NAME

bison - GNU Project parser generator (yacc replacement)

SYNOPSIS

bison [ -dlvty ] 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. For instance, a grammar description file named parse.y would produce the generated parser in a file named parse.tab.c, instead of yacc's y.tab.c.

Bison takes five optional flags.

-d

Produce a .tab.h file, similar to yacc's y.tab.h file.

-l

Omit #line lines in the parser output file. Error messages from the C compiler will then be associated with lines in the parser output file, instead of lines in the original grammar file.

-t

Turn on debugging. This option causes the bison output to have debugging code made available via the C pre-processor. The external variable yydebug should be made non-zero to have the debugging code actually produce output.

-v

Be verbose. Analogous to the same flag for yacc.

-y

Use fixed output file names. I.e., force the output to be in files y.tab.c, y.tab.h, and so on. This is for full yacc compatibility.

FILES

/usr/local/lib/bison.simple simple parser
/usr/local/lib/bison.hairy complicated parser

SEE ALSO

yacc(1)
The Bison Reference Manual, included as the file bison.texinfo in the bison source distribution.

DIAGNOSTICS

``Self explanatory.''