FLEX.1
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- FLEX(1) Minix Programmer's Manual FLEX(1)
- NAME
- flex, lex - fast lexical analyzer generator
- SYNOPSIS
- flex [-bcdfinpstvFILT8 -C[efmF] -Sskeleton] [filename ...]
- DESCRIPTION
- flex is a tool for generating scanners: programs which recognized lexical
- patterns in text. flex reads the given input files, or its standard
- input if no file names are given, for a description of a scanner to
- generate. The description is in the form of pairs of regular expressions
- and C code, called rules. flex generates as output a C source file,
- lex.yy.c, which defines a routine yylex(). This file is compiled and
- linked with the -lfl library to produce an executable. When the
- executable is run, it analyzes its input for occurrences of the regular
- expressions. Whenever it finds one, it executes the corresponding C
- code.
- For full documentation, see flexdoc(1). This manual entry is intended for
- use as a quick reference.
- OPTIONS
- flex has the following options:
- -b Generate backtracking information to lex.backtrack. This is a list
- of scanner states which require backtracking and the input
- characters on which they do so. By adding rules one can remove
- backtracking states. If all backtracking states are eliminated and
- -f or -F is used, the generated scanner will run faster.
- -c is a do-nothing, deprecated option included for POSIX compliance.
- NOTE: in previous releases of flex -c specified table-compression
- options. This functionality is now given by the -C flag. To ease
- the the impact of this change, when flex encounters -c, it currently
- issues a warning message and assumes that -C was desired instead.
- In the future this "promotion" of -c to -C will go away in the name
- of full POSIX compliance (unless the POSIX meaning is removed
- first).
- -d makes the generated scanner run in debug mode. Whenever a pattern
- is recognized and the global yy_flex_debug is non-zero (which is the
- default), the scanner will write to stderr a line of the form:
- --accepting rule at line 53 ("the matched text")
- The line number refers to the location of the rule in the file
- defining the scanner (i.e., the file that was fed to flex).
- Messages are also generated when the scanner backtracks, accepts the
- default rule, reaches the end of its input buffer (or encounters a
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- NUL; the two look the same as far as the scanner's concerned), or
- reaches an end-of-file.
- -f specifies (take your pick) full table or fast scanner. No table
- compression is done. The result is large but fast. This option is
- equivalent to -Cf (see below).
- -i instructs flex to generate a case-insensitive scanner. The case of
- letters given in the flex input patterns will be ignored, and tokens
- in the input will be matched regardless of case. The matched text
- given in yytext will have the preserved case (i.e., it will not be
- folded).
- -n is another do-nothing, deprecated option included only for POSIX
- compliance.
- -p generates a performance report to stderr. The report consists of
- comments regarding features of the flex input file which will cause
- a loss of performance in the resulting scanner.
- -s causes the default rule (that unmatched scanner input is echoed to
- stdout) to be suppressed. If the scanner encounters input that does
- not match any of its rules, it aborts with an error.
- -t instructs flex to write the scanner it generates to standard output
- instead of lex.yy.c.
- -v specifies that flex should write to stderr a summary of statistics
- regarding the scanner it generates.
- -F specifies that the fast scanner table representation should be used.
- This representation is about as fast as the full table
- representation (-f), and for some sets of patterns will be
- considerably smaller (and for others, larger). See flexdoc(1) for
- details.
- This option is equivalent to -CF (see below).
- -I instructs flex to generate an interactive scanner, that is, a
- scanner which stops immediately rather than looking ahead if it
- knows that the currently scanned text cannot be part of a longer
- rule's match. Again, see flexdoc(1) for details.
- Note, -I cannot be used in conjunction with full or fast tables,
- i.e., the -f, -F, -Cf, or -CF flags.
- -L instructs flex not to generate #line directives in lex.yy.c. The
- default is to generate such directives so error messages in the
- actions will be correctly located with respect to the original flex
- input file, and not to the fairly meaningless line numbers of
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- lex.yy.c.
- -T makes flex run in trace mode. It will generate a lot of messages to
- stdout concerning the form of the input and the resultant non-
- deterministic and deterministic finite automata. This option is
- mostly for use in maintaining flex.
