3 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.4 (2017-05-06) [stable]
7 *** The indent target now knows about flex's new (as of 2.6.0)
8 layout. The indent rules it would apply are not correct and do
11 *** The files included in the flex distribution are now built by the
12 version of flex that is included in the distribution.
14 *** The configure script has a better idea of which headers are
15 required to build flex. It will also error when missing functions
18 *** We have lowered the versions of automake and gettext that
19 configure.ac lists as required for building flex. In autogen.sh,
20 we now check for how to call libtoolize and use what we find in
21 the rest of the script.
23 *** Since files in lib/ are picked up as needed by src/, we no longer
24 generate a Makefile for that directory.
26 *** Flex can be cross compiled.
30 *** Some typos were removed from the manual.
34 *** Some minor performance enhancements.
36 *** We honor user defined yy_* macros again. We are also more careful
37 to not leak macro definitions into header files.
39 *** A number of portability fixes were introduced so building flex is
40 more reliable on more platforms. Additionally, outdated function
43 *** When building the flex executable itself, %# comments from
44 flex.skl are removed when generating the C source code array. This
45 reduces the size of flex.
49 *** All scripts in the test suite are now run by $(SHELL) and the
50 needed portability fixes have been included.
52 *** Test suite dependencies are handled much better. This only matters
53 if you are actively developing flex or its test suite.
55 *** Tests that depend on platform dependent features now properly skip
56 when those platforms are not present.
58 *** When running "make check", you can now pas V=0 to silence more of
59 the build. This is useful when you're less connncerned about the
60 details of building and linking the test programs themselves.
62 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.6.3 (2016-12-30) [stable]
66 *** several bug fixes resolved problems introduced in recent flex
67 versions regarding processing of comments, literals and various
70 *** If the path to m4 was sufficiently long, a buffer overflow could
71 occur. This has been resolved. The fix also removes dependence on
72 the constant PATH_MAX.
76 *** A new configure option --disable-bootstrap changes the behavior of
77 the build system when building flex. The default
78 "--enable-bootstrap" behavior is to build flex, then to use that
79 flex to build flex again. With --disable-bootstrap, the scanner is
80 simply built by sedding the scanner source. This is friendlier to
83 *** The compatibility functions in lib/ are no longer built as a
84 library. Instead, they are built as $(LIBOBJ) objects. This is
85 simpler and friendlier to cross compilation.
87 *** It is now possible to build flex without building the accompanying
88 libfl. This is friendlier to cross compilation. See the
89 --disable-libfl option to configure. Resolves #99.
91 *** the PIC version of libfl was not correctly built. It is no longer
92 included in the build/installation targets of flex since it was
95 *** the distributed man page is only rebuilt when the relevant source
96 files change or when the binary doesn't exist. In particular, this
97 is friendlier to cross compilation. Resolves #108
101 *** the shell scripts in the test suite are more portable across different shell implementations.
103 * version 2.6.2 released 2016-10-24
107 *** a segfalt involving yyrestart(NULL) has been fixed
109 *** flex should now handle quoting when mixed with m4 processing correctly
111 *** flex handles `[[' and `]]' correctly
113 *** flex no longer generates non-ANSI code
115 *** more compilation warnings were squashed in generated scanners
117 *** prevented a buffer overflow that could occur when input buffers were the exact wrong size
121 *** input filenames on MSWindows are now calculated correctly
123 *** general code cleanups in a number of tests now make the test suite compile much more cleanly
127 *** the xz archive has been replaced with an lzip archive
129 *** a new option to configure --enable-warnings to encapsulate passing
130 of warning-related flags which is useful in testing flex
132 *** make indent now works for out of source builds
134 *** Portability warnings when generating Makefile.in files are now suppressed; they were just noise and the use of GNU extensions in Makefile.{am,in,} was intentional and well known.
140 ** new sv translation from the translation project
142 * version 2.6.1 released 2016-03-01
146 *** The flex project is now hosted at github. Consider this a "period of transition". In particular, you should start at https://github.com/westes/flex for the flex codebase, issue tracking and pull requests.
148 *** New releases of flex are to be found at https://github.com/westes/flex/releases.
152 *** Flex now uses more modern and more standard names for variable types. There's more work to be done on that front yet, though.
154 *** A number of compiler warnings have been remedied.
