-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 92
/
Copy pathNEWS
4180 lines (2915 loc) · 144 KB
/
NEWS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
GNU Bison NEWS
* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.6.3 (2020-06-03) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Incorrect comments in the generated parsers.
Warnings in push parsers (yacc.c).
Incorrect display of gotos in LAC traces (lalr1.cc).
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.6.2 (2020-05-17) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Some tests were fixed.
When token aliases contain comment delimiters:
%token FOO "/* foo */"
bison used to emit "nested" comments, which is invalid C.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.6.1 (2020-05-10) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Restored ANSI-C compliance in yacc.c.
GNU readline portability issues.
In C++, yy::parser::symbol_name is now a public member, as was intended.
** New features
In C++, yy::parser::symbol_type now has a public name() member function.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.6 (2020-05-08) [stable]
** Backward incompatible changes
TL;DR: replace "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE 1" by "%define parse.error verbose".
The YYERROR_VERBOSE macro is no longer supported; the parsers that still
depend on it will now produce Yacc-like error messages (just "syntax
error"). It was superseded by the "%error-verbose" directive in Bison
1.875 (2003-01-01). Bison 2.6 (2012-07-19) clearly announced that support
for YYERROR_VERBOSE would be removed. Note that since Bison 3.0
(2013-07-25), "%error-verbose" is deprecated in favor of "%define
parse.error verbose".
** Deprecated features
The YYPRINT macro, which works only with yacc.c and only for tokens, was
obsoleted long ago by %printer, introduced in Bison 1.50 (November 2002).
It is deprecated and its support will be removed eventually.
** New features
*** Improved syntax error messages
Two new values for the %define parse.error variable offer more control to
the user. Available in all the skeletons (C, C++, Java).
**** %define parse.error detailed
The behavior of "%define parse.error detailed" is closely resembling that
of "%define parse.error verbose" with a few exceptions. First, it is safe
to use non-ASCII characters in token aliases (with 'verbose', the result
depends on the locale with which bison was run). Second, a yysymbol_name
function is exposed to the user, instead of the yytnamerr function and the
yytname table. Third, token internationalization is supported (see
below).
**** %define parse.error custom
With this directive, the user forges and emits the syntax error message
herself by defining the yyreport_syntax_error function. A new type,
yypcontext_t, captures the circumstances of the error, and provides the
user with functions to get details, such as yypcontext_expected_tokens to
get the list of expected token kinds.
A possible implementation of yyreport_syntax_error is:
int
yyreport_syntax_error (const yypcontext_t *ctx)
{
int res = 0;
YY_LOCATION_PRINT (stderr, *yypcontext_location (ctx));
fprintf (stderr, ": syntax error");
// Report the tokens expected at this point.
{
enum { TOKENMAX = 10 };
yysymbol_kind_t expected[TOKENMAX];
int n = yypcontext_expected_tokens (ctx, expected, TOKENMAX);
if (n < 0)
// Forward errors to yyparse.
res = n;
else
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
fprintf (stderr, "%s %s",
i == 0 ? ": expected" : " or", yysymbol_name (expected[i]));
}
// Report the unexpected token.
{
yysymbol_kind_t lookahead = yypcontext_token (ctx);
if (lookahead != YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY)
fprintf (stderr, " before %s", yysymbol_name (lookahead));
}
fprintf (stderr, "\n");
return res;
}
**** Token aliases internationalization
When the %define variable parse.error is set to `custom` or `detailed`,
one may specify which token aliases are to be translated using _(). For
instance
%token
PLUS "+"
MINUS "-"
<double>
NUM _("number")
<symrec*>
FUN _("function")
VAR _("variable")
In that case the user must define _() and N_(), and yysymbol_name returns
the translated symbol (i.e., it returns '_("variable")' rather that
'"variable"'). In Java, the user must provide an i18n() function.
*** List of expected tokens (yacc.c)
Push parsers may invoke yypstate_expected_tokens at any point during
parsing (including even before submitting the first token) to get the list
of possible tokens. This feature can be used to propose autocompletion
(see below the "bistromathic" example).
