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LLnextgen(1) LLnextgen parser generator LLnextgen(1)
NAME
LLnextgen - an Extended-LL(1) parser generator
SYNOPSIS
LLnextgen [OPTIONS] [FILES]
DESCRIPTION
LLnextgen is a (partial) reimplementation of the LLgen ELL(1) parser
generator created by D. Grune and C.J.H. Jacobs (note: this is not the
same as the LLgen parser generator by Fischer and LeBlanc). It takes an
EBNF-like description of the grammar as input(s), and produces a parser
in C.
Input files are expected to end in .g. The output files will have .g
removed and .c and .h added. If the input file does not end in .g, the
extensions .c and .h will simply be added to the name of the input
file. Output files can also be given a different base name using the
option --base-name (see below).
OPTIONS
LLnextgen accepts the following options:
-c, --max-compatibility
Set options required for maximum source-level compatibility.
This is different from running as LLgen, as all extensions are
still allowed. LLreissue and the prototypes in the header file
are still generated. This option turns on the --llgen-arg-style,
--llgen-escapes-only and --llgen-output-style options.
-e, --warnings-as-errors
Treat warnings as errors.
-Enum, --error-limit=num
Set the maximum number of errors, before LLnextgen aborts. If
num is set 0, the error limit is set to infinity. This is to
override the error limit option specified in the grammar file.
-h[which], --help[=which]
Print out a help message, describing the options. The optional
which argument allows selection of which options to print. which
can be set to all, depend, error, and extra.
-V, --version
Print the program version and copyright information, and exit.
-v[level], --verbose[=level]
Increase (without explicit level) or set (with explicit level)
the verbosity level. LLnextgen uses this option differently than
LLgen. At level 1, LLnextgen will output traces of the conflicts
to standard error. At level 2, LLnextgen will also write a file
named LL.output with the rules containing conflicts. At level 3,
LLnextgen will include the entire grammar in LL.output.
LLgen will write the LL.output file from level 1, but cannot
generate conflict traces. It also has an intermediate setting
between LLnextgen levels 2 and 3.
-w[warnings], --suppress-warnings[=warnings]
Suppress all or selected warnings. Available warnings are: arg-
separator, option-override, unbalanced-c, multiple-parser,
eofile, unused[:<identifier>], datatype and unused-retval. The
unused warning can suppress all warnings about unused tokens and
non-terminals, or can be used to suppress warnings about
specific tokens or non-terminals by adding a colon and a name.
For example, to suppress warning messages about FOO not being
used, use -wunused:FOO. Several comma separated warnings can be
specified with one option on the command line.
--abort
Generate the LLabort function.
--base-name=name
Set the base name for the output files. Normally LLnextgen uses
the name of the first input file without any trailing .g as the
base name. This option can be used to override the default. The
files created will be name.c and name.h. This option cannot be
used in combination with --llgen-output-style.
--depend[=modifiers]
Generate dependency information to be used by the make(1)
program. The modifiers can be used to change the make targets
(targets:<targets>, and extra-targets:<targets>) and the output
(file:<file>). The default are to use the output names as they
would be created by running with the same arguments as targets,
and to output to standard output. Using the targets modifier,
the list of targets can be specified manually. The extra-targets
modifier allows targets to be added to the default list of
targets. Finally, the phony modifier will add phony targets for
all dependencies to avoid make(1) problems when removing or
renaming dependencies. This is like the gcc(1) -MP option.
--depend-cpp
Dump all top-level C-code to standard out. This can be used to
generate dependency information for the generated files by
piping the output from LLnextgen through the C preprocessor with
the appropriate options.
--dump-lexer-wrapper
Write the lexer wrapper function to standard output, and exit.
--dump-llmessage
Write the default LLmessage function to standard output, and
exit.
--dump-tokens[=modifier]
Dump %token directives for unknown identifiers that match the
--token-pattern pattern. The default is to generate a single
%token directive with all the unknown identifiers separated by
comma's. This default can be overridden by modifier. The
modifier separate produces a separate %token directive for each
identifier, while label produces a %label directive. The text of
the label will be the name of the identifier. If the label
modifier and the --lowercase-symbols option are both specified
the label will contain only lowercase characters.
Note: this option is not always available. It requires the POSIX
regex API. If the POSIX regex API is not available on your
platform, or the LLnextgen binary was compiled without support
for the API, you will not be able to use this option.
--extensions=list
Specify the extensions to be used for the generated files. The
list must be comma separated, and should not contain the .
before the extension. The first item in the list is the C source
file and the second item is the header file. You can omit the
extension for the C source file and only specify the extension
for the header file.
