Bison News
----------
-Changes in version 1.29:
+Changes in version 2.1a:
+
+* New warning: unused values
+ Typed right-hand side symbols whose value are not used are reported.
+ For instance:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; }
+ | exp "+" exp
+ ;
+
+ will trigger a warning about $5 of the first rule, and $3 in the
+ second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
+ most likely contains two errors, and should be rewritten as:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; }
+ | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; }
+ ;
+
+ However, if the original actions were really intended, the warnings
+ can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the values are used, e.g.:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) $5; }
+ | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
+ ;
+
+ The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
+ If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
+
+* %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
+ Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
+ and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
+ corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
+
+* %expect, %expect-rr
+ Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
+ instead of warnings.
+
+* GLR, YACC parsers.
+ The %parse-params are available in the %destructor's (and the
+ experimental %printer's) as per the documentation.
+
+* Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
+
+* %require "VERSION"
+ To specify that the grammar file depends on features implemented in
+ Bison version VERSION or higher.
+
+* lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
+ The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
+ was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
+ tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
+ semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
+
+ If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
+ `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
+ definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
+ for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
+
+ If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
+ fail using `%require "2.1a"'.
+
+* DJGPP support added.
+
+Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
+
+* The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
+
+* Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
+ "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
+ language is still English. For details, please see the new
+ Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
+ distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
+ Bruno Haible for this new feature.
+
+* Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
+ simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
+ has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
+ always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
+
+* Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
+ behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
+ successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
+
+* When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
+ quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
+ a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
+ print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
+ unexpected "number"'.
+
+Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
+
+* Possibly-incompatible changes
+
+ - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
+ (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
+ problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
+ YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
+ the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
+
+ - Error token location.
+ During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
+ to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
+ the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
+ recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
+
+ - Semicolon changes:
+ . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
+ . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
+
+ - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
+ string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
+ dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
+ forget a closing quote.
+
+ - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
+
+* New features
+
+ - GLR grammars now support locations.
+
+ - New directive: %initial-action.
+ This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
+ initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
+
+ - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
+ reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
+
+ - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
+ This is a GNU extension.
+
+ - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
+ The old spelling still works, but is not documented and will be
+ removed.
+
+ - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
+
+ - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
+ yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
+
+* Bug fixes
+
+ - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
+ This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
+ reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
+ are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
+ versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
+ these violations will become errors again.
+
+ - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
+ arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
+
+ - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
+
+* The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
+ of the GNU Free Documentation License.
+
+* syntax error processing
+
+ - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
+ locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
+
+ - %destructor
+ It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
+ discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
+
+ - %error-verbose
+ This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
+
+ - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
+ It is not guaranteed to work forever.
+
+* POSIX conformance
+
+ - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
+ This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
+ compatibility with Yacc.
+
+ - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
+ Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
+ and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
+ requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
+ be consistent.
+
+ - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
+ declared before use. C99 requires this.
+
+ - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
+ backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
+
+ - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
+ output as "foo\\bar.y".
+
+ - Yacc command and library now available
+ The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
+ Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
+ implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
+ This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
+
+ - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
+
+ - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
+ using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
+ For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
+
+* Other compatibility issues
+
+ - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
+ directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
+ `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
+ The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
+ For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
+ This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
+
+ - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
+ compatibility with Bison 1.35.
+
+ - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
+ `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
+
+ - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
+ typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
+ withdrawn in a future release.
+
+* GLR parser notes
+
+ - GLR and inline
+ Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
+ C keyword `inline'.
+
+ - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
+ GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
+
+* Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
+ e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
+ that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
+
+* #line in output files
+ - --no-line works properly.
+
+* Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
+ later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
+ ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
+ building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
+
+* Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
+
+* Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
+
+* GLR parsers
+ Fix spurious parse errors.
+
+* Pure parsers
+ Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
+ Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
+
+* Type Clashes
+ In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
+ action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
+
+ untyped: ... typed;
+
+ but the converse remains an error:
+
+ typed: ... untyped;
+
+* Values of mid-rule actions
+ The following code:
+
+ foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
+
+ was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
+ action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
+
+* GLR parsing
+ The declaration
+ %glr-parser
+ causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
+ almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
+ %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
+ ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
+
+ Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
+ like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
+
+* Output Directory
+ When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
+ specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
+ now creates `bar.c'.
+
+* Undefined token
+ The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
+ the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
+
+* Unknown token numbers
+ If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
+ no longer the case.