It makes little sense to use this feature without enabling LAC (lookahead
correction).
*** Returning the error token
When the scanner returns an invalid token or the undefined token
(YYUNDEF), the parser generates an error message and enters error
recovery. Because of that error message, most scanners that find lexical
errors generate an error message, and then ignore the invalid input
without entering the error-recovery.
The scanners may now return YYerror, the error token, to enter the
error-recovery mode without triggering an additional error message. See
the bistromathic for an example.
*** Deep overhaul of the symbol and token kinds
To avoid the confusion with types in programming languages, we now refer
to token and symbol "kinds" instead of token and symbol "types". The
documentation and error messages have been revised.
All the skeletons have been updated to use dedicated enum types rather
than integral types. Special symbols are now regular citizens, instead of
being declared in ad hoc ways.
**** Token kinds
The "token kind" is what is returned by the scanner, e.g., PLUS, NUMBER,
LPAREN, etc. While backward compatibility is of course ensured, users are
nonetheless invited to replace their uses of "enum yytokentype" by
"yytoken_kind_t".
This type now also includes tokens that were previously hidden: YYEOF (end
of input), YYUNDEF (undefined token), and YYerror (error token). They
now have string aliases, internationalized when internationalization is
enabled. Therefore, by default, error messages now refer to "end of file"
(internationalized) rather than the cryptic "$end", or to "invalid token"
rather than "$undefined".
Therefore in most cases it is now useless to define the end-of-line token
as follows:
%token T_EOF 0 "end of file"
Rather simply use "YYEOF" in your scanner.
**** Symbol kinds
The "symbol kinds" is what the parser actually uses. (Unless the
api.token.raw %define variable is used, the symbol kind of a terminal
differs from the corresponding token kind.)
They are now exposed as a enum, "yysymbol_kind_t".
This allows users to tailor the error messages the way they want, or to
process some symbols in a specific way in autocompletion (see the
bistromathic example below).
*** Modernize display of explanatory statements in diagnostics
Since Bison 2.7, output was indented four spaces for explanatory
statements. For example:
input.y:2.7-13: error: %type redeclaration for exp
input.y:1.7-11: previous declaration
Since the introduction of caret-diagnostics, it became less clear. This
indentation has been removed and submessages are displayed similarly as in
GCC:
input.y:2.7-13: error: %type redeclaration for exp
2 | %type <float> exp
| ^~~~~~~
input.y:1.7-11: note: previous declaration
1 | %type <int> exp
| ^~~~~
Contributed by Victor Morales Cayuela.
*** C++
The token and symbol kinds are yy::parser::token_kind_type and
yy::parser::symbol_kind_type.
The symbol_type::kind() member function allows to get the kind of a
symbol. This can be used to write unit tests for scanners, e.g.,
yy::parser::symbol_type t = make_NUMBER ("123");
assert (t.kind () == yy::parser::symbol_kind::S_NUMBER);
assert (t.value.as<int> () == 123);
** Documentation
*** User Manual
In order to avoid ambiguities with "type" as in "typing", we now refer to
the "token kind" (e.g., `PLUS`, `NUMBER`, etc.) rather than the "token
type". We now also refer to the "symbol type" (e.g., `PLUS`, `expr`,
etc.).
*** Examples
There are now examples/java: a very simple calculator, and a more complete
one (push-parser, location tracking, and debug traces).
The lexcalc example (a simple example in C based on Flex and Bison) now
also demonstrates location tracking.
A new C example, bistromathic, is a fully featured interactive calculator
using many Bison features: pure interface, push parser, autocompletion
based on the current parser state (using yypstate_expected_tokens),
location tracking, internationalized custom error messages, lookahead
correction, rich debug traces, etc.
It shows how to depend on the symbol kinds to tailor autocompletion. For
instance it recognizes the symbol kind "VARIABLE" to propose
autocompletion on the existing variables, rather than of the word
"variable".
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.5.4 (2020-04-05) [stable]
** WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
TL;DR: replace "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE 1" by "%define parse.error verbose".