- -8 instructs flex to generate an 8-bit scanner. On some sites, this is
- the default. On others, the default is 7-bit characters. To see
- which is the case, check the verbose (-v) output for "equivalence
- classes created". If the denominator of the number shown is 128,
- then by default flex is generating 7-bit characters. If it is 256,
- then the default is 8-bit characters.
- -C[efmF]
- controls the degree of table compression.
- -Ce directs flex to construct equivalence classes, i.e., sets of
- characters which have identical lexical properties. Equivalence
- classes usually give dramatic reductions in the final table/object
- file sizes (typically a factor of 2-5) and are pretty cheap
- performance-wise (one array look-up per character scanned).
- -Cf specifies that the full scanner tables should be generated -
- flex should not compress the tables by taking advantages of similar
- transition functions for different states.
- -CF specifies that the alternate fast scanner representation
- (described in flexdoc(1)) should be used.
- -Cm directs flex to construct meta-equivalence classes, which are
- sets of equivalence classes (or characters, if equivalence classes
- are not being used) that are commonly used together. Meta-
- equivalence classes are often a big win when using compressed
- tables, but they have a moderate performance impact (one or two "if"
- tests and one array look-up per character scanned).
- A lone -C specifies that the scanner tables should be compressed but
- neither equivalence classes nor meta-equivalence classes should be
- used.
- The options -Cf or -CF and -Cm do not make sense together - there is
- no opportunity for meta-equivalence classes if the table is not
- being compressed. Otherwise the options may be freely mixed.
- The default setting is -Cem, which specifies that flex should
- generate equivalence classes and meta-equivalence classes. This
- setting provides the highest degree of table compression. You can
- trade off faster-executing scanners at the cost of larger tables
- with the following generally being true:
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- slowest & smallest
- -Cem
- -Cm
- -Ce
- -C
- -C{f,F}e
- -C{f,F}
- fastest & largest
- -C options are not cumulative; whenever the flag is encountered, the
- previous -C settings are forgotten.
- -Sskeleton_file
- overrides the default skeleton file from which flex constructs its
- scanners. You'll never need this option unless you are doing flex
- maintenance or development.
- SUMMARY OF FLEX REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
- The patterns in the input are written using an extended set of regular
- expressions. These are:
- x match the character 'x'
- . any character except newline
- [xyz] a "character class"; in this case, the pattern
- matches either an 'x', a 'y', or a 'z'
- [abj-oZ] a "character class" with a range in it; matches
- an 'a', a 'b', any letter from 'j' through 'o',
- or a 'Z'
- [^A-Z] a "negated character class", i.e., any character
- but those in the class. In this case, any
- character EXCEPT an uppercase letter.
- [^A-Zn] any character EXCEPT an uppercase letter or
- a newline
- r* zero or more r's, where r is any regular expression
- r+ one or more r's
- r? zero or one r's (that is, "an optional r")
- r{2,5} anywhere from two to five r's
- r{2,} two or more r's
- r{4} exactly 4 r's
- {name} the expansion of the "name" definition
- (see above)
- "[xyz]"foo"
- the literal string: [xyz]"foo
- X if X is an 'a', 'b', 'f', 'n', 'r', 't', or 'v',
- then the ANSI-C interpretation of x.
- Otherwise, a literal 'X' (used to escape
- operators such as '*')
- 123 the character with octal value 123
- x2a the character with hexadecimal value 2a
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- (r) match an r; parentheses are used to override
- precedence (see below)
- rs the regular expression r followed by the
- regular expression s; called "concatenation"
- r|s either an r or an s
- r/s an r but only if it is followed by an s. The
- s is not part of the matched text. This type
- of pattern is called as "trailing context".
- ^r an r, but only at the beginning of a line
- r$ an r, but only at the end of a line. Equivalent
- to "r/n".
