3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
7 Bugs and portability issues in the test suite have been fixed.
9 Some errors in translations have been addressed, and --help now directs
10 users to the appropriate place to report them.
12 Stray Info files shipped by accident are removed.
14 Incorrect definitions of YY_, issued by yacc.c when no parser header is
15 generated, are removed.
17 All the generated headers are self-contained.
19 ** Changes in the format of error messages
21 This used to be the format of many error reports:
23 foo.y:5.10-24: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
24 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
28 foo.y:5.10-25: result type clash on merge function 'merge': <t3> != <t2>
29 foo.y:4.13-27: previous declaration
31 ** Header guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
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
37 %define api.prefix "calc"
38 %defines "lib/parse.h"
40 will use YY_CALC_LIB_PARSE_H_INCLUDED as guard.
42 ** Exception safety (lalr1.cc)
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.
48 This feature is somewhat experimental. User feedback would be
51 ** Fix compiler warnings in the generated parser (yacc.c, glr.c)
53 The compilation of pure parsers (%define api.pure) can trigger GCC
56 input.c: In function 'yyparse':
57 input.c:1503:12: warning: 'yylval' may be used uninitialized in this
58 function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
62 This is now fixed; pragmas to avoid these warnings are no longer needed.
64 Warnings from clang ("equality comparison with extraneous parentheses" and
65 "function declared 'noreturn' should not return") have also been
68 ** New %define variable: api.location.type (glr.cc, lalr1.cc)
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.
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.
79 This feature was actually introduced, but not documented, in Bison 2.5,
80 under the name "location_type" (which is maintained for backward
83 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.2 (2012-08-03) [stable]
87 Buffer overruns, complaints from Flex, and portability issues in the test
88 suite have been fixed.
90 ** Spaces in %lex- and %parse-param (lalr1.cc, glr.cc)
92 Trailing end-of-lines in %parse-param or %lex-param would result in
93 invalid C++. This is fixed.
95 ** Spurious spaces and end-of-lines
97 The generated files no longer end (nor start) with empty lines.
99 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.1 (2012-07-30) [stable]
101 Bison no longer executes user-specified M4 code when processing a grammar.
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:
109 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
113 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
117 *** Type names are now properly escaped.
119 *** glr.cc: set_debug_level and debug_level work as expected.
121 *** Stray @ or $ in actions
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
127 ** Type names in actions
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:
132 %printer { fprintf (yyo, "(%d, %f)", $<ival>$, $<fval>$); } <*> <>;
134 will display two values for each typed and untyped symbol (provided
135 that YYSTYPE has both "ival" and "fval" fields).
137 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6 (2012-07-19) [stable]
141 The next major release of Bison will drop support for the following
142 deprecated features. Please report disagreements to bug-bison@gnu.org.
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
150 *** Features deprecated since Bison 1.875
152 The definitions of yystype and yyltype will be removed; use YYSTYPE and
155 YYPARSE_PARAM and YYLEX_PARAM, deprecated in favor of %parse-param and
156 %lex-param, will no longer be supported.
158 Support for the preprocessor symbol YYERROR_VERBOSE will be removed, use
161 *** The generated header will be included (yacc.c)
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
169 ** Generated Parser Headers
171 *** Guards (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc)
173 The generated headers are now guarded, as is already the case for C++
174 parsers (lalr1.cc). For instance, with --defines=foo.h:
179 #endif /* !YY_FOO_H */
181 *** New declarations (yacc.c, glr.c)
183 The generated header now declares yydebug and yyparse. Both honor
184 --name-prefix=bar_, and yield
186 int bar_parse (void);
190 #define yyparse bar_parse
193 in order to facilitate the inclusion of several parser headers inside a
194 single compilation unit.
196 *** Exported symbols in C++
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.
204 For the same reasons, the undocumented and unused macro YYLSP_NEEDED is no
207 ** New %define variable: api.prefix
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.
