README.md

yacc_prodrule_hack

This C program uses Flex to scan your Bison/YACC file for production rule identifiers beginning with _PR_.

An enum is created in a header file with the name <inputfilename>_pr.h. This is useful for creating unique identifiers for each production rule without having to painstakingly create and update the enum yourself.

Every production rule identifier prefixed with _PR_ will appear in the enum.

The program will not overwrite any existing files (by design), so you'll have to delete your old _pr.h file to generate a new one.

Input file must have the extension .y.

You can input as many .y files as you want in the command line arguments. The program will generate a separate header file for each.

How to Use

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/Noah-Schoonover/yacc_prodrule_hack.git

2. Run make in the root directory of the project. (You must have Flex installed...see the makefile for more information.)

If the tool compiles successfully, there will be an executable named pr_hack.

3. Run ./pr_hack <inputfile>.y (you must rename your product rules with prefix _PR_, or the enum will be barren).

• You could also copy the pr_hack executable to another directory for ease of use, and
• call the tool from your makefile and include the _pr.h file in your project.

Bugs

Will output multiple enum members for identical product rule names...which is a problem if you use them more than once. Will possibly add a fix for this soon.
For now, in UNIX you could just call awk -i inplace '!seen[$0]++' <yourfile>_pr.h to remove the duplicate lines.

Please inform me if you find any other issues.

The lex is meant to ignore everything inside of comments, but I haven't done extensive testing on that yet.

Notes

noun: hack; plural noun: hacks
     a piece of computer code providing a quick or inelegant solution to a particular problem