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1 GNU Bison NEWS
2
3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
4
5 ** Bug fixes
6
7 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
8
9 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
10 users to the appropriate place to report them.
11
12 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
13
14 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
15 generated, are removed.
16
17 All the generated headers are self-contained.
18
19 ** Changes in the format of error messages
20
21 This used to be the format of many error reports:
22
23 foo.y:5.10-24: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
24 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
25
26 It is now:
27
28 foo.y:5.10-25: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
29 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
30
31 ** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
32
33 In order to avoid collisions, the header guards are now
34 YY_<PREFIX>_<FILE>_INCLUDED, instead of merely <PREFIX>_<FILE>.
35 For instance the header generated from
36
37 %define api.prefix "calc"
38 %defines "lib/parse.h"
39
40 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
41
42 ** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
43
44 The parse function now catches exceptions, uses the %destructors to
45 release memory (the lookahead symbol and the symbols pushed on the stack)
46 before rethrowing the exception.
47
48 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
49 appreciated.
50
51 ** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
52
53 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
54 warnings such as:
55
56 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
57 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
58 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
59 *++yyvsp = yylval;
60 ^
61
62 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
63
64 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
65 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
66 addressed.
67
68 ** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc)
69
70 The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
71 for locations. When defined, Bison no longer generates the position.hh
72 and location.hh files, nor does the parser will include them: the user is
73 then responsible to define her type.
74
75 This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their location
76 and position files: let one of them generate them, and let the others
77 simply resue these types and files.
78
79 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
80 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
81 compatibility).
82
83 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
84
85 ** Bug fixes
86
87 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
88 suite have been fixed.
89
90 ** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
91
92 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
93 invalid C++. This is fixed.
94
95 ** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
96
97 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
98
99 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
100
101 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
102
103 ** Future Changes
104
105 In addition to the removal of the features announced in Bison 2.6, the
106 next major release will remove the "Temporary hack for adding a semicolon
107 to the user action", as announced in the release 2.5. Instead of:
108
109 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
110
111 write:
112
113 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
114
115 ** Bug fixes
116
117 *** Type names are now properly escaped.
118
119 *** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
120
121 *** Stray @ or $ in actions
122
123 While Bison used to warn about stray $ or @ in action rules, it did not
124 for other actions such as printers, destructors, or initial actions. It
125 now does.
126
127 ** Type names in actions
128
129 For consistency with rule actions, it is now possible to qualify $$ by a
130 type-name in destructors, printers, and initial actions. For instance:
131
132 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
133
134 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
135 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
136
137 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
138
139 ** Future Changes
140
141 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
142 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
143
144 *** K&R C parsers
145
146 Support for generating parsers in K&R C will be removed. Parsers
147 generated for C support ISO C90, and are tested with ISO C99 and ISO C11
148 compilers.
149
150 *** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
151
152 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
153 YYLTYPE.
154
155 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
156 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
157
158 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
159 %error-verbose.
160
161 *** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
162
163 Instead of duplicating the content of the generated header (definition of
164 YYSTYPE, yyparse declaration etc.), the generated parser will include it,
165 as is already the case for GLR or C++ parsers. This change is deferred
166 because existing versions of ylwrap (e.g., Automake 1.12.1) do not support
167 it.
168
169 ** Generated Parser Headers
170
171 *** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
172
173 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
174 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
175
176 #ifndef YY_FOO_H
177 # define YY_FOO_H
178 ...
179 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
180
181 *** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
182
183 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
184 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
185
186 int bar_parse (void);
187
188 rather than
189
190 #define yyparse bar_parse
191 int yyparse (void);
192
193 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
194 single compilation unit.
195
196 *** Exported symbols in C++
197
198 The symbols YYTOKEN_TABLE and YYERROR_VERBOSE, which were defined in the
199 header, are removed, as they prevent the possibility of including several
200 generated headers from a single compilation unit.
201
202 *** YYLSP_NEEDED
203
204 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
205 longer defined.
206
207 ** New %define variable: api.prefix
208
209 Now that the generated headers are more complete and properly protected
210 against multiple inclusions, constant names, such as YYSTYPE are a
211 problem. While yyparse and others are properly renamed by %name-prefix,
212 YYSTYPE, YYDEBUG and others have never been affected by it. Because it
213 would introduce backward compatibility issues in projects not expecting
214 YYSTYPE to be renamed, instead of changing the behavior of %name-prefix,
215 it is deprecated in favor of a new %define variable: api.prefix.
