BISON

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 2008
Index Return to Main Contents

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.texinfo 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 LALR(1) and GLR parsers.

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
--print-datadir: output directory containing skeletons and XSLT
-y, --yacc: emulate POSIX Yacc
-W, --warnings=[CATEGORY]: report the warnings falling in CATEGORY

Parser:

-L, --language=LANGUAGE: specify the output programming language (this is an experimental feature)
-S, --skeleton=FILE: specify the skeleton to use
-t, --debug: instrument the parser for debugging
--locations: enable locations computation
-p, --name-prefix=PREFIX: prepend PREFIX to the external symbols
-l, --no-lines: don't generate `#line' directives
-k, --token-table: include a table of token names

Output:

--defines[=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
-x, --xml[=FILE]: also output an XML report of the automaton (the XML schema is experimental)

Warning categories include:

`midrule-values': unset or unused midrule values
`yacc': incompatibilities with POSIX YACC
`all': all the warnings
`no-CATEGORY': turn off warnings in CATEGORY
`none': turn off all the warnings
`error': treat warnings as errors

THINGS is a list of comma separated words that can include:

`state': describe the states
`itemset': complete the core item sets with their closure
`lookahead': explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
`solved': describe shift/reduce conflicts solving
`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>.