217 The following examples compares both:
219 %name-prefix "bar_" | %define api.prefix "bar_"
220 %token <ival> FOO %token <ival> FOO
221 %union { int ival; } %union { int ival; }
227 #ifndef BAR_FOO_H #ifndef BAR_FOO_H
228 # define BAR_FOO_H # define BAR_FOO_H
230 /* Enabling traces. */ /* Enabling traces. */
231 # ifndef YYDEBUG | # ifndef BAR_DEBUG
232 > # if defined YYDEBUG
234 > # define BAR_DEBUG 1
236 > # define BAR_DEBUG 0
239 # define YYDEBUG 0 | # define BAR_DEBUG 0
243 # if YYDEBUG | # if BAR_DEBUG
244 extern int bar_debug; extern int bar_debug;
247 /* Tokens. */ /* Tokens. */
248 # ifndef YYTOKENTYPE | # ifndef BAR_TOKENTYPE
249 # define YYTOKENTYPE | # define BAR_TOKENTYPE
250 enum yytokentype { | enum bar_tokentype {
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
260 } YYSTYPE; | } BAR_STYPE;
261 # define YYSTYPE_IS_DECLARED 1 | # define BAR_STYPE_IS_DECLARED 1
264 extern YYSTYPE bar_lval; | extern BAR_STYPE bar_lval;
266 int bar_parse (void); int bar_parse (void);
268 #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */ #endif /* !BAR_FOO_H */
270 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.5.1 (2012-06-05) [stable]
274 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
276 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
278 ** glr.c improvements:
280 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
282 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
283 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
285 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
287 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
288 when -std is passed to GCC).
290 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
292 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
293 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
297 *** C++11 compatibility:
299 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
304 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
305 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
307 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
308 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
310 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
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.
316 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
318 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
319 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
321 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
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.
329 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
331 ** Changes in the manual:
333 *** %printer is documented
335 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
336 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
338 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
339 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
341 *** Several improvements have been made:
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.
350 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
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.
355 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
357 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
359 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
360 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
362 *** The install-pdf target works properly:
364 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
365 halts in the middle of its course.
367 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
369 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
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).
379 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
380 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
383 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
384 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
387 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
388 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
390 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
392 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
393 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
395 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
396 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
397 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
399 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
400 will help to stabilize them.
402 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
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.
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:
421 %define lr.type canonical-lr
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
428 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
431 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
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
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
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
461 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
462 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
464 %define parse.lac full
466 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
467 details including a few caveats.
469 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
472 ** %define improvements:
474 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
476 Each of these command-line options
479 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
482 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
484 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
486 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
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.
493 *** Variables renamed:
495 The following %define variables
498 lr.keep_unreachable_states
503 lr.keep-unreachable-states
505 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
506 for backward compatibility.
508 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
510 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
511 within quotations marks. For example,
513 %define api.push-pull "push"
517 %define api.push-pull push
519 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
521 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
523 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
525 ** Character literals not of length one:
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:
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.
538 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
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.
545 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
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
552 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
556 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
557 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
561 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
567 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
571 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
572 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
576 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
580 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
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.
587 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
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.
598 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
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
605 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
609 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
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.
619 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
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:
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.
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.
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
657 ** Java skeleton fixes:
659 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
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.
664 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
666 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
668 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
670 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
671 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
673 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
675 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
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
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
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.
693 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
695 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
696 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
698 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
700 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
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:
709 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
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:
717 This bug has been fixed.
719 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
721 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
722 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
724 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
727 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
729 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
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.
737 ** Minor documentation fixes.
739 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
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
747 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
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.]
759 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
761 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
762 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
765 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
767 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
771 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
772 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
775 %code requires {CODE}
776 %code provides {CODE}
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.
785 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
786 is still considered experimental.
788 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
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
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:
805 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
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.
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.
827 ** Internationalization.
829 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
830 message translations were not installed although supported by the
833 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
835 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
836 declarations have been fixed.
838 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
840 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
841 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
843 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
847 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
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
856 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
858 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
860 ** %language is an experimental feature.
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
868 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
870 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
873 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
875 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
880 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
884 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
885 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
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:
895 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
896 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
898 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
900 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
901 feedback will help to stabilize it.
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.
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.
913 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
915 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
916 feedback will help to stabilize it.
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".
925 ** XML Automaton Report
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.
931 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
932 %defines. For example:
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"
941 ** Unreachable State Removal
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:
947 1. Removes unreachable states.
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.
953 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
954 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
956 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
958 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
960 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
961 for further discussion.
963 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
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
974 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
977 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
980 %file-prefix "parser"
984 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
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
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}"
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.
1002 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
1003 determine whether they should become permanent features.
1005 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
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
1011 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
1013 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
1014 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
1016 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
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).
1022 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
1023 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
1025 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
1027 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
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.
1034 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
1035 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
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 $$ or $n in a semantic action.
1043 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
1044 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
1047 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
1050 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
1051 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
1052 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
1054 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
1055 completely removed from Bison.
1057 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
1059 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
1060 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
1061 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
1062 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
1063 and is required by POSIX.
1065 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
1066 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
1068 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
1072 %union { char *string; }
1073 %token <string> STRING1
1074 %token <string> STRING2
1075 %type <string> string1
1076 %type <string> string2
1077 %union { char character; }
1078 %token <character> CHR
1079 %type <character> chr
1080 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
1081 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
1082 %destructor { } <character>
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.
