table of contents
| BISON(1) | User Commands | BISON(1) |
NAME¶
bison - GNU Project parser generator (yacc replacement)
SYNOPSIS¶
bison [OPTION]... FILE
DESCRIPTION¶
Bison is a parser generator in the style of yacc(1). It should be upwardly compatible with input files designed for yacc.
Input files should follow the yacc convention of ending in .y. Unlike yacc, the generated files do not have fixed names, but instead use the prefix of the input file. Moreover, if you need to put C++ code in the input file, you can end his name by a C++-like extension (.ypp or .y++), then bison will follow your extension to name the output file (.cpp or .c++). For instance, a grammar description file named parse.yxx would produce the generated parser in a file named parse.tab.cxx, instead of yacc's y.tab.c or old Bison version's parse.tab.c.
This description of the options that can be given to bison is adapted from the node Invocation in the bison.texi manual, which should be taken as authoritative.
Bison supports both traditional single-letter options and mnemonic long option names. Long option names are indicated with -- instead of -. Abbreviations for option names are allowed as long as they are unique. When a long option takes an argument, like --file-prefix, connect the option name and the argument with =.
Generate a deterministic LR or generalized LR (GLR) parser employing LALR(1), IELR(1), or canonical LR(1) parser tables.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. The same is true for optional arguments.
Operation Modes:¶
- -h, --help
- display this help and exit
- -V, --version
- output version information and exit
- --print-localedir
- output directory containing locale-dependent data and exit
- --print-datadir
- output directory containing skeletons and XSLT and exit
- -u, --update
- apply fixes to the source grammar file and exit
- -f, --feature[=FEATURES]
- activate miscellaneous features
FEATURES is a list of comma separated words that can include:¶
- caret, diagnostics-show-caret
- show errors with carets
- fixit, diagnostics-parseable-fixits
- show machine-readable fixes
- syntax-only
- do not generate any file
- all
- all of the above
- none
- disable all of the above
Diagnostics:¶
- -W, --warnings[=CATEGORY]
- report the warnings falling in CATEGORY
- --color[=WHEN]
- whether to colorize the diagnostics
- --style=FILE
- specify the CSS FILE for colorizer diagnostics
Warning categories include:¶
- conflicts-sr
- S/R conflicts (enabled by default)
- conflicts-rr
- R/R conflicts (enabled by default)
- counterexamples, cex
- generate conflict counterexamples
- dangling-alias
- string aliases not attached to a symbol
- deprecated
- obsolete constructs
- empty-rule
- empty rules without %empty
- midrule-values
- unset or unused midrule values
- precedence
- useless precedence and associativity
- yacc
- incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc
- other
- all other warnings (enabled by default)
- all
- all the warnings except 'counterexamples', 'dangling-alias' and 'yacc'
- no-CATEGORY
- turn off warnings in CATEGORY
- none
- turn off all the warnings
- error[=CATEGORY]
- treat warnings as errors
WHEN can be one of the following:¶
- always, yes
- colorize the output
- never, no
- don't colorize the output
- auto, tty
- colorize if the output device is a tty
Tuning the Parser:¶
- -L, --language=LANGUAGE
- specify the output programming language
- -S, --skeleton=FILE
- specify the skeleton to use
- -t, --debug
- instrument the parser for tracing same as '-Dparse.trace'
- --locations
- enable location support
- -D, --define=NAME[=VALUE]
- similar to '%define NAME VALUE'
- -F, --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
- override '%define NAME VALUE'
- -p, --name-prefix=PREFIX
- prepend PREFIX to the external symbols deprecated by '-Dapi.prefix={PREFIX}'
- -l, --no-lines
- don't generate '#line' directives
- -k, --token-table
- include a table of token names
- -y, --yacc
- emulate POSIX Yacc
Output Files:¶
- -H, --header=[FILE]
- also produce a header file
- -d
- likewise but cannot specify FILE (for POSIX Yacc)
- -r, --report=THINGS
- also produce details on the automaton
- --report-file=FILE
- write report to FILE
- -v, --verbose
- same as '--report=state'
- -b, --file-prefix=PREFIX
- specify a PREFIX for output files
- -o, --output=FILE
- leave output to FILE
- -g, --graph[=FILE]
- also output a graph of the automaton
- --html[=FILE]
- also output an HTML report of the automaton
- -x, --xml[=FILE]
- also output an XML report of the automaton
- -M, --file-prefix-map=OLD=NEW replace prefix OLD with NEW when writing file paths
- in output files
THINGS is a list of comma separated words that can include:¶
- states
- describe the states
- itemsets
- complete the core item sets with their closure
- lookaheads
- explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
- solved
- describe shift/reduce conflicts solving
- counterexamples, cex
- generate conflict counterexamples
- all
- include all the above information
- none
- disable the report
AUTHOR¶
Written by Robert Corbett and Richard Stallman.
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report bugs to <bug-bison@gnu.org>.
GNU Bison home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/>.
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>.
Report translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>.
For complete documentation, run: info bison.
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO¶
The full documentation for bison is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and bison programs are properly installed at your site, the command
- info bison
should give you access to the complete manual.
| October 2024 | GNU Bison 3.8.2 |