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1 | <html> | ||
2 | <head> | ||
3 | <title>The Lemon Parser Generator</title> | ||
4 | </head> | ||
5 | <body bgcolor=white> | ||
6 | <h1 align=center>The Lemon Parser Generator</h1> | ||
7 | |||
8 | <p>Lemon is an LALR(1) parser generator for C or C++. | ||
9 | It does the same job as ``bison'' and ``yacc''. | ||
10 | But lemon is not another bison or yacc clone. It | ||
11 | uses a different grammar syntax which is designed to | ||
12 | reduce the number of coding errors. Lemon also uses a more | ||
13 | sophisticated parsing engine that is faster than yacc and | ||
14 | bison and which is both reentrant and thread-safe. | ||
15 | Furthermore, Lemon implements features that can be used | ||
16 | to eliminate resource leaks, making is suitable for use | ||
17 | in long-running programs such as graphical user interfaces | ||
18 | or embedded controllers.</p> | ||
19 | |||
20 | <p>This document is an introduction to the Lemon | ||
21 | parser generator.</p> | ||
22 | |||
23 | <h2>Theory of Operation</h2> | ||
24 | |||
25 | <p>The main goal of Lemon is to translate a context free grammar (CFG) | ||
26 | for a particular language into C code that implements a parser for | ||
27 | that language. | ||
28 | The program has two inputs: | ||
29 | <ul> | ||
30 | <li>The grammar specification. | ||
31 | <li>A parser template file. | ||
32 | </ul> | ||
33 | Typically, only the grammar specification is supplied by the programmer. | ||
34 | Lemon comes with a default parser template which works fine for most | ||
35 | applications. But the user is free to substitute a different parser | ||
36 | template if desired.</p> | ||
37 | |||
38 | <p>Depending on command-line options, Lemon will generate between | ||
39 | one and three files of outputs. | ||
40 | <ul> | ||
41 | <li>C code to implement the parser. | ||
42 | <li>A header file defining an integer ID for each terminal symbol. | ||
43 | <li>An information file that describes the states of the generated parser | ||
44 | automaton. | ||
45 | </ul> | ||
46 | By default, all three of these output files are generated. | ||
47 | The header file is suppressed if the ``-m'' command-line option is | ||
48 | used and the report file is omitted when ``-q'' is selected.</p> | ||
49 | |||
50 | <p>The grammar specification file uses a ``.y'' suffix, by convention. | ||
51 | In the examples used in this document, we'll assume the name of the | ||
52 | grammar file is ``gram.y''. A typical use of Lemon would be the | ||
53 | following command: | ||
54 | <pre> | ||
55 | lemon gram.y | ||
56 | </pre> | ||
57 | This command will generate three output files named ``gram.c'', | ||
58 | ``gram.h'' and ``gram.out''. | ||
59 | The first is C code to implement the parser. The second | ||
60 | is the header file that defines numerical values for all | ||
61 | terminal symbols, and the last is the report that explains | ||
62 | the states used by the parser automaton.</p> | ||
63 | |||
64 | <h3>Command Line Options</h3> | ||
65 | |||
66 | <p>The behavior of Lemon can be modified using command-line options. | ||
67 | You can obtain a list of the available command-line options together | ||
68 | with a brief explanation of what each does by typing | ||
69 | <pre> | ||
70 | lemon -? | ||
71 | </pre> | ||
72 | As of this writing, the following command-line options are supported: | ||
73 | <ul> | ||
74 | <li><tt>-b</tt> | ||
75 | <li><tt>-c</tt> | ||
76 | <li><tt>-g</tt> | ||
77 | <li><tt>-m</tt> | ||
78 | <li><tt>-q</tt> | ||
79 | <li><tt>-s</tt> | ||
80 | <li><tt>-x</tt> | ||
81 | </ul> | ||
82 | The ``-b'' option reduces the amount of text in the report file by | ||
83 | printing only the basis of each parser state, rather than the full | ||
84 | configuration. | ||
85 | The ``-c'' option suppresses action table compression. Using -c | ||
86 | will make the parser a little larger and slower but it will detect | ||
87 | syntax errors sooner. | ||
88 | The ``-g'' option causes no output files to be generated at all. | ||
89 | Instead, the input grammar file is printed on standard output but | ||
90 | with all comments, actions and other extraneous text deleted. This | ||
91 | is a useful way to get a quick summary of a grammar. | ||
92 | The ``-m'' option causes the output C source file to be compatible | ||
93 | with the ``makeheaders'' program. | ||
94 | Makeheaders is a program that automatically generates header files | ||
95 | from C source code. When the ``-m'' option is used, the header | ||
96 | file is not output since the makeheaders program will take care | ||
97 | of generated all header files automatically. | ||
98 | The ``-q'' option suppresses the report file. | ||
99 | Using ``-s'' causes a brief summary of parser statistics to be | ||
100 | printed. Like this: | ||
101 | <pre> | ||
102 | Parser statistics: 74 terminals, 70 nonterminals, 179 rules | ||
103 | 340 states, 2026 parser table entries, 0 conflicts | ||
104 | </pre> | ||
105 | Finally, the ``-x'' option causes Lemon to print its version number | ||
106 | and then stops without attempting to read the grammar or generate a parser.</p> | ||
107 | |||
108 | <h3>The Parser Interface</h3> | ||
109 | |||
110 | <p>Lemon doesn't generate a complete, working program. It only generates | ||
111 | a few subroutines that implement a parser. This section describes | ||
112 | the interface to those subroutines. It is up to the programmer to | ||
