This is Info file flex.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the
input file
/tantor/build/intel-xscale/xscale-010413/i686-pc-linux-gnulibc2.1/src/flex/flex.texi.

START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Flex: (flex).         A fast scanner generator.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents Flex.

   Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.  All
rights reserved.

   This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by Vern
Paxson.

   The United States Government has rights in this work pursuant to
contract no. DE-AC03-76SF00098 between the United States Department of
Energy and the University of California.

   Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
provided that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright
notice and comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display
the following acknowledgement:  "This product includes software
developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its
contributors" in the documentation or other materials provided with the
distribution and in all advertising materials mentioning features or
use of this software.  Neither the name of the University nor the names
of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
from this software without specific prior written permission.

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


File: flex.info,  Node: Incompatibilities,  Next: Diagnostics,  Prev: C++,  Up: Top

Incompatibilities with `lex' and POSIX
======================================

   `flex' is a rewrite of the AT&T Unix `lex' tool (the two
implementations do not share any code, though), with some extensions
and incompatibilities, both of which are of concern to those who wish
to write scanners acceptable to either implementation.  Flex is fully
compliant with the POSIX `lex' specification, except that when using
`%pointer' (the default), a call to `unput()' destroys the contents of
`yytext', which is counter to the POSIX specification.

   In this section we discuss all of the known areas of incompatibility
between flex, AT&T lex, and the POSIX specification.

   `flex's' `-l' option turns on maximum compatibility with the
original AT&T `lex' implementation, at the cost of a major loss in the
generated scanner's performance.  We note below which incompatibilities
can be overcome using the `-l' option.

   `flex' is fully compatible with `lex' with the following exceptions:

   - The undocumented `lex' scanner internal variable `yylineno' is not
     supported unless `-l' or `%option yylineno' is used.  `yylineno'
     should be maintained on a per-buffer basis, rather than a
     per-scanner (single global variable) basis.  `yylineno' is not
     part of the POSIX specification.

   - The `input()' routine is not redefinable, though it may be called
     to read characters following whatever has been matched by a rule.
     If `input()' encounters an end-of-file the normal `yywrap()'
     processing is done.  A "real" end-of-file is returned by `input()'
     as `EOF'.

     Input is instead controlled by defining the `YY_INPUT' macro.

     The `flex' restriction that `input()' cannot be redefined is in
     accordance with the POSIX specification, which simply does not
     specify any way of controlling the scanner's input other than by
     making an initial assignment to `yyin'.

   - The `unput()' routine is not redefinable.  This restriction is in
     accordance with POSIX.

   - `flex' scanners are not as reentrant as `lex' scanners.  In
     particular, if you have an interactive scanner and an interrupt
     handler which long-jumps out of the scanner, and the scanner is
     subsequently called again, you may get the following message:

          fatal flex scanner internal error--end of buffer missed
          ^

     To reenter the scanner, first use

          yyrestart( yyin );
          ^

     Note that this call will throw away any buffered input; usually
     this isn't a problem with an interactive scanner.

     Also note that flex C++ scanner classes *are* reentrant, so if
     using C++ is an option for you, you should use them instead.  See
     "Generating C++ Scanners" above for details.

   - `output()' is not supported.  Output from the `ECHO' macro is done
     to the file-pointer `yyout' (default `stdout').

     `output()' is not part of the POSIX specification.

   - `lex' does not support exclusive start conditions (%x), though
     they are in the POSIX specification.

   - When definitions are expanded, `flex' encloses them in
     parentheses.  With lex, the following:

          NAME    [A-Z][A-Z0-9]*
          %%
          foo{NAME}?      printf( "Found it\n" );
          %%
          ^

     will not match the string "foo" because when the macro is expanded
     the rule is equivalent to "foo[A-Z][A-Z0-9]*?" and the precedence
     is such that the '?' is associated with "[A-Z0-9]*".  With `flex',
     the rule will be expanded to "foo([A-Z][A-Z0-9]*)?" and so the
     string "foo" will match.

     Note that if the definition begins with `^' or ends with `$' then
     it is *not* expanded with parentheses, to allow these operators to
     appear in definitions without losing their special meanings.  But
     the `<s>, /', and `<<EOF>>' operators cannot be used in a `flex'
     definition.

