BNFC

A compiler front-end generator.

http://bnfc.digitalgrammars.com/

Version on this page:2.9.4.1
LTS Haskell 22.43:2.9.5
Stackage Nightly 2024-12-04:2.9.5
Latest on Hackage:2.9.5

See all snapshots BNFC appears in

BSD-3-Clause licensed
Maintained by [email protected]
This version can be pinned in stack with:BNFC-2.9.4.1@sha256:2a6cd859e34637847814c90c9313c479679badb409ccb49d0e3c2ad7e2c2b85d,9085

Module documentation for 2.9.4.1

Hackage version BNFC on Stackage Nightly Stackage LTS version Build status Documentation status

The BNF Converter

What is the BNF Converter?

The BNF Converter (bnfc) is a compiler construction tool generating a compiler front-end from a Labelled BNF (LBNF) grammar. It is currently able to generate Haskell, Agda, C, C++, Java, and OCaml, as well as XML representations.

Given a LBNF grammar the tool produces:

  • an abstract syntax implementation
  • a case skeleton for the abstract syntax in the same language
  • an Alex, Ocamllex, JLex, or Flex lexer generator file
  • a Happy, Ocamlyacc, Menhir, ANTLR, CUP, or Bison parser generator file
  • a pretty-printer as a Haskell/Agda/C/C++/Java/Ocaml module
  • a Latex file containing a readable specification of the language

More information: http://bnfc.digitalgrammars.com/

Installation

Some binaries are available at https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc/releases. Installation from the Haskell sources is possible via stack or cabal.

Installation via stack (recommended)

You need a running installation of stack. To install and run the latest version of bnfc from stackage, enter at the command line:

  stack install BNFC
  bnfc --help

Installation via cabal

You need a running installation of a recent version of GHC and Cabal, most easily available via the GHCup. To install bnfc from hackage, enter at the command line:

  cabal install BNFC
  bnfc --help

Installing the development version

To install the development version of bnfc with the latest bugfixes (and regressions ;-)):

  git clone https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc.git
  cd bnfc/source

and then either

  cabal install

or

  stack install --stack-yaml stack-8.10.7.yaml

(replace 8.10.7 with your GHC version, and if you want to build with your installed GHC then add flag --system-ghc).

Mini tutorial

  • Build a first parser in 5 min (Haskell backend):

    1. In a fresh directory, prepare a grammar file Sum.cf with the following content:

      EInt.  Exp ::= Integer;
      EPlus. Exp ::= Exp "+" Integer;
      
    2. Build a parser (in Haskell) with bnfc:

      bnfc -d -m Sum.cf  &&  make
      

      The make step needs the Haskell compiler GHC, the lexer generator alex and the parser generator happy (all included in the GHC installation).

    3. Inspect the generated files in directory Sum.

    4. Test the parser.

      echo "1 + 2 + 3" | Sum/Test
      
  • Try the C-family backends. (The prerequisites, GNU C(++) compiler (gcc / g++), lexer generator flex and parser generator bison, are usually present):

    bnfc --c   -m -o sum-c   Sum.cf  &&  make -C sum-c    &&  echo "1 + 2 + 3" | sum-c/TestSum
    bnfc --cpp -m -o sum-cpp Sum.cf  &&  make -C sum-cpp  &&  echo "1 + 2 + 3" | sum-cpp/TestSum
    
  • Try the other backends:

    Option Backend
    --java Requires Java, JLex or JFlex, and CUP.
    --java-antlr Requires ANTLR.
    --ocaml Requires OCaml, ocamllex and ocamlyacc.
    --ocaml-menhir Uses menhir instead of ocamlyacc.
    --agda Produces Agda bindings to the parser generated for Haskell.
    --pygments Produces a lexer definition for the Python highlighting suite Pygments.

Documentation

https://bnfc.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

Support

You can discuss with us issues around bnfc on our mailing list [email protected].

For current limitations of bnfc, or to report a new bug, please consult our issue tracker.

Contribute

License

The project is licensed under the BSD 3-clause license.

BNFC versions until 2.8.4 released under the GNU General Public License.