156 *** Line directives should now work as expected and be absent when that is expected.
160 *** When running the test suite, c++ files are compiled with the c++ header inside the flex distribution, rather than relying on the build system's flex header , which might not be installed yet or which might be out of date with respect to what flex tests expect.
162 *** Some portability fixes in the test suite such as opening files for reading in binary mode
166 *** The file src/scan.c asdistributed with flex source is now built with the current version of flex. Occasionally this had to be done manually to pick up new flex features. It's now just a part of flex's build system.
168 *** The pdf version of the manual is no longer distributed with flex, although if you have the texinfo package installed, you can still build it.
170 *** lots of general build system cleanup
172 *** the build system tries a bit harder to find libtoolize and texi2dvi.
174 *** When help2man and texi2dvi are missing, the error messages are now much more helpful.
178 *** resolved github issues #53, #54, #55, #61.
180 *** Resolved sf bugs #128, #129, #155, #160, #184, #187, #195.
182 * version 2.6.0 released 2015-11-17
184 ** User Visible Changes
186 *** C++ scanners now use references instead of pointers. See the manual for details.
188 *** A number of compiler warnings were addressed, so flex generated scanners should be quieter under compiler warning scenarios.
190 *** Allow error reporting routines to accept varying number of arguments
192 *** Removed deprecated 'register' storage class specifier
194 *** Changeed output formats from octal to hexadecimal
196 *** check limits before using array index cclp; resolves sf-166
198 *** Suppress clang warning about empty @param paragraph; resolves sf#158
200 *** Fixed malloc/realloc replacement, resolves sf bug#151.
202 *** Adjusted buffer sizes on ia64.
204 *** various documentation and code clean up fixes: resolves sf bugs #167, #168, among other patches.
208 *** flex is now organized into subdirectories. This keeps the tree neater at the top level and puts like things near each other and unlike things away from each other.
210 *** The test suite has been reorganized and is now run with the parallel test suite harness from automake.
212 *** Cleaned up the automake parts of the build system to better reflect what automake does on its own. Also added a call to libtoolize in autogen.sh because autoreconf gets confused without a prior run of libtoolize.
214 *** po/Makefile now includes a rule to fetch the latest translations from the translation project. "make -f po/Makefile getpo" from the top level of the flex tree will fetch the files.
216 *** New da translation from the translation project
218 * flex version 2.5.39 released 2014-03-26
220 ** no user visible changes in this release
222 * version 2.5.38 released 2014-02-14
224 ** internationalization
226 *** add sr translation from the translation project
228 *** update da, es, ko, nl, pt_BR, ro, ru, sv, tr, vi, zh_CN translations from the translation project
230 *** rename zh_tw to its proper zh_TW name
232 * version 2.5.37 released 2012-08-03
234 ** Import flex into git. See
235 git://flex.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/flex/flex.
237 ** Fix make install target to not fail when the flex++ program is
240 ** New translations from the translation project: de, fi, pl, vi
242 * version 2.5.36 released 2012-07-20
244 ** various portability fixes that quiet compiler warnings on 64-bit
247 ** various manual fixes, including correcting the name of a %option and
248 updating some simple examples to use ANSI C syntax
250 ** various bug fixes that prevent certain error conditions from
251 persisting when they should not persist
253 ** improvements to the test suite so it behaves better when linking
256 ** new translations from the translation project: ca, da, es, fi, fr,
257 ga, ko, pt_br, ro, ru, sv, tr, zh_cn
259 ** the flex distribution is now built with automake 1.10.1 and automake
262 * version 2.5.35 released 2008-02-26
264 ** fixed bug that prevented flex from accepting certain comments in the
265 scanner file (resolves bugs #1849809 and #1849805)
267 ** fix bug that prevented headers for all functions from being generated
268 (resolves bug #1628314)
270 ** change yy_size_t to be size_t (resolves bug #1849812)
272 ** new de, nl, pl, pt_br, vi translations from the translation project
274 * version 2.5.34 released 2007-12-12
276 ** introduce yylex_init_extra; see the manual for details
278 ** introduce %option extra-type="your_type *" (resolves bug #1744505)
280 ** The flex program now parses multiple short concatenated options (resolves bug
281 #1619820). Thanks to Petr Machata of Red Hat on this issue.