     Using `-l' results in the `lex' behavior of no parentheses around
     the definition.

     The POSIX specification is that the definition be enclosed in
     parentheses.

   - Some implementations of `lex' allow a rule's action to begin on a
     separate line, if the rule's pattern has trailing whitespace:

          %%
          foo|bar<space here>
            { foobar_action(); }
          ^

     `flex' does not support this feature.

   - The `lex' `%r' (generate a Ratfor scanner) option is not
     supported.  It is not part of the POSIX specification.

   - After a call to `unput()', `yytext' is undefined until the next
     token is matched, unless the scanner was built using `%array'.
     This is not the case with `lex' or the POSIX specification.  The
     `-l' option does away with this incompatibility.

   - The precedence of the `{}' (numeric range) operator is different.
     `lex' interprets "abc{1,3}" as "match one, two, or three
     occurrences of 'abc'", whereas `flex' interprets it as "match 'ab'
     followed by one, two, or three occurrences of 'c'".  The latter is
     in agreement with the POSIX specification.

   - The precedence of the `^' operator is different.  `lex' interprets
     "^foo|bar" as "match either 'foo' at the beginning of a line, or
     'bar' anywhere", whereas `flex' interprets it as "match either
     'foo' or 'bar' if they come at the beginning of a line".  The
     latter is in agreement with the POSIX specification.

   - The special table-size declarations such as `%a' supported by
     `lex' are not required by `flex' scanners; `flex' ignores them.

   - The name FLEX_SCANNER is #define'd so scanners may be written for
     use with either `flex' or `lex'.  Scanners also include
     `YY_FLEX_MAJOR_VERSION' and `YY_FLEX_MINOR_VERSION' indicating
     which version of `flex' generated the scanner (for example, for the
     2.5 release, these defines would be 2 and 5 respectively).

   The following `flex' features are not included in `lex' or the POSIX
specification:

     C++ scanners
     %option
     start condition scopes
     start condition stacks
     interactive/non-interactive scanners
     yy_scan_string() and friends
     yyterminate()
     yy_set_interactive()
     yy_set_bol()
     YY_AT_BOL()
     <<EOF>>
     <*>
     YY_DECL
     YY_START
     YY_USER_ACTION
     YY_USER_INIT
     #line directives
     %{}'s around actions
     multiple actions on a line
     ^

plus almost all of the flex flags.  The last feature in the list refers
to the fact that with `flex' you can put multiple actions on the same
line, separated with semicolons, while with `lex', the following

     foo    handle_foo(); ++num_foos_seen;
     ^

is (rather surprisingly) truncated to

     foo    handle_foo();
     ^

   `flex' does not truncate the action.  Actions that are not enclosed
in braces are simply terminated at the end of the line.


File: flex.info,  Node: Diagnostics,  Next: Files,  Prev: Incompatibilities,  Up: Top

Diagnostics
===========

`warning, rule cannot be matched'
     indicates that the given rule cannot be matched because it follows
     other rules that will always match the same text as it.  For
     example, in the following "foo" cannot be matched because it comes
     after an identifier "catch-all" rule:

          [a-z]+    got_identifier();
          foo       got_foo();
          ^

     Using `REJECT' in a scanner suppresses this warning.

`warning, -s option given but default rule can be matched'
     means that it is possible (perhaps only in a particular start
     condition) that the default rule (match any single character) is
     the only one that will match a particular input.  Since `-s' was
     given, presumably this is not intended.

`reject_used_but_not_detected undefined'
`yymore_used_but_not_detected undefined'
     These errors can occur at compile time.  They indicate that the
     scanner uses `REJECT' or `yymore()' but that `flex' failed to
     notice the fact, meaning that `flex' scanned the first two sections
     looking for occurrences of these actions and failed to find any,
     but somehow you snuck some in (via a #include file, for example).
     Use `%option reject' or `%option yymore' to indicate to flex that
     you really do use these features.

`flex scanner jammed'
     a scanner compiled with `-s' has encountered an input string which
     wasn't matched by any of its rules.  This error can also occur due
     to internal problems.