113 | call these subroutines in an appropriate way in order to produce a | ||
114 | complete system.</p> | ||
115 | |||
116 | <p>Before a program begins using a Lemon-generated parser, the program | ||
117 | must first create the parser. | ||
118 | A new parser is created as follows: | ||
119 | <pre> | ||
120 | void *pParser = ParseAlloc( malloc ); | ||
121 | </pre> | ||
122 | The ParseAlloc() routine allocates and initializes a new parser and | ||
123 | returns a pointer to it. | ||
124 | The actual data structure used to represent a parser is opaque -- | ||
125 | its internal structure is not visible or usable by the calling routine. | ||
126 | For this reason, the ParseAlloc() routine returns a pointer to void | ||
127 | rather than a pointer to some particular structure. | ||
128 | The sole argument to the ParseAlloc() routine is a pointer to the | ||
129 | subroutine used to allocate memory. Typically this means ``malloc()''.</p> | ||
130 | |||
131 | <p>After a program is finished using a parser, it can reclaim all | ||
132 | memory allocated by that parser by calling | ||
133 | <pre> | ||
134 | ParseFree(pParser, free); | ||
135 | </pre> | ||
136 | The first argument is the same pointer returned by ParseAlloc(). The | ||
137 | second argument is a pointer to the function used to release bulk | ||
138 | memory back to the system.</p> | ||
139 | |||
140 | <p>After a parser has been allocated using ParseAlloc(), the programmer | ||
141 | must supply the parser with a sequence of tokens (terminal symbols) to | ||
142 | be parsed. This is accomplished by calling the following function | ||
143 | once for each token: | ||
144 | <pre> | ||
145 | Parse(pParser, hTokenID, sTokenData, pArg); | ||
146 | </pre> | ||
147 | The first argument to the Parse() routine is the pointer returned by | ||
148 | ParseAlloc(). | ||
149 | The second argument is a small positive integer that tells the parse the | ||
150 | type of the next token in the data stream. | ||
151 | There is one token type for each terminal symbol in the grammar. | ||
152 | The gram.h file generated by Lemon contains #define statements that | ||
153 | map symbolic terminal symbol names into appropriate integer values. | ||
154 | (A value of 0 for the second argument is a special flag to the | ||
155 | parser to indicate that the end of input has been reached.) | ||
156 | The third argument is the value of the given token. By default, | ||
157 | the type of the third argument is integer, but the grammar will | ||
158 | usually redefine this type to be some kind of structure. | ||
159 | Typically the second argument will be a broad category of tokens | ||
160 | such as ``identifier'' or ``number'' and the third argument will | ||
161 | be the name of the identifier or the value of the number.</p> | ||
162 | |||
163 | <p>The Parse() function may have either three or four arguments, | ||
164 | depending on the grammar. If the grammar specification file request | ||
165 | it, the Parse() function will have a fourth parameter that can be | ||
166 | of any type chosen by the programmer. The parser doesn't do anything | ||
167 | with this argument except to pass it through to action routines. | ||
168 | This is a convenient mechanism for passing state information down | ||
169 | to the action routines without having to use global variables.</p> | ||
170 | |||
171 | <p>A typical use of a Lemon parser might look something like the | ||
172 | following: | ||
173 | <pre> | ||
174 | 01 ParseTree *ParseFile(const char *zFilename){ | ||
175 | 02 Tokenizer *pTokenizer; | ||
176 | 03 void *pParser; | ||
177 | 04 Token sToken; | ||
178 | 05 int hTokenId; | ||
179 | 06 ParserState sState; | ||
180 | 07 | ||
181 | 08 pTokenizer = TokenizerCreate(zFilename); | ||
182 | 09 pParser = ParseAlloc( malloc ); | ||
183 | 10 InitParserState(&sState); | ||
184 | 11 while( GetNextToken(pTokenizer, &hTokenId, &sToken) ){ | ||
185 | 12 Parse(pParser, hTokenId, sToken, &sState); | ||
186 | 13 } | ||
187 | 14 Parse(pParser, 0, sToken, &sState); | ||
188 | 15 ParseFree(pParser, free ); | ||
189 | 16 TokenizerFree(pTokenizer); | ||
190 | 17 return sState.treeRoot; | ||
191 | 18 } | ||
192 | </pre> | ||
193 | This example shows a user-written routine that parses a file of | ||
194 | text and returns a pointer to the parse tree. | ||
195 | (We've omitted all error-handling from this example to keep it | ||
196 | simple.) | ||
197 | We assume the existence of some kind of tokenizer which is created | ||
198 | using TokenizerCreate() on line 8 and deleted by TokenizerFree() | ||
199 | on line 16. The GetNextToken() function on line 11 retrieves the | ||
200 | next token from the input file and puts its type in the | ||
201 | integer variable hTokenId. The sToken variable is assumed to be | ||
202 | some kind of structure that contains details about each token, | ||
203 | such as its complete text, what line it occurs on, etc. </p> | ||
204 | |||
205 | <p>This example also assumes the existence of structure of type | ||
206 | ParserState that holds state information about a particular parse. | ||
207 | An instance of such a structure is created on line 6 and initialized | ||
208 | on line 10. A pointer to this structure is passed into the Parse() | ||
209 | routine as the optional 4th argument. | ||
210 | The action routine specified by the grammar for the parser can use | ||