216
217 The following examples compares both:
218
219 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
220 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
221 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
222 %% %%
223 exp: 'a'; exp: 'a';
224
225 bison generates:
226
227 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
228 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
229
230 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
231 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
232 > # if defined YYDEBUG
233 > # if YYDEBUG
234 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
235 > # else
236 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
237 > # endif
238 > # else
239 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
240 > # endif
241 # endif | # endif
242
243 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
244 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
245 # endif # endif
246
247 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
248 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
249 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
250 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
251 FOO = 258 FOO = 258
252 }; };
253 # endif # endif
254
255 #if ! defined YYSTYPE \ | #if ! defined BAR_STYPE \
256 && ! defined YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED | && ! defined BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED
257 typedef union YYSTYPE | typedef union BAR_STYPE
258 { {
259 int ival; int ival;
260 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
261 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
262 #endif #endif
263
264 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
265
266 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
267
268 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
269
270 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
271
272 ** Future changes:
273
274 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
275
276 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
277
278 ** glr.c improvements:
279
280 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
281
282 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
283 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
284
285 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
286
287 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
288 when -std is passed to GCC).
289
290 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
291
292 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
293 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
294
295 ** Changes for C++:
296
297 *** C++11 compatibility:
298
299 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
300 or higher.
301
302 *** Header guards
303
304 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
305 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
306
307 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
308 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
309 ...
310 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
311
312 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
313 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
314 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
315
316 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
317
318 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
319 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
320 ...
321 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
322
323 *** C++ locations:
324
325 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
326 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
327 documentation were fixed.
328
329 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
330
331 ** Changes in the manual:
332
333 *** %printer is documented
334
335 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
336 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
337
338 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
339 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
340
341 *** Several improvements have been made:
342
343 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
344 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
345 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
346 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
347
348 ** Building bison:
349
350 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
351
352 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
353 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
354
355 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
356
357 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
358
359 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
360 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
361
362 *** The install-pdf target works properly:
363
364 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
365 halts in the middle of its course.
366
367 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
368
369 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
370
371 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
372 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
373 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
374 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
375 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
376
377 ** Named references:
378
379 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
380 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
381 actions code.
382
383 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
384 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
385 as named references:
386
387 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
388 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
389
390 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
391
392 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
393 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
394
395 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
396 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
397 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
398
399 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
400 will help to stabilize them.
401
402 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
403
404 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
405 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
406 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
407 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
408 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
409 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
410 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
411 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
412 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
413
414 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
415 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
416 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
417 file with these directives:
418
419 %define lr.type lalr
420 %define lr.type ielr
421 %define lr.type canonical-lr
422
423 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
424 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
425 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
426 manual.
427
428 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
429 stabilize them.
430
431 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
432
433 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
434 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
435 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
436 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
437 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
438 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
439 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
440 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
441 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
442 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
443 tokens.
444
445 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
446 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
447 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
448 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
449 inconsistent states.
450
451 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
452 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
453 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
454 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
455 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
456 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
457 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
458 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
459 power.
460
461 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
462 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
463
464 %define parse.lac full
465
466 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
467 details including a few caveats.
468
469 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
470 stabilize it.
471
472 ** %define improvements:
473
474 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
475
476 Each of these command-line options
477
478 -D NAME[=VALUE]
479 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
480
481 -F NAME[=VALUE]
482 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
483
484 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
485
486 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
487
488 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
489 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
490 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
491 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
492
493 *** Variables renamed:
494
495 The following %define variables
496
497 api.push_pull
498 lr.keep_unreachable_states
499
500 have been renamed to
501
502 api.push-pull
503 lr.keep-unreachable-states
504
505 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
506 for backward compatibility.
507
508 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
509
510 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
511 within quotations marks. For example,
512
513 %define api.push-pull "push"
514
515 can be rewritten as
516
517 %define api.push-pull push
518
519 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
520
521 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
522
523 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
524
525 ** Character literals not of length one:
526
527 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
528 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
529 the following grammar to be the same token:
530
531 exp: exp '++'
532 | exp '+' exp
533 ;
534
535 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
536 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
537
538 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
539
540 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
541 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
542 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
543 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
544
545 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
546
547 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
548 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
549 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
550 and "last" members, instead of
551
552 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
553 do \
554 if (N) \
555 { \
556 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
557 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
558 } \
559 else \
560 { \
561 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
562 } \
563 while (false)
564
565 use:
566
567 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
568 do \
569 if (N) \
570 { \
571 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
572 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
573 } \
574 else \
575 { \
576 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
577 } \
578 while (false)
579
580 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
581
582 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
583 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
584 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
585 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
586
587 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
588
589 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
590 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
591 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
592 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
593 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
594 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
595 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
596 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
597
598 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
599
600 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
601 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
602 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
603 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
604
605 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
606
607 instead of
608
609 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
610
611 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
612 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
613 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
614 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
615 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
616 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
617 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
618
619 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
620
621 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
622 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
623 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
624 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
625 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
626
627 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
628 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
629 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
630 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
631 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
632 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
633 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
634 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
635 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
636 shifted or discarded.