Bison 3.6 will no longer support the YYERROR_VERBOSE macro; the parsers
that still depend on it will produce Yacc-like error messages (just
"syntax error"). It was superseded by the "%error-verbose" directive in
Bison 1.875 (2003-01-01). Bison 2.6 (2012-07-19) clearly announced that
support for YYERROR_VERBOSE would be removed. Note that since Bison 3.0
(2013-07-25), "%error-verbose" is deprecated in favor of "%define
parse.error verbose".
** Bug fixes
Fix portability issues of the package itself on old compilers.
Fix api.token.raw support in Java.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.5.3 (2020-03-08) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Error messages could quote lines containing zero-width characters (such as
\005) with incorrect styling. Fixes for similar issues with unexpectedly
short lines (e.g., the file was changed between parsing and diagnosing).
Several unlikely crashes found by fuzzing have been fixed.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.5.2 (2020-02-13) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Portability issues and minor cosmetic issues.
The lalr1.cc skeleton properly rejects unsupported values for parse.lac
(as yacc.c does).
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.5.1 (2020-01-19) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Portability fixes.
Fix compiler warnings.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.5 (2019-12-11) [stable]
** Backward incompatible changes
Lone carriage-return characters (aka \r or ^M) in the grammar files are no
longer treated as end-of-lines. This changes the diagnostics, and in
particular their locations.
In C++, line numbers and columns are now represented as 'int' not
'unsigned', so that integer overflow on positions is easily checkable via
'gcc -fsanitize=undefined' and the like. This affects the API for
positions. The default position and location classes now expose
'counter_type' (int), used to define line and column numbers.
** Deprecated features
The YYPRINT macro, which works only with yacc.c and only for tokens, was
obsoleted long ago by %printer, introduced in Bison 1.50 (November 2002).
It is deprecated and its support will be removed eventually.
** New features
*** Lookahead correction in C++
Contributed by Adrian Vogelsgesang.
The C++ deterministic skeleton (lalr1.cc) now supports LAC, via the
%define variable parse.lac.
*** Variable api.token.raw: Optimized token numbers (all skeletons)
In the generated parsers, tokens have two numbers: the "external" token
number as returned by yylex (which starts at 257), and the "internal"
symbol number (which starts at 3). Each time yylex is called, a table
lookup maps the external token number to the internal symbol number.
When the %define variable api.token.raw is set, tokens are assigned their
internal number, which saves one table lookup per token, and also saves
the generation of the mapping table.
The gain is typically moderate, but in extreme cases (very simple user
actions), a 10% improvement can be observed.
*** Generated parsers use better types for states
Stacks now use the best integral type for state numbers, instead of always
using 15 bits. As a result "small" parsers now have a smaller memory
footprint (they use 8 bits), and there is support for large automata (16
bits), and extra large (using int, i.e., typically 31 bits).
*** Generated parsers prefer signed integer types
Bison skeletons now prefer signed to unsigned integer types when either
will do, as the signed types are less error-prone and allow for better
checking with 'gcc -fsanitize=undefined'. Also, the types chosen are now
portable to unusual machines where char, short and int are all the same
width. On non-GNU platforms this may entail including <limits.h> and (if
available) <stdint.h> to define integer types and constants.
*** A skeleton for the D programming language
For the last few releases, Bison has shipped a stealth experimental
skeleton: lalr1.d. It was first contributed by Oliver Mangold, based on
Paolo Bonzini's lalr1.java, and was cleaned and improved thanks to
H. S. Teoh.
However, because nobody has committed to improving, testing, and
documenting this skeleton, it is not clear that it will be supported in
the future.
The lalr1.d skeleton *is functional*, and works well, as demonstrated in
examples/d/calc.d. Please try it, enjoy it, and... commit to support it.
*** Debug traces in Java
The Java backend no longer emits code and data for parser tracing if the
%define variable parse.trace is not defined.
** Diagnostics
*** New diagnostic: -Wdangling-alias
String literals, which allow for better error messages, are (too)
liberally accepted by Bison, which might result in silent errors. For
instance
%type <exVal> cond "condition"
does not define "condition" as a string alias to 'cond' (nonterminal
symbols do not have string aliases). It is rather equivalent to
%nterm <exVal> cond
%token <exVal> "condition"
i.e., it gives the type 'exVal' to the "condition" token, which was
clearly not the intention.
