BISON(1) GNU Bison 3.8.2 BISON(1)
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September 2021
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
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BISON(1) GNU Bison 3.8.2 BISON(1)
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September 2021
-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
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BISON(1) GNU Bison 3.8.2 BISON(1)
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September 2021
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/]
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BISON(1) GNU Bison 3.8.2 BISON(1)
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September 2021
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
file paths
-M, --file-prefix-map=,OLD=NEW/ replace prefix OLD with NEW when writing
in output files
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BISON(1) GNU Bison 3.8.2 BISON(1)
User Commands User Commands
September 2021
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/>.
For complete documentation, run: info bison.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright c 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.
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