211 | the ParserState structure to hold whatever information is useful and | ||
212 | appropriate. In the example, we note that the treeRoot field of | ||
213 | the ParserState structure is left pointing to the root of the parse | ||
214 | tree.</p> | ||
215 | |||
216 | <p>The core of this example as it relates to Lemon is as follows: | ||
217 | <pre> | ||
218 | ParseFile(){ | ||
219 | pParser = ParseAlloc( malloc ); | ||
220 | while( GetNextToken(pTokenizer,&hTokenId, &sToken) ){ | ||
221 | Parse(pParser, hTokenId, sToken); | ||
222 | } | ||
223 | Parse(pParser, 0, sToken); | ||
224 | ParseFree(pParser, free ); | ||
225 | } | ||
226 | </pre> | ||
227 | Basically, what a program has to do to use a Lemon-generated parser | ||
228 | is first create the parser, then send it lots of tokens obtained by | ||
229 | tokenizing an input source. When the end of input is reached, the | ||
230 | Parse() routine should be called one last time with a token type | ||
231 | of 0. This step is necessary to inform the parser that the end of | ||
232 | input has been reached. Finally, we reclaim memory used by the | ||
233 | parser by calling ParseFree().</p> | ||
234 | |||
235 | <p>There is one other interface routine that should be mentioned | ||
236 | before we move on. | ||
237 | The ParseTrace() function can be used to generate debugging output | ||
238 | from the parser. A prototype for this routine is as follows: | ||
239 | <pre> | ||
240 | ParseTrace(FILE *stream, char *zPrefix); | ||
241 | </pre> | ||
242 | After this routine is called, a short (one-line) message is written | ||
243 | to the designated output stream every time the parser changes states | ||
244 | or calls an action routine. Each such message is prefaced using | ||
245 | the text given by zPrefix. This debugging output can be turned off | ||
246 | by calling ParseTrace() again with a first argument of NULL (0).</p> | ||
247 | |||
248 | <h3>Differences With YACC and BISON</h3> | ||
249 | |||
250 | <p>Programmers who have previously used the yacc or bison parser | ||
251 | generator will notice several important differences between yacc and/or | ||
252 | bison and Lemon. | ||
253 | <ul> | ||
254 | <li>In yacc and bison, the parser calls the tokenizer. In Lemon, | ||
255 | the tokenizer calls the parser. | ||
256 | <li>Lemon uses no global variables. Yacc and bison use global variables | ||
257 | to pass information between the tokenizer and parser. | ||
258 | <li>Lemon allows multiple parsers to be running simultaneously. Yacc | ||
259 | and bison do not. | ||
260 | </ul> | ||
261 | These differences may cause some initial confusion for programmers | ||
262 | with prior yacc and bison experience. | ||
263 | But after years of experience using Lemon, I firmly | ||
264 | believe that the Lemon way of doing things is better.</p> | ||
265 | |||
266 | <h2>Input File Syntax</h2> | ||
267 | |||
268 | <p>The main purpose of the grammar specification file for Lemon is | ||
269 | to define the grammar for the parser. But the input file also | ||
270 | specifies additional information Lemon requires to do its job. | ||
271 | Most of the work in using Lemon is in writing an appropriate | ||
272 | grammar file.</p> | ||
273 | |||
274 | <p>The grammar file for lemon is, for the most part, free format. | ||
275 | It does not have sections or divisions like yacc or bison. Any | ||
276 | declaration can occur at any point in the file. | ||
277 | Lemon ignores whitespace (except where it is needed to separate | ||
278 | tokens) and it honors the same commenting conventions as C and C++.</p> | ||
279 | |||
280 | <h3>Terminals and Nonterminals</h3> | ||
281 | |||
282 | <p>A terminal symbol (token) is any string of alphanumeric | ||
283 | and underscore characters | ||
284 | that begins with an upper case letter. | ||
285 | A terminal can contain lower class letters after the first character, | ||
286 | but the usual convention is to make terminals all upper case. | ||
287 | A nonterminal, on the other hand, is any string of alphanumeric | ||
288 | and underscore characters than begins with a lower case letter. | ||
289 | Again, the usual convention is to make nonterminals use all lower | ||
290 | case letters.</p> | ||
291 | |||
292 | <p>In Lemon, terminal and nonterminal symbols do not need to | ||
293 | be declared or identified in a separate section of the grammar file. | ||
294 | Lemon is able to generate a list of all terminals and nonterminals | ||
295 | by examining the grammar rules, and it can always distinguish a | ||
296 | terminal from a nonterminal by checking the case of the first | ||
297 | character of the name.</p> | ||
298 | |||
299 | <p>Yacc and bison allow terminal symbols to have either alphanumeric | ||
300 | names or to be individual characters included in single quotes, like | ||
301 | this: ')' or '$'. Lemon does not allow this alternative form for | ||
302 | terminal symbols. With Lemon, all symbols, terminals and nonterminals, | ||
303 | must have alphanumeric names.</p> | ||
304 | |||
305 | <h3>Grammar Rules</h3> | ||
306 | |||
307 | <p>The main component of a Lemon grammar file is a sequence of grammar | ||
308 | rules. | ||
309 | Each grammar rule consists of a nonterminal symbol followed by | ||
310 | the special symbol ``::='' and then a list of terminals and/or nonterminals. | ||
311 | The rule is terminated by a period. | ||
312 | The list of terminals and nonterminals on the right-hand side of the | ||
