: unused values
1183 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1184 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
1186 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
1190 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1191 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1192 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1194 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1195 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1197 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1200 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1201 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1202 values are used, e.g.:
1204 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1205 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1208 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1209 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1211 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1213 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1214 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
1216 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
1217 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1218 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1219 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
1221 ** %expect, %expect-rr
1222 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1223 instead of warnings.
1225 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
1226 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1227 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1229 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1231 ** %require "VERSION"
1232 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1233 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
1235 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
1236 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1237 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
1238 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1239 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
1241 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
1242 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
1243 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1244 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
1246 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1247 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1249 ** DJGPP support added.
1251 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1253 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
1255 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
1256 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1257 language is still English. For details, please see the new
1258 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1259 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1260 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1262 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1263 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1264 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1265 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1267 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
1268 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1269 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1271 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
1272 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1273 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1274 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1275 unexpected "number"'.
1277 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
1279 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
1281 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1282 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1283 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1284 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1285 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
1287 - Error token location.
1288 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1289 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1290 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1291 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
1293 - Semicolon changes:
1294 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1295 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
1297 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1298 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1299 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1300 forget a closing quote.
1302 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1306 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1308 - New directive: %initial-action.
1309 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1310 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1312 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1313 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1315 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
1316 This is a GNU extension.
1318 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
1319 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1321 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1323 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1324 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1328 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1329 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1330 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1331 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1332 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1333 these violations will become errors again.
1335 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1336 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1338 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1340 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1342 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1343 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1345 ** syntax error processing
1347 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1348 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1351 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1352 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1355 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1357 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1358 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1360 ** POSIX conformance
1362 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1363 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1364 compatibility with Yacc.
1366 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1367 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1368 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1369 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1372 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1373 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1375 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1376 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1378 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1379 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1381 - Yacc command and library now available
1382 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
1383 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1384 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1385 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1387 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1389 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1390 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1391 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1393 ** Other compatibility issues
1395 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1396 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1397 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1398 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1399 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
1400 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1402 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
1403 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1405 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1406 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
1408 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1409 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1410 withdrawn in a future release.
1415 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1418 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1419 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
1421 ** %parse-param and %lex-param
1422 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1423 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1426 - a single argument only can be added,
1427 - their types are weak (void *),
1428 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
1429 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1431 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1434 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1435 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1436 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1438 results in the following signatures:
1440 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1441 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1443 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1445 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1446 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1448 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1449 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
1450 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1452 ** #line in output files
1453 - --no-line works properly.
1455 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1456 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1457 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1458 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1460 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1462 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1464 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1467 Fix spurious parse errors.
1470 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1471 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1474 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1475 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1479 but the converse remains an error:
1483 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1486 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1488 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1489 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1491 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1496 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1497 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1498 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1499 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1501 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1502 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1505 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1506 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1507 now creates "bar.c".
1510 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1511 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1513 ** Unknown token numbers
1514 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1518 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1519 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1520 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1521 will be mapped onto another number.
1523 ** Verbose error messages
1524 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
1525 error recovery is possible.
1528 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
1530 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1531 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1532 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1533 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1534 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1535 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1536 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1537 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1538 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1541 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1544 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1545 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1546 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1547 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1549 ** Explicit initial rule
1550 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1551 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1555 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1556 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1558 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1559 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1561 ** Rules never reduced
1562 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1565 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
1566 On a grammar such as
1568 %token useless useful
1570 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1572 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1573 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
1575 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1576 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1578 ** Default locations
1579 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1580 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1581 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1582 the computation of @$.
1584 ** Token end-of-file
1585 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1586 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1587 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
1591 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1594 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1597 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1598 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1600 ** Incorrect token definitions
1603 bison used to output
1606 ** Token definitions as enums
1607 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1608 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1609 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1612 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1613 produces additional information:
1615 complete the core item sets with their closure
1616 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1617 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1619 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1620 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1621 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1624 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1625 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1633 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1635 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1638 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1639 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1640 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1642 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1643 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1644 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1645 kludge will be disabled.
1647 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1650 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1652 ** File name clashes are detected
1653 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1654 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
1656 ** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1657 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1658 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1659 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1660 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1661 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1663 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1664 many portability hassles.
1666 ** DJGPP support added.
1668 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1670 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1673 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1674 under some conditions.
1679 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1681 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1683 ** Portability fixes
1685 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1687 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1691 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1692 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1693 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1694 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1695 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
1697 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1698 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1699 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1701 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1704 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1706 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1707 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1710 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1711 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1712 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1714 ** Better C++ compliance
1715 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1716 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1719 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1722 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1725 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1728 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1731 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1733 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1735 ** Swedish translation
1738 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1739 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1740 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1742 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1743 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1744 previous allocations were not freed.
1746 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1747 Some newlines were missing.
1748 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1750 ** Fixed conflict report.
1751 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1755 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1757 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1759 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1761 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1763 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1764 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1766 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1768 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1772 New, aliasing "--output-file".
1774 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1776 ** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1777 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
1780 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
1783 ** Portability fixes.
1785 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1787 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1788 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1789 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1790 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1792 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
1794 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1796 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1798 ** Russian translation added.
1800 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1802 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1804 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
1806 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
1808 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
1810 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1811 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1814 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1815 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
1818 Automatic location tracking.
1820 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1822 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1826 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1828 ** There is now a FAQ.
1830 * Changes in version 1.27:
1832 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1833 some systems has been fixed.
1835 * Changes in version 1.26:
1837 ** Bison now uses Automake.
1839 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1841 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1843 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1845 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1847 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1849 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1850 not provide alloca().
1852 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1854 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1855 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1857 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1858 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1859 of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
1861 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1862 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1863 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1866 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1867 directives in the parser file.
1869 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1870 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1872 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1873 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1874 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1875 a switch statement body.
1877 * Changes in version 1.23:
1879 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1880 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1881 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1882 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1884 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1886 * Changes in version 1.22:
1888 --help option added.
1890 * Changes in version 1.20:
1892 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1896 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1898 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1900 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1901 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1902 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1903 (at your option) any later version.
1905 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1906 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1907 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1908 GNU General Public License for more details.
1910 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1911 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1913 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1914 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1915 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1916 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1917 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1918 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1919 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1920 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1921 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1922 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1923 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1924 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1925 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
1926 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
1927 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
1928 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
1929 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
1930 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp calc yyo fval