283 ** better checking after yyalloc/yyrealloc (resolves bug #1595967)
285 ** flex now provides for a libfl_pic.a compiled with position
286 independent code. Particularly useful when including a flex scanner
287 in a shared library and with more recent versions of gcc. Thanks to the Debian project for the idea.
289 ** SourceForge feature request #1658379: Expose YY_BUF_SIZE in the
292 ** flex better escapes filenames with special characters in them
293 (resolves bug #1623600)
295 ** a memory leak was plugged(resolves bug #1601111)
297 ** pattern language expanded; see the manual for details on the below
300 *** pattern options added to specify patterns as case-insensitive or
303 *** pattern options to specify whether the "." character should match
304 the newline character
306 *** pattern options added to allow ignoring of whitespace in patterns
308 *** POSIX character classes may be negated in patterns
310 *** patterns may now use set difference, union operators
312 ** the manual now contains an appendix listing various common patterns
313 which may be useful when writing scanners
315 ** some memory leaks were removed from the C++ scanner (but the C++
316 scanner is still experimental and may change radically without
319 ** c++ scanners can now use yywrap
321 ** added new unit test for c++ and yywrap
323 ** portability fixes to some unit tests
325 ** flex man page and flex manual in pdf now distributed in the flex
328 ** new ca, vi, ga, nl translations from the translation project
330 ** flex no longer comes with an rpm spec file
332 ** flex development now happens with automake 1.9.6
334 * version 2.5.33 released 2006-2-20
336 ** all flex resources are now to be found from the website at
337 http://flex.sourceforge.net/
339 ** there was no release 2.5.32 published
341 ** numerous bug and security fixes
343 ** new nl, vi, sv, ro, po, ga, ca, fr, tr translations from the translation project
345 ** upgrade to use gettext 0.12 (this now makes the "pdf" and "ps"
346 targets in the build system able to be run successfully)
348 * version 2.5.31 released 2003-4-1
350 ** remove --enable-maintainer-mode configure option; none of the
351 Makefiles were using it and it can be unduely confusing
353 * version 2.5.30 released 2003-4-1
355 ** yylineno is per-buffer in reentrant scanners
357 ** added %top directive for placing code at the top of the generated
358 scanner; see manual for details
360 ** flex now uses m4 to generate scanners; while this means that
361 scanners are more readable, it means that flex requires m4 to be
362 installed; see manual for details
364 * version 2.5.29 released 2003-3-5
366 ** Automatic stack management for multiple input buffers in C and C++ scanners
368 ** moved the flex documentation to a new doc/ subdirectory
370 ** cleanups to the yy namespace
372 * version 2.5.28 released 2003-2-12
374 ** flex is now hosted at sourceforge
376 ** Fixed trailing slash bug in YY_INPUT macro def
378 ** Flex now warns if always-interactive is specified with fast or full
380 * version 2.5.27 released 2003-1-21
382 ** flex now works with recent bison versions
384 ** new pt_br translation from the translation project
386 * version 2.5.26 released 2003-1-14
388 ** Fixed table deserialization bug on big-endian archs. Patch sent from Bryce Nichols <bryce@bnichols.org>
390 ** yyleng has proper declarations now; this caused flex to generate
391 unusable scanners for some programs
393 ** the flex distribution now includes a spec file suitable for use
396 ** some more c++ fixes
398 ** new es translation from the translation project
400 ** slight tweeks to the flex_int*_t types
402 ** flex now warns about pattern ranges that might be ambiguous when
403 generating a case-insensitive scanner
406 * version 2.5.25 released 2002-12-2
408 ** flex now uses flex_int*_t types. For C99 systems, they are just the
409 int*_t types; for non-C99 systems, we just make some typedefs
411 ** new pt_br translation from the translation project
413 * version 2.5.24 released 2002-11-25
415 * more portability fixes
417 ** the manual continues to be updated and edited, but it's still got a
420 ** it is possible to have multiple c++ scanners in the same program again
422 ** new turkish translation from the translation project
424 * version 2.5.23 released 2002-10-21
426 ** more portability fixes
428 ** the manual includes a title page and a table-of-contents when printed
430 ** the test suite can be run with "make check" from the top-level
433 ** configure now accepts the --enable-maintainer-mode option
435 ** gettext functionality is now only available externally
437 ** the constant FLEX_BETA is defined if flex is a beta release