313 | rule can be empty. | ||
314 | Rules can occur in any order, except that the left-hand side of the | ||
315 | first rule is assumed to be the start symbol for the grammar (unless | ||
316 | specified otherwise using the <tt>%start</tt> directive described below.) | ||
317 | A typical sequence of grammar rules might look something like this: | ||
318 | <pre> | ||
319 | expr ::= expr PLUS expr. | ||
320 | expr ::= expr TIMES expr. | ||
321 | expr ::= LPAREN expr RPAREN. | ||
322 | expr ::= VALUE. | ||
323 | </pre> | ||
324 | </p> | ||
325 | |||
326 | <p>There is one non-terminal in this example, ``expr'', and five | ||
327 | terminal symbols or tokens: ``PLUS'', ``TIMES'', ``LPAREN'', | ||
328 | ``RPAREN'' and ``VALUE''.</p> | ||
329 | |||
330 | <p>Like yacc and bison, Lemon allows the grammar to specify a block | ||
331 | of C code that will be executed whenever a grammar rule is reduced | ||
332 | by the parser. | ||
333 | In Lemon, this action is specified by putting the C code (contained | ||
334 | within curly braces <tt>{...}</tt>) immediately after the | ||
335 | period that closes the rule. | ||
336 | For example: | ||
337 | <pre> | ||
338 | expr ::= expr PLUS expr. { printf("Doing an addition...\n"); } | ||
339 | </pre> | ||
340 | </p> | ||
341 | |||
342 | <p>In order to be useful, grammar actions must normally be linked to | ||
343 | their associated grammar rules. | ||
344 | In yacc and bison, this is accomplished by embedding a ``$$'' in the | ||
345 | action to stand for the value of the left-hand side of the rule and | ||
346 | symbols ``$1'', ``$2'', and so forth to stand for the value of | ||
347 | the terminal or nonterminal at position 1, 2 and so forth on the | ||
348 | right-hand side of the rule. | ||
349 | This idea is very powerful, but it is also very error-prone. The | ||
350 | single most common source of errors in a yacc or bison grammar is | ||
351 | to miscount the number of symbols on the right-hand side of a grammar | ||
352 | rule and say ``$7'' when you really mean ``$8''.</p> | ||
353 | |||
354 | <p>Lemon avoids the need to count grammar symbols by assigning symbolic | ||
355 | names to each symbol in a grammar rule and then using those symbolic | ||
356 | names in the action. | ||
357 | In yacc or bison, one would write this: | ||
358 | <pre> | ||
359 | expr -> expr PLUS expr { $$ = $1 + $3; }; | ||
360 | </pre> | ||
361 | But in Lemon, the same rule becomes the following: | ||
362 | <pre> | ||
363 | expr(A) ::= expr(B) PLUS expr(C). { A = B+C; } | ||
364 | </pre> | ||
365 | In the Lemon rule, any symbol in parentheses after a grammar rule | ||
366 | symbol becomes a place holder for that symbol in the grammar rule. | ||
367 | This place holder can then be used in the associated C action to | ||
368 | stand for the value of that symbol.<p> | ||
369 | |||
370 | <p>The Lemon notation for linking a grammar rule with its reduce | ||
371 | action is superior to yacc/bison on several counts. | ||
372 | First, as mentioned above, the Lemon method avoids the need to | ||
373 | count grammar symbols. | ||
374 | Secondly, if a terminal or nonterminal in a Lemon grammar rule | ||
375 | includes a linking symbol in parentheses but that linking symbol | ||
376 | is not actually used in the reduce action, then an error message | ||
377 | is generated. | ||
378 | For example, the rule | ||
379 | <pre> | ||
380 | expr(A) ::= expr(B) PLUS expr(C). { A = B; } | ||
381 | </pre> | ||
382 | will generate an error because the linking symbol ``C'' is used | ||
383 | in the grammar rule but not in the reduce action.</p> | ||
384 | |||
385 | <p>The Lemon notation for linking grammar rules to reduce actions | ||
386 | also facilitates the use of destructors for reclaiming memory | ||
387 | allocated by the values of terminals and nonterminals on the | ||
388 | right-hand side of a rule.</p> | ||
389 | |||
390 | <h3>Precedence Rules</h3> | ||
391 | |||
392 | <p>Lemon resolves parsing ambiguities in exactly the same way as | ||
393 | yacc and bison. A shift-reduce conflict is resolved in favor | ||
394 | of the shift, and a reduce-reduce conflict is resolved by reducing | ||
395 | whichever rule comes first in the grammar file.</p> | ||
396 | |||
397 | <p>Just like in | ||
398 | yacc and bison, Lemon allows a measure of control | ||
399 | over the resolution of paring conflicts using precedence rules. | ||
400 | A precedence value can be assigned to any terminal symbol | ||
401 | using the %left, %right or %nonassoc directives. Terminal symbols | ||
402 | mentioned in earlier directives have a lower precedence that | ||
403 | terminal symbols mentioned in later directives. For example:</p> | ||
404 | |||
405 | <p><pre> | ||
406 | %left AND. | ||
407 | %left OR. | ||
408 | %nonassoc EQ NE GT GE LT LE. | ||
409 | %left PLUS MINUS. | ||
410 | %left TIMES DIVIDE MOD. | ||
411 | %right EXP NOT. | ||
412 | </pre></p> | ||
413 | |||
414 | <p>In the preceding sequence of directives, the AND operator is | ||
415 | defined to have the lowest precedence. The OR operator is one | ||
416 | precedence level higher. And so forth. Hence, the grammar would | ||
417 | attempt to group the ambiguous expression | ||
418 | <pre> | ||
419 | a AND b OR c | ||
420 | </pre> | ||
421 | like this | ||
422 | <pre> | ||
423 | a AND (b OR c). | ||
424 | </pre> | ||
425 | The associativity (left, right or nonassoc) is used to determine | ||