+
+* Error token
+ According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
+ Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
+ user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
+ will be mapped onto another number.
+
+* Verbose error messages
+ They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
+ error recovery is possible.
+
+* End token
+ Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
+
+* Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
+ When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
+ the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
+ token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
+ allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
+ error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
+ and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
+ Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
+ <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
+
+* Traces
+ Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
+
+* Larger grammars
+ Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
+ size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
+ Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
+ now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
+
+* Explicit initial rule
+ Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
+ not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
+ graphs as rule 0.
+
+* Useless rules
+ Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
+ included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
+
+* Useless rules, useless nonterminals
+ They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
+
+* Rules never reduced
+ Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
+ reported.
+
+* Incorrect `Token not used'
+ On a grammar such as
+
+ %token useless useful
+ %%
+ exp: '0' %prec useful;
+
+ where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
+ bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
+
+* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
+ as they caused too many portability hassles.
+
+* Default locations
+ By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
+ performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
+ The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
+ the computation of @$.
+
+* Token end-of-file
+ The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
+ the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
+ error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
+ For instance
+ %token MYEOF 0
+ or
+ %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
+
+* Semantic parser
+ This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
+
+* New translations
+ Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
+ Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
+
+* Incorrect token definitions
+ When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
+
+* Token definitions as enums
+ Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
+ the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
+ This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
+
+* Reports
+ In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
+ produces additional information:
+ - itemset
+ complete the core item sets with their closure
+ - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e and later]
+ explicitly associate look-ahead tokens to items
+ - solved
+ describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
+ Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
+ the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
+
+* Type clashes
+ Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
+ the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
+
+ %type <foo> bar
+ %%
+ bar: '0' {} '0';
+
+ This is fixed.
+
+* GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
+
+* C Skeleton
+ Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
+ YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
+ alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
+
+ Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
+ generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
+ maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
+ kludge will be disabled.
+
+ This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
+ extended.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
+
+* File name clashes are detected
+ $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
+ fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
+
+* A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
+ In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
+ Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
+ future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
+ grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
+ facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
+
+* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
+ many portability hassles.
+
+* DJGPP support added.
+
+* Fix test suite portability problems.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
+
+* Fix C++ issues
+ Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
+ under some conditions.
+
+* Catch invalid @n
+ As is done with $n.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
+
+* Fix Yacc output file names
+
+* Portability fixes
+
+* Italian, Dutch translations
+\f
+Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
+
+* Many Bug Fixes
+
+* GNU Gettext and %expect
+ GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
+ Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
+ too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
+ does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
+
+* Use of alloca in parsers
+ If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
+ malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
+
+ alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
+ problems as on AIX.
+
+* yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
+
+* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
+ (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
+
+* User Actions
+ Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
+ ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
+ is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
+
+* Better C++ compliance
+ The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
+ [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
+
+* Reduced Grammars
+ Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
+
+* 64 bit hosts
+ The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
+
+* Error messages
+ Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
+
+* %expect
+ When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
+ any warning.
+
+* The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
+
+* Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
+
+* Swedish translation
+
+* Parse errors
+ Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
+ Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
+ Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
+
+* Fixed parser memory leaks.
+ When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
+ previous allocations were not freed.
+
+* Fixed verbose output file.
+ Some newlines were missing.
+ Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
+
+* Fixed conflict report.
+ Option -v was needed to get the result.
+
+* %expect
+ Was not used.
+ Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
+
+* Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
+
+* Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
+
+* Fixed some typos in the documentation.
+
+* %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
+ Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
+
+* doc/refcard.tex is updated.
+
+* %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
+ New.
+
+* --output
+ New, aliasing `--output-file'.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
+
+* `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
+ output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
+ argument.
+
+* `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
+ experiment.
+
+* Portability fixes.
+\f
+Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
+
+* The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
+ with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
+ that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
+ `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
+
+* Added `-g' and `--graph'.
+
+* The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
+
+* The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
* Russian translation added.
* NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
* Added the old Bison reference card.
+
+* Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
+
+* Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
+
+* `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
+
+* Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
+ of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
+
+* New directives.
+ `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
+ `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
+
+* @$
+ Automatic location tracking.
\f
-Changes in version 1.28:
+Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
* Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
* Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
not provide alloca().
\f
-Changes in version 1.25:
+Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
* Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
-
+
* Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
Changes in version 1.20:
Output file does not redefine const for C++.
+
+Local Variables:
+mode: outline
+End:
+
+-----
+
+Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
+Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+This file is part of Bison, the GNU Compiler Compiler.
+
+Bison is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+any later version.
+
+Bison is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+along with autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
+the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
+Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.