Also, because string aliases need not be defined, typos such as "baz"
instead of "bar" will be not reported.
The option -Wdangling-alias catches these situations. On
%token BAR "bar"
%type <ival> foo "foo"
%%
foo: "baz" {}
bison -Wdangling-alias reports
warning: string literal not attached to a symbol
| %type <ival> foo "foo"
| ^~~~~
warning: string literal not attached to a symbol
| foo: "baz" {}
| ^~~~~
The -Wall option does not (yet?) include -Wdangling-alias.
*** Better POSIX Yacc compatibility diagnostics
POSIX Yacc restricts %type to nonterminals. This is now diagnosed by
-Wyacc.
%token TOKEN1
%type <ival> TOKEN1 TOKEN2 't'
%token TOKEN2
%%
expr:
gives with -Wyacc
input.y:2.15-20: warning: POSIX yacc reserves %type to nonterminals [-Wyacc]
2 | %type <ival> TOKEN1 TOKEN2 't'
| ^~~~~~
input.y:2.29-31: warning: POSIX yacc reserves %type to nonterminals [-Wyacc]
2 | %type <ival> TOKEN1 TOKEN2 't'
| ^~~
input.y:2.22-27: warning: POSIX yacc reserves %type to nonterminals [-Wyacc]
2 | %type <ival> TOKEN1 TOKEN2 't'
| ^~~~~~
*** Diagnostics with insertion
The diagnostics now display the suggestion below the underlined source.
Replacement for undeclared symbols are now also suggested.
$ cat /tmp/foo.y
%%
list: lis '.' |
$ bison -Wall foo.y
foo.y:2.7-9: error: symbol 'lis' is used, but is not defined as a token and has no rules; did you mean 'list'?
2 | list: lis '.' |
| ^~~
| list
foo.y:2.16: warning: empty rule without %empty [-Wempty-rule]
2 | list: lis '.' |
| ^
| %empty
foo.y: warning: fix-its can be applied. Rerun with option '--update'. [-Wother]
*** Diagnostics about long lines
Quoted sources may now be truncated to fit the screen. For instance, on a
30-column wide terminal:
$ cat foo.y
%token FOO FOO FOO
%%
exp: FOO
$ bison foo.y
foo.y:1.34-36: warning: symbol FOO redeclared [-Wother]
1 | … FOO …
| ^~~
foo.y:1.8-10: previous declaration
1 | %token FOO …
| ^~~
foo.y:1.62-64: warning: symbol FOO redeclared [-Wother]
1 | … FOO
| ^~~
foo.y:1.8-10: previous declaration
1 | %token FOO …
| ^~~
** Changes
*** Debugging glr.c and glr.cc
The glr.c skeleton always had asserts to check its own behavior (not the
user's). These assertions are now under the control of the parse.assert
%define variable (disabled by default).
*** Clean up
Several new compiler warnings in the generated output have been avoided.
Some unused features are no longer emitted. Cleaner generated code in
general.
** Bug Fixes
Portability issues in the test suite.
In theory, parsers using %nonassoc could crash when reporting verbose
error messages. This unlikely bug has been fixed.
In Java, %define api.prefix was ignored. It now behaves as expected.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4.2 (2019-09-12) [stable]
** Bug fixes
In some cases, when warnings are disabled, bison could emit tons of white
spaces as diagnostics.
When running out of memory, bison could crash (found by fuzzing).
When defining twice the EOF token, bison would crash.
New warnings from recent compilers have been addressed in the generated
parsers (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc).
When lone carriage-return characters appeared in the input file,
diagnostics could hang forever.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4.1 (2019-05-22) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Portability fixes.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4 (2019-05-19) [stable]
** Deprecated features
The %pure-parser directive is deprecated in favor of '%define api.pure'
since Bison 2.3b (2008-05-27), but no warning was issued; there is one
now. Note that since Bison 2.7 you are strongly encouraged to use
'%define api.pure full' instead of '%define api.pure'.