Example uses of the BNF Converter

In research:

In teaching:

Changes

2.9.4.1

Andreas Abel [email protected], December 2022

  • C/C++: allow space characters in token definitions again [#431] (regression in 2.9.0)
  • installation: get rid of cabal-doctest dependency [#429]

Tested GHC versions:

  • with cabal, GHC 7.10 - 9.4
  • with stack, GHC 8.2 - 9.4

2.9.4

Andreas Abel [email protected], February 2022

  • LBNF: empty token types are now forbidden [#388]
  • Agda: support position information via --functor [#405]
  • C/C++: use size_t and -Wsign-conversion [#391]
  • C++: repair broken --line-numbers [#390], regression in 2.9.2 by [#349]
  • Haskell: fix a problem with layout stop words and top-level layout [#399,#413]
  • Haskell: generated test parser can parse several files now [#400]
  • Java: use L.valueOf() instead of deprecated new L() for literal classes L [#402]
  • Ocaml: non-terminals in generated parser are now type-annotated [#407]
  • Ocaml: sanitize bound variables in define
  • Ocaml/Menhir: update parse error mechanism to Menhir 2021/12/30 [#414]

Contributors:

  • Michał Radwański [#390,#391]
  • Beatrice Vergani [#399,#400]

2.9.3

Andreas Abel [email protected], September 2021

  • BNFC now uniformly signs generated files with its version number [#373]
  • C/C++: include stdio.h in parser header files [#381]
  • C++: fixed parser regression in 2.9.2: missing #include <algorithm> [#377]
  • Ocaml: lex CR as whitespace [see also #376]
  • Ocaml: correct position in parse errors [#380]
  • Ocaml/Haskell: make printer for lists categories total [#383]

2.9.2

Andreas Abel [email protected], June 2021

Major improvements

Bug fixes and small improvements

  • Haskell-GADT: generated code is warning free [#346]
  • Haskell: fixes in layout preprocessor [#343,#344,#345,#352,#353]
  • Haskell: print [Char] correctly, removed method prtList [#359]
  • Haskell: added missing import [#368], regression introduced in 2.9.1 by [#331]
  • C: fixed a space leak when parsing from a string in memory [#347]
  • C: removed errorneous defined constructors from Skeleton.c
  • C++: defined constructors now reside in Absyn [#287]
  • Java: defined constructor now reside in AbsynDef.java [#287]
  • Ocaml: fixed translation of nested defined constructors
  • C/C++/Java: Pre/post/mixfix lists are now printed correctly [#358]
  • all: defined constructors involving list expressions work now [#363]
  • all: printers render braces on their own line [#366]

Cosmetical changes

  • C/C++: instead of _SYMB_nnn, more readable token names in lexer & parser

2.9.1

Andreas Abel [email protected], March 2021

Main new feature

  • Haskell: the --functor option now produces position-annotated ASTs [#176,#327]. Thanks @Commelina!

Bug fixes and small improvements

  • Haskell: fix generated Makefile and test parser for --glr mode [#340]
  • Haskell(/GADT): generated modules import Prelude explicitly, compatible with {-# LANGUAGE NoImplicitPrelude #-}
  • Haskell: generated code is warning free [#331]
  • Haskell: generated printer more robust wrt. identifier clashes [#337]
  • Haskell/C: handle token constructors in define expressions [#338]
  • Java/ANTLR: removed more superfluous quotation in lexer character sets [#329]
  • Ocaml: fix syntax error in generated printer [#330]
  • LBNF: more sanity checks [#339]
  • Tested with GHC 9.0

2.9.0

Andreas Abel [email protected], December 2020

Major changes

  • New license: BSD 3-clause [#308]
  • LBNF: removed delimiters pragma [#308]
  • Haskell: removed options --alex1, --alex2, --sharestrings, --profile, and --cnf [#265]
  • C#: backend removed [#265]

Bug fixes

  • LBNF: allow list categories in entrypoints pragma [#306]
  • LBNF: report clashes between token and ordinary categories [#323]
  • C: strdup is not part of C89 standard, _POSIX_C_SOURCE required [#318]
  • C/C++: fixed buffer overrun in String literal lexer [#316]
  • C++: fixed regressions (one of them #310) introduced by #288
  • C/C++/OCaml: allow unicode characters in token definitions [#324]
  • C/OCaml: sanitize grammar file names [#325]
  • Java/ANTLR: removed superfluous quotation in lexer character sets [#319]

2.8.4

Andreas Abel [email protected], October 2020

  • GHC versions 7.10 - 8.10 supported, dropped GHC 7.6 and 7.8
  • LBNF: whitespace list separators are now accepted; treated like “” [#70]
  • define pragma now implemented by all maintained backends [#266, #285]
  • BNFC performs more sanity checks on the grammar, reports errors with source locations [#186, #213, #214]
  • option --check to only perform sanity checks [#286]
  • Backends now more resilient against keyword and name clashes (e.g. via qualified imports) [#278, #289]
  • Haskell: new option --text-token to use Data.Text instead of String in the lexer [#167]
  • Haskell: allow block comment delimiters of any length [#169, #202]
  • Haskell: define Err monad as Either String [#273], migration guide at https://bnfc.readthedocs.io/en/v2.8.4/user_guide.html#haskell-backend
  • Haskell: IsString instances for Ident-like token types [#192]
  • C/C++/Java: support multiple block comment forms per grammar [#202]
  • C++(STL): parser now throws exception on parse error [#288]
  • C++: fixed quadratic behavior in C++-generated printer (regression in 2.8.2)
  • Java: escape JFlex special characters [#299]
  • Java/ANTLR: emit start rules to work around ANTLR issue #2689 [#272]
  • Ocaml: new flag --menhir to generate parser with menhir instead of ocamlyacc
  • Bug fixes: #163, #169, #196, #212, #235, #256, #264, #269, #274, #276, #277, #279, #282, #283, #290
  • Fact-checking and revising LBNF documentation at https://bnfc.readthedocs.io/en/v2.8.4/lbnf.html