426 | the grouping when the precedence is the same. AND is left-associative | ||
427 | in our example, so | ||
428 | <pre> | ||
429 | a AND b AND c | ||
430 | </pre> | ||
431 | is parsed like this | ||
432 | <pre> | ||
433 | (a AND b) AND c. | ||
434 | </pre> | ||
435 | The EXP operator is right-associative, though, so | ||
436 | <pre> | ||
437 | a EXP b EXP c | ||
438 | </pre> | ||
439 | is parsed like this | ||
440 | <pre> | ||
441 | a EXP (b EXP c). | ||
442 | </pre> | ||
443 | The nonassoc precedence is used for non-associative operators. | ||
444 | So | ||
445 | <pre> | ||
446 | a EQ b EQ c | ||
447 | </pre> | ||
448 | is an error.</p> | ||
449 | |||
450 | <p>The precedence of non-terminals is transferred to rules as follows: | ||
451 | The precedence of a grammar rule is equal to the precedence of the | ||
452 | left-most terminal symbol in the rule for which a precedence is | ||
453 | defined. This is normally what you want, but in those cases where | ||
454 | you want to precedence of a grammar rule to be something different, | ||
455 | you can specify an alternative precedence symbol by putting the | ||
456 | symbol in square braces after the period at the end of the rule and | ||
457 | before any C-code. For example:</p> | ||
458 | |||
459 | <p><pre> | ||
460 | expr = MINUS expr. [NOT] | ||
461 | </pre></p> | ||
462 | |||
463 | <p>This rule has a precedence equal to that of the NOT symbol, not the | ||
464 | MINUS symbol as would have been the case by default.</p> | ||
465 | |||
466 | <p>With the knowledge of how precedence is assigned to terminal | ||
467 | symbols and individual | ||
468 | grammar rules, we can now explain precisely how parsing conflicts | ||
469 | are resolved in Lemon. Shift-reduce conflicts are resolved | ||
470 | as follows: | ||
471 | <ul> | ||
472 | <li> If either the token to be shifted or the rule to be reduced | ||
473 | lacks precedence information, then resolve in favor of the | ||
474 | shift, but report a parsing conflict. | ||
475 | <li> If the precedence of the token to be shifted is greater than | ||
476 | the precedence of the rule to reduce, then resolve in favor | ||
477 | of the shift. No parsing conflict is reported. | ||
478 | <li> If the precedence of the token it be shifted is less than the | ||
479 | precedence of the rule to reduce, then resolve in favor of the | ||
480 | reduce action. No parsing conflict is reported. | ||
481 | <li> If the precedences are the same and the shift token is | ||
482 | right-associative, then resolve in favor of the shift. | ||
483 | No parsing conflict is reported. | ||
484 | <li> If the precedences are the same the the shift token is | ||
485 | left-associative, then resolve in favor of the reduce. | ||
486 | No parsing conflict is reported. | ||
487 | <li> Otherwise, resolve the conflict by doing the shift and | ||
488 | report the parsing conflict. | ||
489 | </ul> | ||
490 | Reduce-reduce conflicts are resolved this way: | ||
491 | <ul> | ||
492 | <li> If either reduce rule | ||
493 | lacks precedence information, then resolve in favor of the | ||
494 | rule that appears first in the grammar and report a parsing | ||
495 | conflict. | ||
496 | <li> If both rules have precedence and the precedence is different | ||
497 | then resolve the dispute in favor of the rule with the highest | ||
498 | precedence and do not report a conflict. | ||
499 | <li> Otherwise, resolve the conflict by reducing by the rule that | ||
500 | appears first in the grammar and report a parsing conflict. | ||
501 | </ul> | ||
502 | |||
503 | <h3>Special Directives</h3> | ||
504 | |||
505 | <p>The input grammar to Lemon consists of grammar rules and special | ||
506 | directives. We've described all the grammar rules, so now we'll | ||
507 | talk about the special directives.</p> | ||
508 | |||
509 | <p>Directives in lemon can occur in any order. You can put them before | ||
510 | the grammar rules, or after the grammar rules, or in the mist of the | ||
511 | grammar rules. It doesn't matter. The relative order of | ||
512 | directives used to assign precedence to terminals is important, but | ||
513 | other than that, the order of directives in Lemon is arbitrary.</p> | ||
514 | |||
515 | <p>Lemon supports the following special directives: | ||
516 | <ul> | ||
517 | <li><tt>%code</tt> | ||
518 | <li><tt>%default_destructor</tt> | ||
519 | <li><tt>%default_type</tt> | ||
520 | <li><tt>%destructor</tt> | ||
521 | <li><tt>%extra_argument</tt> | ||
522 | <li><tt>%include</tt> | ||
523 | <li><tt>%left</tt> | ||
524 | <li><tt>%name</tt> | ||
525 | <li><tt>%nonassoc</tt> | ||
526 | <li><tt>%parse_accept</tt> | ||
527 | <li><tt>%parse_failure </tt> | ||
528 | <li><tt>%right</tt> | ||
529 | <li><tt>%stack_overflow</tt> | ||
530 | <li><tt>%stack_size</tt> | ||
531 | <li><tt>%start_symbol</tt> | ||
532 | <li><tt>%syntax_error</tt> | ||
533 | <li><tt>%token_destructor</tt> | ||
534 | <li><tt>%token_prefix</tt> | ||
535 | <li><tt>%token_type</tt> | ||
536 | <li><tt>%type</tt> | ||
537 | </ul> | ||
538 | Each of these directives will be described separately in the | ||
539 | following sections:</p> | ||
540 | |||
541 | <h4>The <tt>%code</tt> directive</h4> | ||
542 | |||
543 | <p>The %code directive is used to specify addition C/C++ code that | ||
544 | is added to the end of the main output file. This is similar to | ||
545 | the %include directive except that %include is inserted at the | ||
