(comparable to assert/abort), and all the --trace output which is
meant for the maintainers only.
+** Horizontal tabs
+Do not add horizontal tab characters to any file in Bison's repository
+except where required. For example, do not use tabs to format C code.
+However, make files, ChangeLog, and some regular expressions require
+tabs. Also, test cases might need to contain tabs to check that Bison
+properly processes tabs in its input.
+
* Working from the repository
** Requirements
-We've opted to keep only the highest-level sources in the repository.
-This eases our maintenance burden, (fewer merges etc.), but imposes more
+We've opted to keep only the highest-level sources in the repository. This
+eases our maintenance burden, (fewer merges etc.), but imposes more
requirements on anyone wishing to build from the just-checked-out sources.
For example, you have to use the latest stable versions of the maintainer
tools we depend upon, including:
-- Automake <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/>
- Autoconf <http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/>
+- Automake <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/>
- Flex <http://www.gnu.org/software/flex/>
- Gettext <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>
+- Graphviz <http://www.graphviz.org>
- Gzip <http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/>
+- Help2man <http://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/>
- Perl <http://www.cpan.org/>
- Rsync <http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/>
- Tar <http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/>
+- Texinfo <http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/>
Valgrind <http://valgrind.org/> is also highly recommended, if it supports
your architecture.
-Bison is written using Bison grammars, so there are bootstrapping
-issues. The bootstrap script attempts to discover when the C code
-generated from the grammars is out of date, and to bootstrap with an
-out-of-date version of the C code, but the process is not foolproof.
-Also, you may run into similar problems yourself if you modify Bison.
+If you're using a GNU/Linux distribution, the easiest way to install the
+above packages depends on your system. The following shell command should
+work for Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu:
+
+ sudo apt-get install \
+ autoconf automake autopoint flex graphviz help2man texinfo valgrind
-Only building the initial full source tree will be a bit painful.
-Later, after synchronizing from the repository a plain 'make' should
-be sufficient. Note, however, that when gnulib is updated, running
-'./bootstrap' again might be needed.
+Bison is written using Bison grammars, so there are bootstrapping issues.
+The bootstrap script attempts to discover when the C code generated from the
+grammars is out of date, and to bootstrap with an out-of-date version of the
+C code, but the process is not foolproof. Also, you may run into similar
+problems yourself if you modify Bison.
+
+Only building the initial full source tree will be a bit painful. Later,
+after synchronizing from the repository a plain 'make' should be sufficient.
+Note, however, that when gnulib is updated, running './bootstrap' again
+might be needed.
** First checkout
$ git submodule update --init
-Git submodule support is weak before versions 1.6 and later, you
-should probably upgrade Git if your version is older.
+Git submodule support is weak before versions 1.6 and later, upgrade Git if
+your version is older.
The next step is to get other files needed to build, which are
extracted from other source packages:
$ ./bootstrap
-And there you are! Just
+If it fails with missing symbols (e.g., "error: possibly undefined macro:
+AC_PROG_GNU_M4"), you are likely to have forgotten the submodule
+initialization part. Otherwise, there you are! Just
$ ./configure
$ make
** make check
Use liberally.
+** TESTSUITEFLAGS
+
+The default is for make check to run all tests sequentially. This can be
+very time consumming when checking repeatedly or on slower setups. This can
+be sped up in two ways:
+
+Using -j, in a make-like fashion, for example:
+ $ make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='-j8'
+
+Running only the tests of a certain category, as specified in the AT files
+with AT_KEYWORDS([[category]]). Categories include:
+ - c++, for c++ parsers
+ - deprec, for tests concerning deprecated constructs.
+ - glr, for glr parsers
+ - java, for java parsers
+ - report, for automaton dumps
+
+To run a specific set of tests, use -k (for "keyword"). For example:
+ $ make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='-k c++'
+
+Both can be combined.
+
+** Typical errors
+If the test suite shows failures such as the following one
+
+ .../bison/lib/getopt.h:196:8: error: redefinition of 'struct option'
+ /usr/include/getopt.h:54:8: error: previous definition of 'struct option'
+
+it probably means that some file was compiled without
+AT_DATA_SOURCE_PROLOGUE. This error is due to the fact that our -I options
+pick up gnulib's replacement headers, such as getopt.h, and this will go
+wrong if config.h was not included first.
+
+See tests/local.at for details.
+
** make maintainer-check-valgrind
This target uses valgrind both to check bison, and the generated parsers.
that it does not make sense for glr.c, which should be ANSI, but
currently is actually GNU C, nor for lalr1.cc.
+- Test with a very recent version of GCC for both C and C++. Testing
+ with older versions that are still in use is nice too.
+
* Release Procedure
This section needs to be updated to take into account features from
-----
-Copyright (C) 2002-2005, 2007-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2002-2005, 2007-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU Bison.