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 © 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

lex(1), flex(1), yacc(1).

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.