546 | beginning of the main output file.</p> | ||
547 | |||
548 | <p>%code is typically used to include some action routines or perhaps | ||
549 | a tokenizer as part of the output file.</p> | ||
550 | |||
551 | <h4>The <tt>%default_destructor</tt> directive</h4> | ||
552 | |||
553 | <p>The %default_destructor directive specifies a destructor to | ||
554 | use for non-terminals that do not have their own destructor | ||
555 | specified by a separate %destructor directive. See the documentation | ||
556 | on the %destructor directive below for additional information.</p> | ||
557 | |||
558 | <p>In some grammers, many different non-terminal symbols have the | ||
559 | same datatype and hence the same destructor. This directive is | ||
560 | a convenience way to specify the same destructor for all those | ||
561 | non-terminals using a single statement.</p> | ||
562 | |||
563 | <h4>The <tt>%default_type</tt> directive</h4> | ||
564 | |||
565 | <p>The %default_type directive specifies the datatype of non-terminal | ||
566 | symbols that do no have their own datatype defined using a separate | ||
567 | %type directive. See the documentation on %type below for addition | ||
568 | information.</p> | ||
569 | |||
570 | <h4>The <tt>%destructor</tt> directive</h4> | ||
571 | |||
572 | <p>The %destructor directive is used to specify a destructor for | ||
573 | a non-terminal symbol. | ||
574 | (See also the %token_destructor directive which is used to | ||
575 | specify a destructor for terminal symbols.)</p> | ||
576 | |||
577 | <p>A non-terminal's destructor is called to dispose of the | ||
578 | non-terminal's value whenever the non-terminal is popped from | ||
579 | the stack. This includes all of the following circumstances: | ||
580 | <ul> | ||
581 | <li> When a rule reduces and the value of a non-terminal on | ||
582 | the right-hand side is not linked to C code. | ||
583 | <li> When the stack is popped during error processing. | ||
584 | <li> When the ParseFree() function runs. | ||
585 | </ul> | ||
586 | The destructor can do whatever it wants with the value of | ||
587 | the non-terminal, but its design is to deallocate memory | ||
588 | or other resources held by that non-terminal.</p> | ||
589 | |||
590 | <p>Consider an example: | ||
591 | <pre> | ||
592 | %type nt {void*} | ||
593 | %destructor nt { free($$); } | ||
594 | nt(A) ::= ID NUM. { A = malloc( 100 ); } | ||
595 | </pre> | ||
596 | This example is a bit contrived but it serves to illustrate how | ||
597 | destructors work. The example shows a non-terminal named | ||
598 | ``nt'' that holds values of type ``void*''. When the rule for | ||
599 | an ``nt'' reduces, it sets the value of the non-terminal to | ||
600 | space obtained from malloc(). Later, when the nt non-terminal | ||
601 | is popped from the stack, the destructor will fire and call | ||
602 | free() on this malloced space, thus avoiding a memory leak. | ||
603 | (Note that the symbol ``$$'' in the destructor code is replaced | ||
604 | by the value of the non-terminal.)</p> | ||
605 | |||
606 | <p>It is important to note that the value of a non-terminal is passed | ||
607 | to the destructor whenever the non-terminal is removed from the | ||
608 | stack, unless the non-terminal is used in a C-code action. If | ||
609 | the non-terminal is used by C-code, then it is assumed that the | ||
610 | C-code will take care of destroying it if it should really | ||
611 | be destroyed. More commonly, the value is used to build some | ||
612 | larger structure and we don't want to destroy it, which is why | ||
613 | the destructor is not called in this circumstance.</p> | ||
614 | |||
615 | <p>By appropriate use of destructors, it is possible to | ||
616 | build a parser using Lemon that can be used within a long-running | ||
617 | program, such as a GUI, that will not leak memory or other resources. | ||
618 | To do the same using yacc or bison is much more difficult.</p> | ||
619 | |||
620 | <h4>The <tt>%extra_argument</tt> directive</h4> | ||
621 | |||
622 | The %extra_argument directive instructs Lemon to add a 4th parameter | ||
623 | to the parameter list of the Parse() function it generates. Lemon | ||
624 | doesn't do anything itself with this extra argument, but it does | ||
625 | make the argument available to C-code action routines, destructors, | ||
626 | and so forth. For example, if the grammar file contains:</p> | ||
627 | |||
628 | <p><pre> | ||
629 | %extra_argument { MyStruct *pAbc } | ||
630 | </pre></p> | ||
631 | |||
632 | <p>Then the Parse() function generated will have an 4th parameter | ||
633 | of type ``MyStruct*'' and all action routines will have access to | ||
634 | a variable named ``pAbc'' that is the value of the 4th parameter | ||
635 | in the most recent call to Parse().</p> | ||
636 | |||
637 | <h4>The <tt>%include</tt> directive</h4> | ||
638 | |||
639 | <p>The %include directive specifies C code that is included at the | ||
640 | top of the generated parser. You can include any text you want -- | ||
641 | the Lemon parser generator copies it blindly. If you have multiple | ||
642 | %include directives in your grammar file the value of the last | ||
643 | %include directive overwrites all the others.</p. | ||
644 | |||
645 | <p>The %include directive is very handy for getting some extra #include | ||
646 | preprocessor statements at the beginning of the generated parser. | ||