`token too large, exceeds YYLMAX'
     your scanner uses `%array' and one of its rules matched a string
     longer than the `YYL-' `MAX' constant (8K bytes by default).  You
     can increase the value by #define'ing `YYLMAX' in the definitions
     section of your `flex' input.

`scanner requires -8 flag to use the character 'X''
     Your scanner specification includes recognizing the 8-bit
     character X and you did not specify the -8 flag, and your scanner
     defaulted to 7-bit because you used the `-Cf' or `-CF' table
     compression options.  See the discussion of the `-7' flag for
     details.

`flex scanner push-back overflow'
     you used `unput()' to push back so much text that the scanner's
     buffer could not hold both the pushed-back text and the current
     token in `yytext'.  Ideally the scanner should dynamically resize
     the buffer in this case, but at present it does not.

`input buffer overflow, can't enlarge buffer because scanner uses REJECT'
     the scanner was working on matching an extremely large token and
     needed to expand the input buffer.  This doesn't work with
     scanners that use `REJECT'.

`fatal flex scanner internal error--end of buffer missed'
     This can occur in an scanner which is reentered after a long-jump
     has jumped out (or over) the scanner's activation frame.  Before
     reentering the scanner, use:

          yyrestart( yyin );
          ^

     or, as noted above, switch to using the C++ scanner class.

`too many start conditions in <> construct!'
     you listed more start conditions in a <> construct than exist (so
     you must have listed at least one of them twice).


File: flex.info,  Node: Files,  Next: Deficiencies,  Prev: Diagnostics,  Up: Top

Files
=====

`-lfl'
     library with which scanners must be linked.

`lex.yy.c'
     generated scanner (called `lexyy.c' on some systems).

`lex.yy.cc'
     generated C++ scanner class, when using `-+'.

`<FlexLexer.h>'
     header file defining the C++ scanner base class, `FlexLexer', and
     its derived class, `yyFlexLexer'.

`flex.skl'
     skeleton scanner.  This file is only used when building flex, not
     when flex executes.

`lex.backup'
     backing-up information for `-b' flag (called `lex.bck' on some
     systems).


File: flex.info,  Node: Deficiencies,  Next: See also,  Prev: Files,  Up: Top

Deficiencies / Bugs
===================

   Some trailing context patterns cannot be properly matched and
generate warning messages ("dangerous trailing context").  These are
patterns where the ending of the first part of the rule matches the
beginning of the second part, such as "zx*/xy*", where the 'x*' matches
the 'x' at the beginning of the trailing context.  (Note that the POSIX
draft states that the text matched by such patterns is undefined.)

   For some trailing context rules, parts which are actually
fixed-length are not recognized as such, leading to the abovementioned
performance loss.  In particular, parts using '|' or {n} (such as
"foo{3}") are always considered variable-length.

   Combining trailing context with the special '|' action can result in
*fixed* trailing context being turned into the more expensive VARIABLE
trailing context.  For example, in the following:

     %%
     abc      |
     xyz/def
     ^

   Use of `unput()' invalidates yytext and yyleng, unless the `%array'
directive or the `-l' option has been used.

   Pattern-matching of NUL's is substantially slower than matching
other characters.

   Dynamic resizing of the input buffer is slow, as it entails
rescanning all the text matched so far by the current (generally huge)
token.

   Due to both buffering of input and read-ahead, you cannot intermix
calls to <stdio.h> routines, such as, for example, `getchar()', with
`flex' rules and expect it to work.  Call `input()' instead.

   The total table entries listed by the `-v' flag excludes the number
of table entries needed to determine what rule has been matched.  The
number of entries is equal to the number of DFA states if the scanner
does not use `REJECT', and somewhat greater than the number of states
if it does.

   `REJECT' cannot be used with the `-f' or `-F' options.

   The `flex' internal algorithms need documentation.


File: flex.info,  Node: See also,  Next: Author,  Prev: Deficiencies,  Up: Top

See also
========

   `lex'(1), `yacc'(1), `sed'(1), `awk'(1).

   John Levine, Tony Mason, and Doug Brown: Lex & Yacc; O'Reilly and
Associates.  Be sure to get the 2nd edition.

   M. E. Lesk and E. Schmidt, LEX - Lexical Analyzer Generator.

   Alfred Aho, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey Ullman: Compilers: Principles,
Techniques and Tools; Addison-Wesley (1986).  Describes the
pattern-matching techniques used by `flex' (deterministic finite
automata).