439 ** the script create-test was not included in the distribution and it
442 * version 2.5.22 released 2002-10-10
444 ** more portability fixes around how we get ahold of the integral
445 types; there is a constant FLEX_NEED_INTEGRAL_TYPE_DEFINITIONS
446 which you should define if you don't have the <inttypes.h> header
447 file (after you complain to your C vendor for not providing a
448 reasonable C environment)
450 ** more test suite cleanups; in particular, the test suite should run
451 correctly when build from a different directory
453 ** upgraded automake to 1.7 and consequently autoconf to 2.54; this
454 means, among other things, that there is some support for
455 formatting the manual in postscript and pdf in the distributed
456 Makefile.in (and therefore in the Makefile built by configure)
458 ** the flex.1 manpage is generated by help2man; (this has been true
459 for quite a while but was not listed here)
461 ** flex now includes three defined constants to indicate which version
462 of flex generated a scanner (YY_FLEX_{MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR}_VERSION)
464 ** flex tries its best to output only the relevant portions of the
465 skeleton when generating a scanner, thus avoiding as much
466 conditional compilation as possible
468 * version 2.5.21 released 2002-9-17
470 ** one of the tests in the test suite broke the dist target
472 * version 2.5.20 released 2002-9-16
474 ** A flex scanner has the ability to save the DFA tables to a file,
475 and load them at runtime when needed; see the manual for details
477 ** Added %option bison-bridge (--bison-bridge)
479 ** Removed %option reentrant-bison/--reentrant-bison/-Rb
481 ** yylineno is present in all scanners; Modified nasty performance
482 penalty warning with yylineno in documentation
484 ** test-table-opts is now run last in the test suite because it's so fat
486 ** flex can, to some extent, diagnose where internal problems occur
488 ** new translations from the translation project: fr, ca, de, ru, sv
490 **Flex generates C99 defs now; see YY_TRADITIONAL_FUNC_DEFS in the
491 manual if that's not a good thing for you
493 * version 2.5.19 released 2002-9-5
495 ** prevent segfault on input lines which are longer than the allocated
496 space (problem report from Manoj Srivastava
497 <srivasta@golden-gryphon.com>)
499 ** Changed option 'header' to 'header-file'
501 * version 2.5.18 released 2002-9-4
503 ** portability fixes for integer constants and in the way the test
504 suite reports its results
506 ** the test for bison was reporting bison missing when it was, in
509 ** if we don't find GNU indent, we're more careful when we're not
512 * version 2.5.17 released 2002-8-29
514 ** more portability fixes
516 ** updated config.sub and config.guess
518 ** flex is indented by GNU indent (this was done earlier but not
519 explicitly documented)
521 * version 2.5.16 released 2002-8-28
523 ** c++ scanners compile again
525 ** there is now an indent target in the top-level Makefile; configure
526 checks for GNU indent which is required for proper operation of the
529 ** some more portability fixes were made
531 ** %options and invocation sections of manual merged
533 ** a c++ test was added to the test suite
535 ** we're trying to clean up more files in the test suite's make clean
538 * version 2.5.15 released 2002-8-21
540 ** reject-state buffer is now dynamically allocated and REJECT buffer
541 variables are reentrant-safe
543 ** manual now discusses memory usage
545 ** skeleton now processed by m4 before mkskel.sh; (this only matters
546 if you want to change the skeleton or if you're doing flex development)
548 ** zh_cn translation added from translation project
550 ** a bug that caused a segfault has now been fixed
552 ** the test suite now respects the usual CFLAGS, etc. variables
554 ** removed some warnings which some tests trigggered with the -s option
556 ** the flex-generated header file now tries to be smarter about
557 conditionally including start conditions
559 ** tables code omitted from generated scanner when not used
561 * version 2.5.14 released 2002-8-15
563 ** the tests using the reentrant c scanner as c++ were reworked
564 slightly to be sure that the c++ was enforced
566 ** de translation now included in the distribution
568 ** various portability fixes regarding nls support, c++ include
571 * version 2.5.13 released 2002-8-15
573 ** the header file output with %option header is now much smaller
575 ** Fixed type mismatch in printf in scanner skeleton
577 ** yylex_init now reports errors
579 * version 2.5.12 released 2002-8-8
581 ** updated gettext support to 0.11.5
583 ** new fr translation from the translation project