647 | For example:</p> | ||
648 | |||
649 | <p><pre> | ||
650 | %include {#include <unistd.h>} | ||
651 | </pre></p> | ||
652 | |||
653 | <p>This might be needed, for example, if some of the C actions in the | ||
654 | grammar call functions that are prototyed in unistd.h.</p> | ||
655 | |||
656 | <h4>The <tt>%left</tt> directive</h4> | ||
657 | |||
658 | The %left directive is used (along with the %right and | ||
659 | %nonassoc directives) to declare precedences of terminal | ||
660 | symbols. Every terminal symbol whose name appears after | ||
661 | a %left directive but before the next period (``.'') is | ||
662 | given the same left-associative precedence value. Subsequent | ||
663 | %left directives have higher precedence. For example:</p> | ||
664 | |||
665 | <p><pre> | ||
666 | %left AND. | ||
667 | %left OR. | ||
668 | %nonassoc EQ NE GT GE LT LE. | ||
669 | %left PLUS MINUS. | ||
670 | %left TIMES DIVIDE MOD. | ||
671 | %right EXP NOT. | ||
672 | </pre></p> | ||
673 | |||
674 | <p>Note the period that terminates each %left, %right or %nonassoc | ||
675 | directive.</p> | ||
676 | |||
677 | <p>LALR(1) grammars can get into a situation where they require | ||
678 | a large amount of stack space if you make heavy use or right-associative | ||
679 | operators. For this reason, it is recommended that you use %left | ||
680 | rather than %right whenever possible.</p> | ||
681 | |||
682 | <h4>The <tt>%name</tt> directive</h4> | ||
683 | |||
684 | <p>By default, the functions generated by Lemon all begin with the | ||
685 | five-character string ``Parse''. You can change this string to something | ||
686 | different using the %name directive. For instance:</p> | ||
687 | |||
688 | <p><pre> | ||
689 | %name Abcde | ||
690 | </pre></p> | ||
691 | |||
692 | <p>Putting this directive in the grammar file will cause Lemon to generate | ||
693 | functions named | ||
694 | <ul> | ||
695 | <li> AbcdeAlloc(), | ||
696 | <li> AbcdeFree(), | ||
697 | <li> AbcdeTrace(), and | ||
698 | <li> Abcde(). | ||
699 | </ul> | ||
700 | The %name directive allows you to generator two or more different | ||
701 | parsers and link them all into the same executable. | ||
702 | </p> | ||
703 | |||
704 | <h4>The <tt>%nonassoc</tt> directive</h4> | ||
705 | |||
706 | <p>This directive is used to assign non-associative precedence to | ||
707 | one or more terminal symbols. See the section on precedence rules | ||
708 | or on the %left directive for additional information.</p> | ||
709 | |||
710 | <h4>The <tt>%parse_accept</tt> directive</h4> | ||
711 | |||
712 | <p>The %parse_accept directive specifies a block of C code that is | ||
713 | executed whenever the parser accepts its input string. To ``accept'' | ||
714 | an input string means that the parser was able to process all tokens | ||
715 | without error.</p> | ||
716 | |||
717 | <p>For example:</p> | ||
718 | |||
719 | <p><pre> | ||
720 | %parse_accept { | ||
721 | printf("parsing complete!\n"); | ||
722 | } | ||
723 | </pre></p> | ||
724 | |||
725 | |||
726 | <h4>The <tt>%parse_failure</tt> directive</h4> | ||
727 | |||
728 | <p>The %parse_failure directive specifies a block of C code that | ||
729 | is executed whenever the parser fails complete. This code is not | ||
730 | executed until the parser has tried and failed to resolve an input | ||
731 | error using is usual error recovery strategy. The routine is | ||
732 | only invoked when parsing is unable to continue.</p> | ||
733 | |||
734 | <p><pre> | ||
735 | %parse_failure { | ||
736 | fprintf(stderr,"Giving up. Parser is hopelessly lost...\n"); | ||
737 | } | ||
738 | </pre></p> | ||
739 | |||
740 | <h4>The <tt>%right</tt> directive</h4> | ||
741 | |||
742 | <p>This directive is used to assign right-associative precedence to | ||
743 | one or more terminal symbols. See the section on precedence rules | ||
744 | or on the %left directive for additional information.</p> | ||
745 | |||
746 | <h4>The <tt>%stack_overflow</tt> directive</h4> | ||
747 | |||
748 | <p>The %stack_overflow directive specifies a block of C code that | ||
749 | is executed if the parser's internal stack ever overflows. Typically | ||
750 | this just prints an error message. After a stack overflow, the parser | ||
751 | will be unable to continue and must be reset.</p> | ||
752 | |||
753 | <p><pre> | ||
754 | %stack_overflow { | ||
755 | fprintf(stderr,"Giving up. Parser stack overflow\n"); | ||
756 | } | ||
757 | </pre></p> | ||
758 | |||
759 | <p>You can help prevent parser stack overflows by avoiding the use | ||
760 | of right recursion and right-precedence operators in your grammar. | ||
761 | Use left recursion and and left-precedence operators instead, to | ||
762 | encourage rules to reduce sooner and keep the stack size down. | ||
763 | For example, do rules like this: | ||
764 | <pre> | ||
765 | list ::= list element. // left-recursion. Good! | ||
766 | list ::= . | ||
767 | </pre> | ||
768 | Not like this: | ||
769 | <pre> | ||
770 | list ::= element list. // right-recursion. Bad! | ||
771 | list ::= . | ||
772 | </pre> | ||
773 | |||
774 | <h4>The <tt>%stack_size</tt> directive</h4> | ||
775 | |||
776 | <p>If stack overflow is a problem and you can't resolve the trouble | ||
777 | by using left-recursion, then you might want to increase the size | ||
778 | of the parser's stack using this directive. Put an positive integer | ||
779 | after the %stack_size directive and Lemon will generate a parse | ||