637
638 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
639 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
640 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
641 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
642
643 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
644 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
645 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
646 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
647 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
648 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
649 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
650 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
651 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
652 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
653 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
654 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
655 by default.
656
657 ** Java skeleton fixes:
658
659 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
660
661 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
662 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
663
664 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
665
666 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
667
668 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
669
670 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
671 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
672
673 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
674
675 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
676
677 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
678 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
679 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
680 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
681 example:
682
683 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
684 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
685 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
686 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
687
688 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
689 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
690 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
691 then have no effect on the conflict report.
692
693 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
694
695 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
696 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
697
698 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
699
700 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
701
702 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
703 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
704 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
705 suppress all warnings:
706
707 bison -Wnone gram.y
708
709 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
710
711 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
712 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
713 produced an assertion failure. For example:
714
715 %left END 0
716
717 This bug has been fixed.
718
719 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
720
721 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
722 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
723
724 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
725 been fixed.
726
727 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
728
729 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
730 been fixed.
731
732 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
733 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
734 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
735 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
736
737 ** Minor documentation fixes.
738
739 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
740
741 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
742 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
743 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
744 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
745 affected platforms.
746
747 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
748
749 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
750 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
751 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
752 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
753 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
754 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
755 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
756 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
757 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
758
759 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
760
761 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
762 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
763 avoided.
764
765 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
766
767 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
768
769 %{CODE%}
770
771 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
772 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
773
774 %code {CODE}
775 %code requires {CODE}
776 %code provides {CODE}
777 %code top {CODE}
778
779 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
780 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
781 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
782 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
783 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
784
785 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
786 is still considered experimental.
787
788 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
789
790 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
791 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
792 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
793 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
794 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
795 specified by POSIX.
796
797 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
798 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
799 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
800 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
801 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
802 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
803 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
804
805 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
806
807 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
808 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
809 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
810 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
811 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
812 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
813 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
814 be removed altogether.
815
816 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
817 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
818 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
819 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
820 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
821 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
822 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
823 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
824 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
825 2.4.2 is not necessary.
826
827 ** Internationalization.
828
829 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
830 message translations were not installed although supported by the
831 host system.
832
833 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
834
835 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
836 declarations have been fixed.
837
838 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
839
840 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
841 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
842
843 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
844
845 instead of
846
847 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
848
849 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
850 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
851 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
852 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
853 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
854 feature.
855
856 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
857
858 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
859
860 ** %language is an experimental feature.
861
862 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
863 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
864 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
865 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
866 in future releases.
867
868 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
869
870 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
871 fixed.
872
873 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
874
875 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
876 are now deprecated:
877
878 %define NAME "VALUE"
879
880 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
881
882 %define api.pure
883
884 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
885 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
886
887 ** Push Parsing
888
889 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
890 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
891 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
892 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
893 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
894
895 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
896 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
897
898 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
899
900 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
901 feedback will help to stabilize it.
902
903 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
904 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
905 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
906
907 ** Java
908
909 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
910 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
911 %skeleton to select it.
912
913 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
914
915 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
916 feedback will help to stabilize it.
917
918 ** %language
919
920 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
921 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
922 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
923 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
924
925 ** XML Automaton Report
926
927 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
928 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
929 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
930
931 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
932 %defines. For example:
933
934 %defines "parser.h"
935
936 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
937 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
938 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
939 instead of "unused".
940
941 ** Unreachable State Removal
942
943 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
944 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
945 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
946
947 1. Removes unreachable states.
948
949 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
950 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
951 directives in existing grammar files.
952
953 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
954 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
955
956 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
957
958 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
959
960 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
961 for further discussion.
962
963 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
964
965 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
966 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
967 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
968 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
969 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
970 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
971 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
972 code.
973
974 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
975 name.