** New features
*** Colored diagnostics
As an experimental feature, diagnostics are now colored, controlled by the
new options --color and --style.
To use them, install the libtextstyle library before configuring Bison.
It is available from
https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/
for instance
https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/libtextstyle-0.8.tar.gz
The option --color supports the following arguments:
- always, yes: Enable colors.
- never, no: Disable colors.
- auto, tty (default): Enable colors if the output device is a tty.
To customize the styles, create a CSS file similar to
/* bison-bw.css */
.warning { }
.error { font-weight: 800; text-decoration: underline; }
.note { }
then invoke bison with --style=bison-bw.css, or set the BISON_STYLE
environment variable to "bison-bw.css".
*** Disabling output
When given -fsyntax-only, the diagnostics are reported, but no output is
generated.
The name of this option is somewhat misleading as bison does more than
just checking the syntax: every stage is run (including checking for
conflicts for instance), except the generation of the output files.
*** Include the generated header (yacc.c)
Before, when --defines is used, bison generated a header, and pasted an
exact copy of it into the generated parser implementation file. If the
header name is not "y.tab.h", it is now #included instead of being
duplicated.
To use an '#include' even if the header name is "y.tab.h" (which is what
happens with --yacc, or when using the Autotools' ylwrap), define
api.header.include to the exact argument to pass to #include. For
instance:
%define api.header.include {"parse.h"}
or
%define api.header.include {<parser/parse.h>}
*** api.location.type is now supported in C (yacc.c, glr.c)
The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
for locations. When defined, Bison no longer defines YYLTYPE.
This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their
definition of locations: let one of them generate them, and the others
just use them.
** Changes
*** Graphviz output
In conformance with the recommendations of the Graphviz team, if %require
"3.4" (or better) is specified, the option --graph generates a *.gv file
by default, instead of *.dot.
*** Diagnostics overhaul
Column numbers were wrong with multibyte characters, which would also
result in skewed diagnostics with carets. Beside, because we were
indenting the quoted source with a single space, lines with tab characters
were incorrectly underlined.
To address these issues, and to be clearer, Bison now issues diagnostics
as GCC9 does. For instance it used to display (there's a tab before the
opening brace):
foo.y:3.37-38: error: $2 of ‘expr’ has no declared type
expr: expr '+' "number" { $$ = $1 + $2; }
^~
It now reports
foo.y:3.37-38: error: $2 of ‘expr’ has no declared type
3 | expr: expr '+' "number" { $$ = $1 + $2; }
| ^~
Other constructs now also have better locations, resulting in more precise
diagnostics.
*** Fix-it hints for %empty
Running Bison with -Wempty-rules and --update will remove incorrect %empty
annotations, and add the missing ones.
*** Generated reports
The format of the reports (parse.output) was improved for readability.
*** Better support for --no-line.
When --no-line is used, the generated files are now cleaner: no lines are
generated instead of empty lines. Together with using api.header.include,
that should help people saving the generated files into version control
systems get smaller diffs.
** Documentation
A new example in C shows an simple infix calculator with a hand-written
scanner (examples/c/calc).
A new example in C shows a reentrant parser (capable of recursive calls)
built with Flex and Bison (examples/c/reccalc).
There is a new section about the history of Yaccs and Bison.
** Bug fixes
A few obscure bugs were fixed, including the second oldest (known) bug in
Bison: it was there when Bison was entered in the RCS version control
system, in December 1987. See the NEWS of Bison 3.3 for the previous
oldest bug.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.3.2 (2019-02-03) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Bison 3.3 failed to generate parsers for grammars with unused nonterminal
symbols.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.3.1 (2019-01-27) [stable]
** Changes
The option -y/--yacc used to imply -Werror=yacc, which turns uses of Bison
extensions into errors. It now makes them simple warnings (-Wyacc).
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.3 (2019-01-26) [stable]
A new mailing list was created, Bison Announce. It is low traffic, and is
only about announcing new releases and important messages (e.g., polls
about major decisions to make).
https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bison-announce
** Backward incompatible changes
Support for DJGPP, which has been unmaintained and untested for years, is
removed.
