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