780 | with a stack of the requested size. The default value is 100.</p> | ||
781 | |||
782 | <p><pre> | ||
783 | %stack_size 2000 | ||
784 | </pre></p> | ||
785 | |||
786 | <h4>The <tt>%start_symbol</tt> directive</h4> | ||
787 | |||
788 | <p>By default, the start-symbol for the grammar that Lemon generates | ||
789 | is the first non-terminal that appears in the grammar file. But you | ||
790 | can choose a different start-symbol using the %start_symbol directive.</p> | ||
791 | |||
792 | <p><pre> | ||
793 | %start_symbol prog | ||
794 | </pre></p> | ||
795 | |||
796 | <h4>The <tt>%token_destructor</tt> directive</h4> | ||
797 | |||
798 | <p>The %destructor directive assigns a destructor to a non-terminal | ||
799 | symbol. (See the description of the %destructor directive above.) | ||
800 | This directive does the same thing for all terminal symbols.</p> | ||
801 | |||
802 | <p>Unlike non-terminal symbols which may each have a different data type | ||
803 | for their values, terminals all use the same data type (defined by | ||
804 | the %token_type directive) and so they use a common destructor. Other | ||
805 | than that, the token destructor works just like the non-terminal | ||
806 | destructors.</p> | ||
807 | |||
808 | <h4>The <tt>%token_prefix</tt> directive</h4> | ||
809 | |||
810 | <p>Lemon generates #defines that assign small integer constants | ||
811 | to each terminal symbol in the grammar. If desired, Lemon will | ||
812 | add a prefix specified by this directive | ||
813 | to each of the #defines it generates. | ||
814 | So if the default output of Lemon looked like this: | ||
815 | <pre> | ||
816 | #define AND 1 | ||
817 | #define MINUS 2 | ||
818 | #define OR 3 | ||
819 | #define PLUS 4 | ||
820 | </pre> | ||
821 | You can insert a statement into the grammar like this: | ||
822 | <pre> | ||
823 | %token_prefix TOKEN_ | ||
824 | </pre> | ||
825 | to cause Lemon to produce these symbols instead: | ||
826 | <pre> | ||
827 | #define TOKEN_AND 1 | ||
828 | #define TOKEN_MINUS 2 | ||
829 | #define TOKEN_OR 3 | ||
830 | #define TOKEN_PLUS 4 | ||
831 | </pre> | ||
832 | |||
833 | <h4>The <tt>%token_type</tt> and <tt>%type</tt> directives</h4> | ||
834 | |||
835 | <p>These directives are used to specify the data types for values | ||
836 | on the parser's stack associated with terminal and non-terminal | ||
837 | symbols. The values of all terminal symbols must be of the same | ||
838 | type. This turns out to be the same data type as the 3rd parameter | ||
839 | to the Parse() function generated by Lemon. Typically, you will | ||
840 | make the value of a terminal symbol by a pointer to some kind of | ||
841 | token structure. Like this:</p> | ||
842 | |||
843 | <p><pre> | ||
844 | %token_type {Token*} | ||
845 | </pre></p> | ||
846 | |||
847 | <p>If the data type of terminals is not specified, the default value | ||
848 | is ``int''.</p> | ||
849 | |||
850 | <p>Non-terminal symbols can each have their own data types. Typically | ||
851 | the data type of a non-terminal is a pointer to the root of a parse-tree | ||
852 | structure that contains all information about that non-terminal. | ||
853 | For example:</p> | ||
854 | |||
855 | <p><pre> | ||
856 | %type expr {Expr*} | ||
857 | </pre></p> | ||
858 | |||
859 | <p>Each entry on the parser's stack is actually a union containing | ||
860 | instances of all data types for every non-terminal and terminal symbol. | ||
861 | Lemon will automatically use the correct element of this union depending | ||
862 | on what the corresponding non-terminal or terminal symbol is. But | ||
863 | the grammar designer should keep in mind that the size of the union | ||
864 | will be the size of its largest element. So if you have a single | ||
865 | non-terminal whose data type requires 1K of storage, then your 100 | ||
866 | entry parser stack will require 100K of heap space. If you are willing | ||
867 | and able to pay that price, fine. You just need to know.</p> | ||
868 | |||
869 | <h3>Error Processing</h3> | ||
870 | |||
871 | <p>After extensive experimentation over several years, it has been | ||
872 | discovered that the error recovery strategy used by yacc is about | ||
873 | as good as it gets. And so that is what Lemon uses.</p> | ||
874 | |||
875 | <p>When a Lemon-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it | ||
876 | first invokes the code specified by the %syntax_error directive, if | ||
877 | any. It then enters its error recovery strategy. The error recovery | ||
878 | strategy is to begin popping the parsers stack until it enters a | ||
879 | state where it is permitted to shift a special non-terminal symbol | ||
880 | named ``error''. It then shifts this non-terminal and continues | ||
881 | parsing. But the %syntax_error routine will not be called again | ||
882 | until at least three new tokens have been successfully shifted.</p> | ||
883 | |||
884 | <p>If the parser pops its stack until the stack is empty, and it still | ||
885 | is unable to shift the error symbol, then the %parse_failed routine | ||
886 | is invoked and the parser resets itself to its start state, ready | ||
887 | to begin parsing a new file. This is what will happen at the very | ||
888 | first syntax error, of course, if there are no instances of the | ||
889 | ``error'' non-terminal in your grammar.</p> | ||
890 | |||
891 | </body> | ||
892 | </html> | ||