** Deprecated features
A new feature, --update (see below) helps adjusting existing grammars to
deprecations.
*** Deprecated directives
The %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of '%define
parse.error verbose' since Bison 3.0, but no warning was issued.
The '%name-prefix "xx"' directive is deprecated in favor of '%define
api.prefix {xx}' since Bison 3.0, but no warning was issued. These
directives are slightly different, you might need to adjust your code.
%name-prefix renames only symbols with external linkage, while api.prefix
also renames types and macros, including YYDEBUG, YYTOKENTYPE,
yytokentype, YYSTYPE, YYLTYPE, etc.
Users of Flex that move from '%name-prefix "xx"' to '%define api.prefix
{xx}' will typically have to update YY_DECL from
#define YY_DECL int xxlex (YYSTYPE *yylval, YYLTYPE *yylloc)
to
#define YY_DECL int xxlex (XXSTYPE *yylval, XXLTYPE *yylloc)
*** Deprecated %define variable names
The following variables, mostly related to parsers in Java, have been
renamed for consistency. Backward compatibility is ensured, but upgrading
is recommended.
abstract -> api.parser.abstract
annotations -> api.parser.annotations
extends -> api.parser.extends
final -> api.parser.final
implements -> api.parser.implements
parser_class_name -> api.parser.class
public -> api.parser.public
strictfp -> api.parser.strictfp
** New features
*** Generation of fix-its for IDEs/Editors
When given the new option -ffixit (aka -fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits),
bison now generates machine readable editing instructions to fix some
issues. Currently, this is mostly limited to updating deprecated
directives and removing duplicates. For instance:
$ cat foo.y
%error-verbose
%define parser_class_name "Parser"
%define api.parser.class "Parser"
%%
exp:;
See the "fix-it:" lines below:
$ bison -ffixit foo.y
foo.y:1.1-14: warning: deprecated directive, use '%define parse.error verbose' [-Wdeprecated]
%error-verbose
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
fix-it:"foo.y":{1:1-1:15}:"%define parse.error verbose"
foo.y:2.1-34: warning: deprecated directive, use '%define api.parser.class {Parser}' [-Wdeprecated]
%define parser_class_name "Parser"
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
fix-it:"foo.y":{2:1-2:35}:"%define api.parser.class {Parser}"
foo.y:3.1-33: error: %define variable 'api.parser.class' redefined
%define api.parser.class "Parser"
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
foo.y:2.1-34: previous definition
%define parser_class_name "Parser"
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
fix-it:"foo.y":{3:1-3:34}:""
foo.y: warning: fix-its can be applied. Rerun with option '--update'. [-Wother]
This uses the same output format as GCC and Clang.
*** Updating grammar files
Fixes can be applied on the fly. The previous example ends with the
suggestion to re-run bison with the option -u/--update, which results in a
cleaner grammar file.
$ bison --update foo.y
[...]
bison: file 'foo.y' was updated (backup: 'foo.y~')
$ cat foo.y
%define parse.error verbose
%define api.parser.class {Parser}
%%
exp:;
*** Bison is now relocatable
If you pass '--enable-relocatable' to 'configure', Bison is relocatable.
A relocatable program can be moved or copied to a different location on
the file system. It can also be used through mount points for network
sharing. It is possible to make symbolic links to the installed and moved
programs, and invoke them through the symbolic link.
*** %expect and %expect-rr modifiers on individual rules
One can now document (and check) which rules participate in shift/reduce
and reduce/reduce conflicts. This is particularly important GLR parsers,
where conflicts are a normal occurrence. For example,
%glr-parser
%expect 1
%%
...
argument_list:
arguments %expect 1
| arguments ','
| %empty
;
arguments:
expression
| argument_list ',' expression
;
...
Looking at the output from -v, one can see that the shift-reduce conflict
here is due to the fact that the parser does not know whether to reduce
arguments to argument_list until it sees the token _after_ the following
','. By marking the rule with %expect 1 (because there is a conflict in
one state), we document the source of the 1 overall shift-reduce conflict.