976
977 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
978 deprecated:
979
980 %file-prefix "parser"
981 %name-prefix "c_"
982 %output "parser.c"
983
984 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
985
986 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
987 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
988 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
989 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
990 it:
991
992 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
993 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
994 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
995 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
996
997 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
998 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
999 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
1000 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
1001
1002 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1003 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1004
1005 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
1006
1007 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
1008 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
1009 about unused $2 in:
1010
1011 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1012
1013 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1014 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1015
1016 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
1017
1018 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
1019 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
1020 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
1021
1022 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1023 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1024
1025 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1026
1027 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
1028 %printer's:
1029
1030 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1031 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
1032 declared semantic type tags.
1033
1034 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1035 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
1036 type tags.
1037
1038 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
1039 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
1040 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
1041 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1042
1043 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1044 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1045 features.
1046
1047 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1048 details.
1049
1050 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1051 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1052 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1053
1054 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1055 completely removed from Bison.
1056
1057 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1058
1059 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1060 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1061 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1062 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1063 and is required by POSIX.
1064
1065 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1066 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1067
1068 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1069
1070 For example:
1071
1072 %union { char *string; }
1073 %token <string> STRING1
1074 %token <string> STRING2
1075 %type <string> string1
1076 %type <string> string2
1077 %union { char character; }
1078 %token <character> CHR
1079 %type <character> chr
1080 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1081 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1082 %destructor { } <character>
1083
1084 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
1085 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
1086 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
1087 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
1088 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
1089
1090 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
1091 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
1092 future versions.]
1093
1094 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
1095 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
1096 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
1097 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
1098 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
1099
1100 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1101 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
1102
1103 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
1104 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
1105 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
1106 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
1107 declared after the first %union.
1108
1109 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
1110 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
1111 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
1112 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
1113 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
1114 after the token definitions.
1115
1116 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
1117 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
1118
1119 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1120 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
1121 %after-header.
1122
1123 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
1124 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
1125 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
1126 convenient for you:
1127
1128 %before-header {
1129 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
1130 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1131 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
1132 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
1133 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
1134 }
1135 %start-header {
1136 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1137 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
1138 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
1139 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
1140 }
1141 %union {
1142 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
1143 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
1144 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
1145 }
1146 %end-header {
1147 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
1148 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
1149 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
1150 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
1151 * definitions. */
1152 }
1153 %after-header {
1154 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
1155 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
1156 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
1157 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
1158 * Bison-generated definitions. */
1159 }
1160
1161 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1162 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
1163
1164 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
1165 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
1166
1167 ** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
1168 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
1169 in a future release.
1170
1171 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
1172
1173 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
1174 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
1175
1176 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
1177 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
1178
1179 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
1180
1181 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
1182 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
1183 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
1184
1185 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
1186
1187 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
1188
1189 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
1190 their contents together.
1191
1192 ** New warning: unused values
1193 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
1194 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
1195
1196 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
1197 | exp "+" exp
1198 ;
1199
1200 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1201 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1202 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1203
1204 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1205 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1206 | exp "+" exp
1207 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1208 ;
1209
1210 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1211 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1212 values are used, e.g.:
1213
1214 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1215 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1216 ;
1217
1218 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1219 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1220
1221 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1222
1223 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1224 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
1225
1226 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
1227 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1228 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1229 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
1230
1231 ** %expect, %expect-rr
1232 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1233 instead of warnings.
1234
1235 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
1236 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1237 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1238
1239 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1240
1241 ** %require "VERSION"
1242 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1243 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
1244
1245 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
1246 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1247 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
1248 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1249 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
1250
1251 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
1252 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
1253 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1254 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
1255
1256 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1257 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1258
1259 ** DJGPP support added.
1260 \f
1261 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1262
1263 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
1264
1265 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
1266 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1267 language is still English. For details, please see the new
1268 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1269 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1270 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1271
1272 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1273 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1274 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1275 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1276
1277 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
1278 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1279 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1280
1281 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
1282 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1283 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1284 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1285 unexpected "number"'.
1286 \f
1287 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
1288
1289 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
1290
1291 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1292 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1293 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1294 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1295 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
1296
1297 - Error token location.
1298 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1299 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1300 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1301 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
1302
1303 - Semicolon changes:
1304 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1305 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
1306
1307 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1308 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1309 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1310 forget a closing quote.
1311
1312 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1313
1314 ** New features
1315
1316 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1317
1318 - New directive: %initial-action.