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
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.
1100 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
1101 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
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.
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.
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.
1119 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
1120 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
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
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"'. */
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. */
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. */
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
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. */
1161 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
1162 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
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.]
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.
1171 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
1173 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
1174 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
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.
1179 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
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.
1185 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
1187 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
1189 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
1190 their contents together.
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:
1196 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
1200 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1201 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1202 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1204 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1205 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1207 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1210 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1211 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1212 values are used, e.g.:
1214 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1215 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
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.
1221 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
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.
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.
1231 ** %expect, %expect-rr
1232 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1233 instead of warnings.
1235 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
1236 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1237 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1239 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1241 ** %require "VERSION"
1242 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1243 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
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.
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.
1256 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1257 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1259 ** DJGPP support added.
1261 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1263 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
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.
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.
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.
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"'.
1287 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
1289 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
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.
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.
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.
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.
1312 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1316 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1318 - New directive: %initial-action.
1319 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1320 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1322 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1323 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1325 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
1326 This is a GNU extension.
1328 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
1329 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1331 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1333 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1334 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
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.
1345 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1346 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1348 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1350 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1352 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1353 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1355 ** syntax error processing
1357 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1358 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1361 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1362 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1365 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1367 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1368 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1370 ** POSIX conformance
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.
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
1382 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1383 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1385 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1386 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1388 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1389 output as "foo\\bar.y".
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.
1397 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
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.
1403 ** Other compatibility issues
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.
1412 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
1413 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1415 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1416 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
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.
1425 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1428 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1429 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
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
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.
1441 The new %parse-param/%lex-param directives provide a more precise control.
1444 %parse-param {int *nastiness}
1445 %lex-param {int *nastiness}
1446 %parse-param {int *randomness}
1448 results in the following signatures:
1450 int yylex (int *nastiness);
1451 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
1453 or, if both %pure-parser and %locations are used:
1455 int yylex (YYSTYPE *lvalp, YYLTYPE *llocp, int *nastiness);
1456 int yyparse (int *nastiness, int *randomness);
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.
1462 ** #line in output files
1463 - --no-line works properly.
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.
1470 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1472 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1474 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1477 Fix spurious parse errors.
1480 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1481 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1484 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1485 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1489 but the converse remains an error:
1493 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1496 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1498 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1499 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1501 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
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.
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.
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".
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.
1523 ** Unknown token numbers
1524 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
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.
1533 ** Verbose error messages
1534 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
1535 error recovery is possible.
1538 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
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>.
1551 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
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.
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
1565 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1566 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1568 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1569 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1571 ** Rules never reduced
1572 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1575 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
1576 On a grammar such as
1578 %token useless useful
1580 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1582 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1583 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
1585 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1586 as they caused too many portability hassles.
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 @$.
1594 ** Token end-of-file
1595 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1596 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1597 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
1601 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1604 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1607 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1608 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1610 ** Incorrect token definitions
1613 bison used to output
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.
1622 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1623 produces additional information:
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
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.
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:
1643 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1645 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
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.
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.
1657 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1660 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
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"
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.
1673 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1674 many portability hassles.
1676 ** DJGPP support added.
1678 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1680 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1683 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1684 under some conditions.
1689 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1691 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1693 ** Portability fixes
1695 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1697 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
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".
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.
1711 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1714 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1716 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1717 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
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; }.
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.]
1729 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1732 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1735 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1738 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1741 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1743 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1745 ** Swedish translation
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 '('
1752 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1753 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1754 previous allocations were not freed.
1756 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1757 Some newlines were missing.
1758 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1760 ** Fixed conflict report.
1761 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1765 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1767 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1769 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1771 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1773 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1774 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1776 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1778 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1782 New, aliasing "--output-file".
1784 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
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
1790 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
1793 ** Portability fixes.
1795 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
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.
1802 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
1804 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1806 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1808 ** Russian translation added.
1810 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1812 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1814 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
1816 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
1818 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
1820 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1821 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1824 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1825 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
1828 Automatic location tracking.
1830 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1832 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1836 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1838 ** There is now a FAQ.
1840 * Changes in version 1.27:
1842 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1843 some systems has been fixed.
1845 * Changes in version 1.26:
1847 ** Bison now uses Automake.
1849 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1851 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1853 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1855 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1857 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1859 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1860 not provide alloca().
1862 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1864 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1865 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
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.
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
1876 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1877 directives in the parser file.
1879 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1880 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
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.
1887 * Changes in version 1.23:
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.
1894 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1896 * Changes in version 1.22:
1898 --help option added.
1900 * Changes in version 1.20:
1902 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1906 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1908 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
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.
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.
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/>.
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