File: flex.info,  Node: Author,  Prev: See also,  Up: Top

Author
======

   Vern Paxson, with the help of many ideas and much inspiration from
Van Jacobson.  Original version by Jef Poskanzer.  The fast table
representation is a partial implementation of a design done by Van
Jacobson.  The implementation was done by Kevin Gong and Vern Paxson.

   Thanks to the many `flex' beta-testers, feedbackers, and
contributors, especially Francois Pinard, Casey Leedom, Stan Adermann,
Terry Allen, David Barker-Plummer, John Basrai, Nelson H.F. Beebe,
`benson@odi.com', Karl Berry, Peter A. Bigot, Simon Blanchard, Keith
Bostic, Frederic Brehm, Ian Brockbank, Kin Cho, Nick Christopher, Brian
Clapper, J.T. Conklin, Jason Coughlin, Bill Cox, Nick Cropper, Dave
Curtis, Scott David Daniels, Chris G. Demetriou, Theo Deraadt, Mike
Donahue, Chuck Doucette, Tom Epperly, Leo Eskin, Chris Faylor, Chris
Flatters, Jon Forrest, Joe Gayda, Kaveh R. Ghazi, Eric Goldman,
Christopher M.  Gould, Ulrich Grepel, Peer Griebel, Jan Hajic, Charles
Hemphill, NORO Hideo, Jarkko Hietaniemi, Scott Hofmann, Jeff Honig,
Dana Hudes, Eric Hughes, John Interrante, Ceriel Jacobs, Michal
Jaegermann, Sakari Jalovaara, Jeffrey R. Jones, Henry Juengst, Klaus
Kaempf, Jonathan I. Kamens, Terrence O Kane, Amir Katz,
`ken@ken.hilco.com', Kevin B. Kenny, Steve Kirsch, Winfried Koenig,
Marq Kole, Ronald Lamprecht, Greg Lee, Rohan Lenard, Craig Leres, John
Levine, Steve Liddle, Mike Long, Mohamed el Lozy, Brian Madsen, Malte,
Joe Marshall, Bengt Martensson, Chris Metcalf, Luke Mewburn, Jim
Meyering, R.  Alexander Milowski, Erik Naggum, G.T. Nicol, Landon Noll,
James Nordby, Marc Nozell, Richard Ohnemus, Karsten Pahnke, Sven Panne,
Roland Pesch, Walter Pelissero, Gaumond Pierre, Esmond Pitt, Jef
Poskanzer, Joe Rahmeh, Jarmo Raiha, Frederic Raimbault, Pat Rankin,
Rick Richardson, Kevin Rodgers, Kai Uwe Rommel, Jim Roskind, Alberto
Santini, Andreas Scherer, Darrell Schiebel, Raf Schietekat, Doug
Schmidt, Philippe Schnoebelen, Andreas Schwab, Alex Siegel, Eckehard
Stolz, Jan-Erik Strvmquist, Mike Stump, Paul Stuart, Dave Tallman, Ian
Lance Taylor, Chris Thewalt, Richard M. Timoney, Jodi Tsai, Paul
Tuinenga, Gary Weik, Frank Whaley, Gerhard Wilhelms, Kent Williams, Ken
Yap, Ron Zellar, Nathan Zelle, David Zuhn, and those whose names have
slipped my marginal mail-archiving skills but whose contributions are
appreciated all the same.

   Thanks to Keith Bostic, Jon Forrest, Noah Friedman, John Gilmore,
Craig Leres, John Levine, Bob Mulcahy, G.T.  Nicol, Francois Pinard,
Rich Salz, and Richard Stallman for help with various distribution
headaches.

   Thanks to Esmond Pitt and Earle Horton for 8-bit character support;
to Benson Margulies and Fred Burke for C++ support; to Kent Williams
and Tom Epperly for C++ class support; to Ove Ewerlid for support of
NUL's; and to Eric Hughes for support of multiple buffers.

   This work was primarily done when I was with the Real Time Systems
Group at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, CA.  Many thanks
to all there for the support I received.

   Send comments to `vern@ee.lbl.gov'.