- <s>r an r, but only in start condition s (see
- below for discussion of start conditions)
- <s1,s2,s3>r
- same, but in any of start conditions s1,
- s2, or s3
- <<EOF>> an end-of-file
- <s1,s2><<EOF>>
- an end-of-file when in start condition s1 or s2
- The regular expressions listed above are grouped according to precedence,
- from highest precedence at the top to lowest at the bottom. Those
- grouped together have equal precedence.
- Some notes on patterns:
- - Negated character classes match newlines unless "n" (or an
- equivalent escape sequence) is one of the characters explicitly
- present in the negated character class (e.g., "[^A-Zn]").
- - A rule can have at most one instance of trailing context (the '/'
- operator or the '$' operator). The start condition, '^', and
- "<<EOF>>" patterns can only occur at the beginning of a pattern,
- and, as well as with '/' and '$', cannot be grouped inside
- parentheses. The following are all illegal:
- foo/bar$
- foo|(bar$)
- foo|^bar
- <sc1>foo<sc2>bar
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- SUMMARY OF SPECIAL ACTIONS
- In addition to arbitrary C code, the following can appear in actions:
- - ECHO copies yytext to the scanner's output.
- - BEGIN followed by the name of a start condition places the scanner
- in the corresponding start condition.
- - REJECT directs the scanner to proceed on to the "second best" rule
- which matched the input (or a prefix of the input). yytext and
- yyleng are set up appropriately. Note that REJECT is a particularly
- expensive feature in terms scanner performance; if it is used in any
- of the scanner's actions it will slow down all of the scanner's
- matching. Furthermore, REJECT cannot be used with the -f or -F
- options.
- Note also that unlike the other special actions, REJECT is a branch;
- code immediately following it in the action will not be executed.
- - yymore() tells the scanner that the next time it matches a rule, the
- corresponding token should be appended onto the current value of
- yytext rather than replacing it.
- - yyless(n) returns all but the first n characters of the current
- token back to the input stream, where they will be rescanned when
- the scanner looks for the next match. yytext and yyleng are
- adjusted appropriately (e.g., yyleng will now be equal to n ).
- - unput(c) puts the character c back onto the input stream. It will
- be the next character scanned.
- - input() reads the next character from the input stream (this routine
- is called yyinput() if the scanner is compiled using C++).
- - yyterminate() can be used in lieu of a return statement in an
- action. It terminates the scanner and returns a 0 to the scanner's
- caller, indicating "all done".
- By default, yyterminate() is also called when an end-of-file is
- encountered. It is a macro and may be redefined.
- - YY_NEW_FILE is an action available only in <<EOF>> rules. It means
- "Okay, I've set up a new input file, continue scanning".
- - yy_create_buffer( file, size ) takes a FILE pointer and an integer
- size. It returns a YY_BUFFER_STATE handle to a new input buffer
- large enough to accomodate size characters and associated with the
- given file. When in doubt, use YY_BUF_SIZE for the size.
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- - yy_switch_to_buffer( new_buffer ) switches the scanner's processing
- to scan for tokens from the given buffer, which must be a
- YY_BUFFER_STATE.
- - yy_delete_buffer( buffer ) deletes the given buffer.
- VALUES AVAILABLE TO THE USER
- - char *yytext holds the text of the current token. It may not be
- modified.
- - int yyleng holds the length of the current token. It may not be
- modified.
- - FILE *yyin is the file which by default flex reads from. It may be
- redefined but doing so only makes sense before scanning begins.
- Changing it in the middle of scanning will have unexpected results
- since flex buffers its input. Once scanning terminates because an
- end-of-file has been seen, void yyrestart( FILE *new_file ) may be
- called to point yyin at the new input file.
- - FILE *yyout is the file to which ECHO actions are done. It can be
- reassigned by the user.
- - YY_CURRENT_BUFFER returns a YY_BUFFER_STATE handle to the current
- buffer.
- MACROS THE USER CAN REDEFINE
- - YY_DECL controls how the scanning routine is declared. By default,
- it is "int yylex()", or, if prototypes are being used, "int
- yylex(void)". This definition may be changed by redefining the
- "YY_DECL" macro. Note that if you give arguments to the scanning
- routine using a K&R-style/non-prototyped function declaration, you
- must terminate the definition with a semi-colon (;).