1319 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1320 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1321
1322 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1323 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1324
1325 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
1326 This is a GNU extension.
1327
1328 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
1329 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1330
1331 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1332
1333 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1334 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1335
1336 ** Bug fixes
1337
1338 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1339 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1340 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1341 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1342 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1343 these violations will become errors again.
1344
1345 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1346 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1347
1348 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1349 \f
1350 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1351
1352 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1353 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1354
1355 ** syntax error processing
1356
1357 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1358 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1359
1360 - %destructor
1361 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1362 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1363
1364 - %error-verbose
1365 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1366
1367 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1368 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1369
1370 ** POSIX conformance
1371
1372 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1373 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1374 compatibility with Yacc.
1375
1376 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1377 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1378 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1379 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1380 be consistent.
1381
1382 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1383 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1384
1385 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1386 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1387
1388 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1389 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1390
1391 - Yacc command and library now available
1392 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
1393 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1394 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1395 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1396
1397 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1398
1399 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1400 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1401 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1402
1403 ** Other compatibility issues
1404
1405 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1406 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1407 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1408 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1409 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
1410 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1411
1412 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
1413 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1414
1415 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1416 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
1417
1418 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1419 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1420 withdrawn in a future release.
1421
1422 ** GLR parser notes
1423
1424 - GLR and inline
1425 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1426 C keyword "inline".
1427
1428 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1429 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
1430
1431 ** %parse-param and %lex-param
1432 The macros YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM provide a means to pass
1433 additional context to yyparse and yylex. They suffer from several
1434 shortcomings:
1435
1436 - a single argument only can be added,
1437 - their types are weak (void *),
1438 - this context is not passed to ancillary functions such as yyerror,
1439 - only yacc.c parsers support them.
1440
1441 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1442 For instance:
1443
1444 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1445 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1446 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1447
1448 results in the following signatures:
1449
1450 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1451 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1452
1453 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1454
1455 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1456 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1457
1458 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1459 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
1460 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1461
1462 ** #line in output files
1463 - --no-line works properly.
1464
1465 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1466 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1467 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1468 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1469 \f
1470 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1471
1472 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1473
1474 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1475
1476 ** GLR parsers
1477 Fix spurious parse errors.
1478
1479 ** Pure parsers
1480 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1481 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1482
1483 ** Type Clashes
1484 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1485 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1486
1487 untyped: ... typed;
1488
1489 but the converse remains an error:
1490
1491 typed: ... untyped;
1492
1493 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1494 The following code:
1495
1496 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1497
1498 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1499 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1500 \f
1501 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1502
1503 ** GLR parsing
1504 The declaration
1505 %glr-parser
1506 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1507 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1508 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1509 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1510
1511 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1512 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1513
1514 ** Output Directory
1515 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1516 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1517 now creates "bar.c".
1518
1519 ** Undefined token
1520 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1521 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1522
1523 ** Unknown token numbers
1524 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1525 no longer the case.
1526
1527 ** Error token
1528 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1529 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1530 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1531 will be mapped onto another number.
1532
1533 ** Verbose error messages
1534 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
1535 error recovery is possible.
1536
1537 ** End token
1538 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
1539
1540 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1541 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1542 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1543 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1544 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1545 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1546 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1547 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1548 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1549
1550 ** Traces
1551 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1552
1553 ** Larger grammars
1554 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1555 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1556 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1557 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1558
1559 ** Explicit initial rule
1560 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1561 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1562 graphs as rule 0.
1563
1564 ** Useless rules
1565 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1566 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1567
1568 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1569 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1570
1571 ** Rules never reduced
1572 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1573 reported.
1574
1575 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
1576 On a grammar such as
1577
1578 %token useless useful
1579 %%
1580 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1581
1582 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1583 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
1584
1585 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1586 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1587
1588 ** Default locations
1589 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1590 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1591 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1592 the computation of @$.
1593
1594 ** Token end-of-file
1595 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1596 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1597 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
1598 For instance
1599 %token MYEOF 0
1600 or
1601 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1602
1603 ** Semantic parser
1604 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1605
1606 ** New translations
1607 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1608 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1609
1610 ** Incorrect token definitions
1611 When given
1612 %token 'a' "A"
1613 bison used to output
1614 #define 'a' 65
1615
1616 ** Token definitions as enums
1617 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1618 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1619 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1620
1621 ** Reports
1622 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1623 produces additional information:
1624 - itemset
1625 complete the core item sets with their closure
1626 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1627 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1628 - solved
1629 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1630 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1631 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1632
1633 ** Type clashes
1634 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1635 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1636
1637 %type <foo> bar
1638 %%
1639 bar: '0' {} '0';
1640
1641 This is fixed.
1642
1643 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1644 \f
1645 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1646
1647 ** C Skeleton
1648 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1649 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1650 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1651
1652 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1653 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1654 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1655 kludge will be disabled.