--generate-lexer-wrapper[=yes|no]
Indicate whether to generate a wrapper for the lexical analyser.
As LLnextgen requires a lexical analyser to return the last
token returned after detecting an error which requires inserting
a token to repair, most lexical analysers require a wrapper to
accommodate LLnextgen. As it is identical for almost each
grammar, LLnextgen can provide one. Use --dump-lexer-wrapper to
see the code. If you do specifiy this option LLnextgen will
generate a warning, to help remind you that a wrapper is
required.
If you do not want the automatically generate wrapper you should
specifiy this option followed by =no.
--generate-llmessage
Generate an LLmessage function. LLnextgen requires programs to
provide a function for informing the user about errors in the
input. When developing a parser, it is often desirable to have a
default LLmessage. The provided LLmessage is very simple and
should be replaced by a more elaborate one, once the parser is
beyond the first testing phase. Use --dump-llmessage to see the
code. This option automatically turns on
--generate-symbol-table.
--generate-symbol-table
Generate a symbol table. The symbol table will contain strings
for all tokens and character literals. By default, the symbol
table contains the token name as specified in the grammar. To
change the string, for both tokens and character literals, use
the %label directive.
--gettext[=macro,guard]
Add gettext support. A macro call is added around symbol table
entries generated from %label directives. The macro will expand
to the string itself. This is meant to allow xgettext(1) to
extract the strings. The default is N_, because that is what
most people use. A guard will be included such that compilation
without gettext is possible by not defining the guard. The guard
is set to USE_NLS by default. Translations will be done
automatically in LLgetSymbol in the generated parser through a
call to gettext.
--keep-dir
Do not remove directory component of the input file-name when
creating the output file-name. By default, outputs are created
in the current directory. This option will generate the output
in the directory of the input.
--llgen-arg-style
Use semicolons as argument separators in rule headers. LLnextgen
uses comma's by default, as this is what ANSI C does.
--llgen-escapes-only
Only allow the escape sequences defined by LLgen in character
literals. By default LLnextgen also allows \a, \v, \?, \", and
hexadecimal constants with \x.
--llgen-output-style
Generate one .c output per input, and the files Lpars.c and
Lpars.h, instead of one .c and one .h file based on the name of
the first input.
--lowercase-symbols
Convert the token names used for generating the symbol table to
lower case. This only applies to tokens for which no %label
directive has been specified.
--no-allow-label-create
Do not allow the %label directive to create new tokens. Note
that this requires that the token being labelled is either a
character literal or a %token directive creating the named token
has preceded the %label directive.
--no-arg-count
Do not check argument counts for rules. LLnextgen checks whether
a rule is used with the same number of arguments as it is
defined. LLnextgen also checks that any rules for which a %start
directive is specified, the number of arguments is 0.
--no-eof-zero
Do not use 0 as end-of-file token. (f)lex(1) uses 0 as the end-
of-file token. Other lexical-analyser generators may use -1, and
may use 0 for something else (e.g. the nul character).
--no-init-llretval
Do not initialise LLretval with 0 bytes. Note that you have to
take care of initialisation of LLretval yourself when using this
option.
--no-line-directives
Do not generate #line directives in the output. This means all
errors will be reported relative to the output file. By default
LLnextgen generates #line directives to make the C compiler
generate errors relative to the LLnextgen input file.
--no-llreissue
Do not generate the LLreissue variable, which is used to
indicate when a token should be reissued by the lexical
analyser.
--no-prototypes-header
Do not generate prototypes for the parser and other functions in
the header file.
--not-only-reachable
Do not only analyse reachable rules. LLnextgen by default does
not take unreachable rules into account when doing conflict
analysis, as these can cause spurious conflicts. However, if the
unreachable rules will be used in the future, one might already
want to be notified of problems with these rules. LLgen by
default does analyse unreachable rules.
Note: in the case where a rule is unreachable because the only
alternative of another reachable rule that mentions it is never
chosen (because of a %avoid directive), the rule is still deemed
reachable for the analysis. The only way to avoid this behaviour
is by doing the complete analysis twice, which is an excessive
amount of work to do for a very rare case.
--reentrant
Generate a reentrant parser. By default, LLnextgen generates
non-reentrant parsers. A reentrant parser can be called from
itself, but not from another thread. Use --thread-safe to
generate a thread-safe parser.
Note that when multiple parsers are specified in one grammar
(using multiple %start directives), and one of these parsers
calls another, either the --reentrant option or the --thread-
safe option is also required. If these parsers are only called
when none of the others is running, the option is not necessary.
Use only in combination with a reentrant lexical analyser.
--show-dir
Show directory names of source files in error and warning
messages. These are usually omitted for readability, but may
sometimes be necessary for tracing errors.