In GLR parsers, we can use %expect-rr in a rule for reduce/reduce
conflicts. In this case, we mark each of the conflicting rules. For
example,
%glr-parser
%expect-rr 1
%%
stmt:
target_list '=' expr ';'
| expr_list ';'
;
target_list:
target
| target ',' target_list
;
target:
ID %expect-rr 1
;
expr_list:
expr
| expr ',' expr_list
;
expr:
ID %expect-rr 1
| ...
;
In a statement such as
x, y = 3, 4;
the parser must reduce x to a target or an expr, but does not know which
until it sees the '='. So we notate the two possible reductions to
indicate that each conflicts in one rule.
This feature needs user feedback, and might evolve in the future.
*** C++: Actual token constructors
When variants and token constructors are enabled, in addition to the
type-safe named token constructors (make_ID, make_INT, etc.), we now
generate genuine constructors for symbol_type.
For instance with these declarations
%token ':'
<std::string> ID
<int> INT;
you may use these constructors:
symbol_type (int token, const std::string&);
symbol_type (int token, const int&);
symbol_type (int token);
Correct matching between token types and value types is checked via
'assert'; for instance, 'symbol_type (ID, 42)' would abort. Named
constructors are preferable, as they offer better type safety (for
instance 'make_ID (42)' would not even compile), but symbol_type
constructors may help when token types are discovered at run-time, e.g.,
[a-z]+ {
if (auto i = lookup_keyword (yytext))
return yy::parser::symbol_type (i);
else
return yy::parser::make_ID (yytext);
}
*** C++: Variadic emplace
If your application requires C++11 and you don't use symbol constructors,
you may now use a variadic emplace for semantic values:
%define api.value.type variant
%token <std::pair<int, int>> PAIR
in your scanner:
int yylex (parser::semantic_type *lvalp)
{
lvalp->emplace <std::pair<int, int>> (1, 2);
return parser::token::PAIR;
}
*** C++: Syntax error exceptions in GLR
The glr.cc skeleton now supports syntax_error exceptions thrown from user
actions, or from the scanner.
*** More POSIX Yacc compatibility warnings
More Bison specific directives are now reported with -y or -Wyacc. This
change was ready since the release of Bison 3.0 in September 2015. It was
delayed because Autoconf used to define YACC as `bison -y`, which resulted
in numerous warnings for Bison users that use the GNU Build System.
If you still experience that problem, either redefine YACC as `bison -o
y.tab.c`, or pass -Wno-yacc to Bison.
*** The tables yyrhs and yyphrs are back
Because no Bison skeleton uses them, these tables were removed (no longer
passed to the skeletons, not even computed) in 2008. However, some users
have expressed interest in being able to use them in their own skeletons.
** Bug fixes
*** Incorrect number of reduce-reduce conflicts
On a grammar such as
exp: "num" | "num" | "num"
bison used to report a single RR conflict, instead of two. This is now
fixed. This was the oldest (known) bug in Bison: it was there when Bison
was entered in the RCS version control system, in December 1987.
Some grammar files might have to adjust their %expect-rr.
*** Parser directives that were not careful enough
Passing invalid arguments to %nterm, for instance character literals, used
to result in unclear error messages.
** Documentation
The examples/ directory (installed in .../share/doc/bison/examples) has
been restructured per language for clarity. The examples come with a
README and a Makefile. Not only can they be used to toy with Bison, they
can also be starting points for your own grammars.
There is now a Java example, and a simple example in C based on Flex and
Bison (examples/c/lexcalc/).
** Changes
*** Parsers in C++
They now use noexcept and constexpr. Please, report missing annotations.
*** Symbol Declarations
The syntax of the variation directives to declare symbols was overhauled
for more consistency, and also better POSIX Yacc compliance (which, for
instance, allows "%type" without actually providing a type). The %nterm
directive, supported by Bison since its inception, is now documented and
officially supported.
The syntax is now as follows:
%token TAG? ( ID NUMBER? STRING? )+ ( TAG ( ID NUMBER? STRING? )+ )*
%left TAG? ( ID NUMBER? )+ ( TAG ( ID NUMBER? )+ )*