1656
1657 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1658 extended.
1659 \f
1660 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1661
1662 ** File name clashes are detected
1663 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1664 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
1665
1666 ** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1667 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1668 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1669 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1670 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1671 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1672
1673 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1674 many portability hassles.
1675
1676 ** DJGPP support added.
1677
1678 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1679 \f
1680 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1681
1682 ** Fix C++ issues
1683 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1684 under some conditions.
1685
1686 ** Catch invalid @n
1687 As is done with $n.
1688 \f
1689 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1690
1691 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1692
1693 ** Portability fixes
1694
1695 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1696 \f
1697 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1698
1699 ** Many Bug Fixes
1700
1701 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1702 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1703 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1704 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1705 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
1706
1707 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1708 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1709 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1710
1711 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1712 problems as on AIX.
1713
1714 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1715
1716 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1717 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1718
1719 ** User Actions
1720 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1721 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1722 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1723
1724 ** Better C++ compliance
1725 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1726 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1727
1728 ** Reduced Grammars
1729 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1730
1731 ** 64 bit hosts
1732 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1733
1734 ** Error messages
1735 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1736
1737 ** %expect
1738 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1739 any warning.
1740
1741 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1742
1743 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1744
1745 ** Swedish translation
1746
1747 ** Parse errors
1748 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1749 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1750 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1751
1752 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1753 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1754 previous allocations were not freed.
1755
1756 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1757 Some newlines were missing.
1758 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1759
1760 ** Fixed conflict report.
1761 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1762
1763 ** %expect
1764 Was not used.
1765 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1766
1767 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1768
1769 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1770
1771 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1772
1773 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1774 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1775
1776 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1777
1778 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1779 New.
1780
1781 ** --output
1782 New, aliasing "--output-file".
1783 \f
1784 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1785
1786 ** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1787 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
1788 argument.
1789
1790 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
1791 experiment.
1792
1793 ** Portability fixes.
1794 \f
1795 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1796
1797 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1798 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1799 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1800 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1801
1802 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
1803
1804 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1805
1806 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1807
1808 ** Russian translation added.
1809
1810 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1811
1812 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1813
1814 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
1815
1816 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
1817
1818 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
1819
1820 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1821 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1822
1823 ** New directives.
1824 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1825 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
1826
1827 ** @$
1828 Automatic location tracking.
1829 \f
1830 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1831
1832 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1833
1834 ** Added NLS.
1835
1836 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1837
1838 ** There is now a FAQ.
1839 \f
1840 * Changes in version 1.27:
1841
1842 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1843 some systems has been fixed.
1844 \f
1845 * Changes in version 1.26:
1846
1847 ** Bison now uses Automake.
1848
1849 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1850
1851 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1852
1853 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1854
1855 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1856
1857 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1858
1859 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1860 not provide alloca().
1861 \f
1862 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1863
1864 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1865 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1866
1867 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1868 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1869 of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
1870
1871 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1872 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1873 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1874 purposes.
1875
1876 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1877 directives in the parser file.
1878
1879 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1880 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1881
1882 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1883 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1884 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1885 a switch statement body.
1886 \f
1887 * Changes in version 1.23:
1888
1889 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1890 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1891 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1892 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1893
1894 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1895 \f
1896 * Changes in version 1.22:
1897
1898 --help option added.
1899 \f
1900 * Changes in version 1.20:
1901
1902 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1903
1904 -----
1905
1906 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1907
1908 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1909
1910 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1911 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1912 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1913 (at your option) any later version.
1914
1915 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1916 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1917 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1918 GNU General Public License for more details.
1919
1920 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1921 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1922
1923 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1924 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1925 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1926 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1927 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1928 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1929 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1930 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1931 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1932 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1933 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1934 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1935 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
1936 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG YY
1937 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
1938 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ ylwrap endif yydebug YYTOKEN YYLSP ival hh
1939 LocalWords: extern YYTOKENTYPE TOKENTYPE yytokentype tokentype STYPE lval pdf
1940 LocalWords: lang yyoutput dvi html ps POSIX lvalp llocp calc yyo fval
1941
1942 Local Variables:
1943 mode: outline
1944 fill-column: 76
1945 End: