Re: RFC: Default output destination

[Akim Demaille]

| Hello, Jim and others!

Hi Pavel!

| > Is it that behavior documented?

The documentation says:

        With all the source in a single file, you use the following
        command to convert it into a parser file:
        
        @example
        bison @var{file_name}.y
        @end example
        
        @noindent
        In this example the file was called @file{rpcalc.y} (for
**      ``Reverse Polish CALCulator'').  Bison produces a file named
**      @address@hidden, removing the @samp{.y} from the
**      original file name. The file output by Bison contains the
        source code for @code{yyparse}.  The additional functions in
        the input file (@code{yylex}, @code{yyerror} and @code{main})
        are copied verbatim to the output.

which agrees with this behavior.  The question is then: did the author
think about file_name=dir_part/base_part?  (And BTW, why the heck is
there this `tab' part?)

| > If so, then it's probably not reasonable to change it.
| > I've Cc'd the automake list, because some of automake's
| > rules use bison through $(YACC) -- though I'll bet they
| > all use it in yacc-compatible mode.
| 
| Yes, Automake currently used bison in Automake-compatible mode, but it
| would be fair for Automake to switch to the native mode as long as the
| processed files are distributed and "missing" emulates bison.

And indeed the behavior is then different:

/tmp % rm calc.* *tab*                                           nostromo 17:37
/tmp % bison src/calc.y                                          nostromo 17:38
/tmp % ls src calc.c -l                                          nostromo 17:38
ls: calc.c: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type
total 32
-rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde        27517 oct  2 17:38 calc.tab.c
-rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde         3335 oct  2 16:31 calc.y


/tmp % rm src/calc.tab.c                                         nostromo Err 1
/tmp % bison src/calc.y -y                                       nostromo 17:38
/tmp % ls src *tab* -l                                           nostromo Err 1
-rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde        27517 oct  2 17:38 y.tab.c

src:
total 4
-rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde         3335 oct  2 16:31 calc.y


| In any case, the makefiles should specify the output file explicitly
| instead of relying on weird defaults.

This is not possible simply with Yacc/Bison which (can) generates many
files (*.output, *.h...).

| > | src:
| > | total 32
| > | -rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde        27553 oct  2 16:31 calc.tab.c
| > | -rw-r--r--    1 akim     lrde         3335 oct  2 16:31 calc.y
| 
| This is not _that_ ugly as it seems - with Automake you want to put
| sources where they belong - to the source directory.

The difference source/build you are referring to is based on Automake
concepts.  They have no sense at all for tools such as bison or gcc
etc.  They have input and output.  I do not want them to try to grasp
source/build.  I want them to behave uniformly: output *here*.

        Akim