585 ** bison is no longer needed to build flex; If you are building flex
586 from a release (i.e., not from a cvs snapshot), then you don't need
587 to have a pre-built lex around either (unless you modify scan.l, of
588 course); (This has been true for some time, but was not mentioned
591 * version 2.5.11 released 2002-7-31
593 ** Fixed bug where yyless did not consider yylineno
595 ** the yylineno performance hit is now gone
597 ** fixed some typos in the manual and we now include texinfo.tex in
600 ** traditional prototypes output for C scanners, controlled by a
601 preprocessor symbol; see documentation for details
603 * version 2.5.10 released 2002-7-24
605 ** yy_globals renamed to yyscanner and yy_globals_t renamed to
608 ** added dist-bzip2 option to Makefile.am so we now produce a bzip2'd
609 archive in addition to the standard gzip archive
613 ** new tests in test suite: test-mem-{nr,r}, test-posix,
614 test-posixly-correct, test-debug-{nr,r}
616 ** made changes to work with gcc-3.2 development code
618 ** ability to choose which memory functions are used in flex
620 ** new yylex_destroy() function for the non-reentrant scanner
622 ** new handling of POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable
624 ** the test suite now has its copyrights explicitly described
626 ** new ca, de, fr, ru, sv, tr translations
630 ** a new --posix option generates scanners with posix-style abc{1,3}
631 compatible parsing, see manual for the screwy details
635 ** configure.in now includes a call to AC_PREREQ to enforce the
636 requirement for autoconf at least 2.50 (This only effects you if
637 you're doing flex development.)
639 ** configure now uses autoconf's versioning information and configure
640 --help reports the bug-reporting address for flex
642 ** test suite now only reports success versus failure; reporting
643 skipped is problematic under the current setup
645 ** compilation with --disable-nls now works
647 ** flex can now be built in a separate directory
651 ** gettext support added (from gettext 0.11)
653 *** translations for ca, da, de, es, fr, ko, ru, sv, tr included
655 ** distribution now built under automake 1.6 and autoconf 2.53
657 ** command-line option parsing happens differently now:
659 *** Added long option parsing
661 *** Options -n and -c, previously deprecated, now simply do nothing
663 *** Options are now parsed left to right
665 ** added a number of new options
667 *** All positive %options are now accessible from the command line
669 *** Added option -D, to define a preprocessor symbol
671 *** Added option --header=FILE to specify a C .h file to generate
673 *** added option --yywrap to call yywrap on EOF
675 *** added option --yylineno to track line count in yylineno
677 *** --yyclass=NAME name of C++ class when generating c++ scanners
679 *** for long option names which are associated with existing short
680 options, see accompanying documentation
682 *** new %option nounistd or command-line --nounistd added to prevent
683 flex from generating #include <unistd.h> on systems that don't
684 have that include file
686 ** Support for reentrant C scanners has been added
688 *** Updated the manual with the new reentrant API
690 *** Two new options %option reentrant (-R) and
691 %option reentrant-bison (-Rb)
693 *** All globals optionally placed into struct yyglobals_t
695 *** All access to globals replaced by macro invocations
697 *** All functions optionally take one additional
700 *** New style for invoking reentrant scanner:
701 yylex_init(void** scanner );
703 yylex_destroy( scanner );
705 *** Added get/set functions for members of struct yy_globals_t
706 e.g., yyget_text, yyget_leng, etc
708 *** Prefix substitution added for new functions
710 *** Macro shortcuts to the lengthy get/set functions
711 provided for use in actions, e.g., yytext, yyleng, etc
713 *** Arbitrary, user-defined data, "yyextra", may be added to scanner
715 ** %option nomain no longer implies %option yywrap
716 But the inverse is still true
718 ** Developer test suite added
720 *** TESTS/ directory has been added. Users can
721 'make test' in the TESTS directory to execute the test suite
723 ** Support for bison variables yylval and yylloc added
725 ** automake support for the build process
727 ** manual is now in texinfo/info format
729 *** flex.1 removed from distribution
731 ** flex no longer generates C-language scanners with C++-style
734 ** flex now generates scanners in c++ which are compatible with
737 ** flex input scanner now recognizes '\r' as an EOL character
739 See the file ONEWS for changes in earlier releases.
741 See the file COPYING for copying conditions.