- - The nature of how the scanner gets its input can be controlled by
- redefining the YY_INPUT macro. YY_INPUT's calling sequence is
- "YY_INPUT(buf,result,max_size)". Its action is to place up to
- max_size characters in the character array buf and return in the
- integer variable result either the number of characters read or the
- constant YY_NULL (0 on Unix systems) to indicate EOF. The default
- YY_INPUT reads from the global file-pointer "yyin". A sample
- redefinition of YY_INPUT (in the definitions section of the input
- file):
- %{
- #undef YY_INPUT
- #define YY_INPUT(buf,result,max_size)
- {
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- int c = getchar();
- result = (c == EOF) ? YY_NULL : (buf[0] = c, 1);
- }
- %}
- - When the scanner receives an end-of-file indication from YY_INPUT,
- it then checks the yywrap() function. If yywrap() returns false
- (zero), then it is assumed that the function has gone ahead and set
- up yyin to point to another input file, and scanning continues. If
- it returns true (non-zero), then the scanner terminates, returning 0
- to its caller.
- The default yywrap() always returns 1. Presently, to redefine it
- you must first "#undef yywrap", as it is currently implemented as a
- macro. It is likely that yywrap() will soon be defined to be a
- function rather than a macro.
- - YY_USER_ACTION can be redefined to provide an action which is always
- executed prior to the matched rule's action.
- - The macro YY_USER_INIT may be redefined to provide an action which
- is always executed before the first scan.
- - In the generated scanner, the actions are all gathered in one large
- switch statement and separated using YY_BREAK, which may be
- redefined. By default, it is simply a "break", to separate each
- rule's action from the following rule's.
- FILES
- flex.skel
- skeleton scanner.
- lex.yy.c
- generated scanner (called lexyy.c on some systems).
- lex.backtrack
- backtracking information for -b flag (called lex.bck on some
- systems).
- -lfl library with which to link the scanners.
- SEE ALSO
- flexdoc(1), lex(1), yacc(1), sed(1), awk(1).
- M. E. Lesk and E. Schmidt, LEX - Lexical Analyzer Generator
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- DIAGNOSTICS
- reject_used_but_not_detected undefined or
- 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).
- Make an explicit reference to the action in your flex input file. (Note
- that previously flex supported a %used/%unused mechanism for dealing with
- this problem; this feature is still supported but now deprecated, and
- will go away soon unless the author hears from people who can argue
- compellingly that they need it.)
- flex scanner jammed - a scanner compiled with -s has encountered an input
- string which wasn't matched by any of its rules.
- flex input buffer overflowed - a scanner rule matched a string long
- enough to overflow the scanner's internal input buffer (16K bytes -
- controlled by YY_BUF_MAX in "flex.skel").
- scanner requires -8 flag - Your scanner specification includes
- recognizing 8-bit characters and you did not specify the -8 flag (and
- your site has not installed flex with -8 as the default).
- 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 );
- too many %t classes! - You managed to put every single character into its
- own %t class. flex requires that at least one of the classes share
- characters.
- AUTHOR
- Vern Paxson, with the help of many ideas and much inspiration from Van
- Jacobson. Original version by Jef Poskanzer.
- See flexdoc(1) for additional credits and the address to send comments
- to.
- 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
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- 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, this happens in the following example:
- %%
- abc |
- xyz/def
- Use of unput() invalidates yytext and yyleng.
- Use of unput() to push back more text than was matched can result in the
- pushed-back text matching a beginning-of-line ('^') rule even though it
- didn't come at the beginning of the line (though this is rare!).
- Pattern-matching of NUL's is substantially slower than matching other
- characters.
- flex does not generate correct #line directives for code internal to the
- scanner; thus, bugs in flex.skel yield bogus line numbers.
- 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.
- Some of the macros, such as yywrap(), may in the future become functions
- which live in the -lfl library. This will doubtless break a lot of code,
- but may be required for POSIX-compliance.
- The flex internal algorithms need documentation.
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