--thread-safe
Generate a thread-safe parser. Thread-safe parsers can be run in
parallel in different threads of the same program. The interface
of a thread-safe parser is different from the regular (and then
reentrant) version. See the detailed manual for more details.
--token-pattern=pattern
Specify a regular expression to match with unknown identifiers
used in the grammar. If an unknown identifier matches, LLnextgen
will generate a token declaration for the identifier. This
option is primarily implemented to aid in the first stages of
development, to allow for quick testing for conflicts without
having to specify all the tokens yet. A list of tokens can be
generated with the --dump-tokens option.
Note: this option is not always available. It requires the POSIX
regex API. If the POSIX regex API is not available on your
platform, or the LLnextgen binary was compiled without support
for the API, you will not be able to use this option.
By running LLnextgen using the name LLgen, LLnextgen goes into
LLgen-mode. This is implemented by turning off all default extra
functionality like LLreissue, and disallowing all extensions to the
LLgen language. When running as LLgen, LLnextgen accepts the following
options from LLgen:
-a Ignored. LLnextgen only generates ANSI C.
-hnum Ignored. LLnextgen leaves optimisation of jump tables entirely
up to the C-compiler.
-j[num]
Ignored. LLnextgen leaves optimisation of jump tables entirely
up to the C-compiler.
-l[num]
Ignored. LLnextgen leaves optimisation of jump tables entirely
up to the C-compiler.
-v Increase the verbosity level. See the description of the -v
option above for details.
-w Suppress all warnings.
-x Ignored. LLnextgen will only generate token sets in LL.output.
The extensive error-reporting mechanisms in LLnextgen make this
feature obsolete.
LLnextgen cannot create parsers with non-correcting error-recovery.
Therefore, using the -n or -s options will cause LLnextgen to print an
error message and exit.
COMPATIBILITY WITH LLGEN
At this time the basic LLgen functionality is implemented. This
includes everything apart from the extended user error-handling with
the %onerror directive and the non-correcting error-recovery.
Although I've tried to copy the behaviour of LLgen accurately, I have
implemented some aspects slightly differently. The following is a list
of the differences in behaviour between LLgen and LLnextgen:
* LLgen generated both K&R style C code and ANSI C code. LLnextgen
only supports generation of ANSI C code.
* There is a minor difference in the determination of the default
choices. LLnextgen simply chooses the first production with the
shortest possible terminal production, while LLgen also takes
the complexity in terms of non-terminals and terms into account.
There is also a minor difference when there is more than one
shortest alternative and some of them are marked with %avoid.
Both differences are not very important as the user can specify
which alternative should be the default, thereby circumventing
the differences in the algorithms.
* The default behaviour of generating one output C file per input
and Lpars.c and Lpars.h has been changed in favour of generating
one .c file and one .h file. The rationale given for creating
multiple output files in the first place was that it would
reduce the compilation time for the generated parser. As
computation power has become much more abundant this feature is
no longer necessary, and the difficult interaction with the make
program makes it undesirable. The LLgen behaviour is still
supported through a command-line switch.
* in LLgen one could have a parser and a %first macro with the
same name. LLnextgen forbids this, as it leads to name
collisions in the new file naming scheme. For the old LLgen file
naming scheme it could also easily lead to name collisions,
although they could be circumvented by not mentioning the parser
in any of the C code in the .g files.
* LLgen names the labels it generates L_X, where X is a number.
LLnextgen names these LL_X.
* LLgen parsers are always reentrant. As this feature is not used
very often, LLnextgen parsers are non-reentrant unless the
option --reentrant is used.
Furthermore, LLnextgen has many extended features, for easier
development.
BUGS
If you think you have found a bug, please check that you are using the
latest version of LLnextgen [http://os.ghalkes.nl/LLnextgen]. When
reporting bugs, please include a minimal grammar that demonstrates the
problem.
AUTHOR
G.P. Halkes <llnextgen@ghalkes.nl>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2005-2008 G.P. Halkes
LLnextgen is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
For more details on the license, see the file COPYING in the
documentation directory. On Un*x systems this is usually
/usr/share/doc/LLnextgen-0.5.5.
SEE ALSO
LLgen(1), bison(1), yacc(1), lex(1), flex(1).
A detailed manual for LLnextgen is available as part of the
distribution. It includes the syntax for the grammar files, details on
how to use the generated parser in your programs, and details on the
workings of the generated parsers. This manual can be found in the
documentation directory. On Un*x systems this is usually
/usr/share/doc/LLnextgen-0.5.5.
Version 0.5.5 31-12-2011 LLnextgen(1)