2.8.3

Andreas Abel [email protected], August 2019

  • GHC 8.8 compatibility
  • Stack installation supported by provided .yaml files [#198]
  • Unicode support in lexer, excl. C, C++ and Ocaml [#249]
  • LBNF: support \r (carriage return) and \f (form feed) in token declaration [#257]
  • LBNF: allow numbered categories (like Foo2) independent of coercions [#210]
  • Agda: new (experimental) backend, providing bindings to AST/parser/printer of Haskell backend
  • C: supports now the -l option to give error locations [#238]
  • C: correct function names in generated skeletons [#239]
  • C, C++: handle regular expression difference (subtraction) correctly [#237]
  • Haskell: generates now more fine-grained Makefile that invokes bnfc on changed .cf file
  • Haskell: use qualified import of AST in generated printer [#128,#228]
  • Haskell: printer code no longer produces deprecation warning concerning OverlappingInstances [#233]
  • Haskell/CNF: fixed problem with Any type in generated code [#216]
  • Haskell/CNF: generated test program now same name (Test) as w/o –cnf
  • Haskell/GLR: correct module header in .y file [#252]

2.8.2

Andreas Abel [email protected], November 2018

  • GHC 8.4 compatibility [#227,#236]
  • bnfc now puts current timestamp on all created files, even unchanged ones [#219]
  • bnfc is now more accepting about border-line terminals [#149]
  • Improved error messages [#144] in particular on undefined categories [#151]
  • C: Emit correct function prototypes [#185]
  • C++: Fix buffer overrun in pretty printer [#242]
  • C++: Fix regression introduced in 2.8 in Skeleton.H [#164]
  • C++: Replace %name-prefix with %define api.prefix in bison files [#181]
  • C++: Fix a bug that appeared if you had a category named “List”
  • C, C++: Add usage output to the test program [#141]
  • C, C++: Fix a bug in the parser file when using -p [#172]
  • C, C++, OCaml, Java: Accept ’ or “ as comment delimiters [#146]
  • Haskell: Generated code mostly hlint-warning free
  • Haskell: Small fixes [#166,#170,#222]
  • Java: Add an experimental ANTLR4 backend [#155]
  • Java: Add support for passing line numbers to parser [#217,#224,#226]
  • OCaml: Reserved symbols now have a higher precedence than predefined tokens as in Haskell
  • Some updates of the documentation [#211,#223]
  • And various small fixes [#139,#159,#195,#201,#215]

2.8.1

Grégoire Détrez [email protected], February 2016

  • Fix compatibility with GHC 7.10.2 and Alex 3.14
  • Fixed #160

2.8

Grégoire Détrez [email protected], May 2015

  • Builds with ghc 7.10.1
  • Add support for JFlex (java)
  • Add an option to generate files in an other directory
  • Add an experimental option that turns the AST into a parametrized functor (in Haskell only)
  • New pygment backend to generate syntax highlighters
  • Bug fixes

2.7.1

Grégoire Détrez [email protected], October 2014

  • Generated haskell code is now warning free
  • Removed unused terminal in happy
  • Correctly escape backslashes in symbols
  • Fix problem that was preventing custom tokens to work in OCaml if they conflict with the build-in Ident
  • BNFC build is also warning free (ghc 7.4.2)
  • Test programs return non-zerro exit code on parse error

2.7.0.0

Grégoire Détrez [email protected], September 2014

  • Add token support for Ocaml
  • New option parser
  • Adds an optional argument to change Makefile name
  • Add a –ghc option to derive Data, Typeable, Generic in Haskell
  • New online documentation (https://bnfc.readthedocs.org)
  • Derive Read for newtype decls in Haskell
  • New option to get the version number –version
  • Remove the F# backend
  • Remove the Java4 backend
  • New Applicative and Alternative instances to Err
  • Remove the coupling between building the parser and the pdf from latex
  • Improvement to the CNF Backend
  • Bug fixes #92, #21, #34, #33, #90, #30, #60

2.5.0

Grégoire Détrez, April 2013

2.6.0.3

Grégoire Détrez, January 2013

2.4.2.1

Andreas Abel [email protected], July 2012

2.4.2.0

Thomas Hallgren, September 2010

2.4.1.1

Markus Forsberg, September 2010