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Options
*******

   `flex' has the following options:

`-b'
     Generate backing-up information to `lex.backup'.  This is a list
     of scanner states which require backing up and the input
     characters on which they do so.  By adding rules one can remove
     backing-up states.  If _all_ backing-up states are eliminated and
     `-Cf' or `-CF' is used, the generated scanner will run faster (see
     the `-p' flag).  Only users who wish to squeeze every last cycle
     out of their scanners need worry about this option.  (Note:
     Performance Considerations.)

`-c'
     is a do-nothing, deprecated option included for POSIX compliance.

`-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 backs up, accepts the
     default rule, reaches the end of its input buffer (or encounters a
     NUL; at this point, the two look the same as far as the scanner's
     concerned), or reaches an end-of-file.

`-f'
     specifies "fast scanner".  No table compression is done and stdio
     is bypassed.  The result is large but fast.  This option is
     equivalent to `-Cfr' (see below).

`-h'
     generates a "help" summary of `flex's' options to `stdout' and
     then exits.  `-?' and `--help' are synonyms for `-h'.

`-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).

`-l'
     turns on maximum compatibility with the original AT&T `lex'
     implementation.  Note that this does not mean _full_
     compatibility.  Use of this option costs a considerable amount of
     performance, and it cannot be used with the `-+, -f, -F, -Cf', or
     `-CF' options.  For details on the compatibilities it provides, see
     the section "Incompatibilities With Lex And POSIX" below.  This
     option also results in the name `YY_FLEX_LEX_COMPAT' being
     #define'd in the generated scanner.

`-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 serious loss of performance in the resulting scanner.  If
     you give the flag twice, you will also get comments regarding
     features that lead to minor performance losses.

     Note that the use of `REJECT', `%option yylineno' and variable
     trailing context (see the Deficiencies / Bugs section below)
     entails a substantial performance penalty; use of `yymore()', the
     `^' operator, and the `-I' flag entail minor performance penalties.

`-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.
     This option is useful for finding holes in a scanner's rule set.

`-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.  Most of the
     statistics are meaningless to the casual `flex' user, but the
     first line identifies the version of `flex' (same as reported by
     `-V'), and the next line the flags used when generating the
     scanner, including those that are on by default.

`-w'
     suppresses warning messages.

`-B'
     instructs `flex' to generate a _batch_ scanner, the opposite of
     _interactive_ scanners generated by `-I' (see below).  In general,
     you use `-B' when you are _certain_ that your scanner will never
     be used interactively, and you want to squeeze a _little_ more
     performance out of it.  If your goal is instead to squeeze out a
     _lot_ more performance, you should be using the `-Cf' or `-CF'
     options (discussed below), which turn on `-B' automatically anyway.

`-F'
     specifies that the "fast" scanner table representation should be
     used (and stdio bypassed).  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).
     In general, if the pattern set contains both "keywords" and a
     catch-all, "identifier" rule, such as in the set:

          "case"    return TOK_CASE;
          "switch"  return TOK_SWITCH;
          ...
          "default" return TOK_DEFAULT;
          [a-z]+    return TOK_ID;

     then you're better off using the full table representation.  If
     only the "identifier" rule is present and you then use a hash
     table or some such to detect the keywords, you're better off using
     `-F'.

     This option is equivalent to `-CFr' (see below).  It cannot be
     used with `-+'.

`-I'
     instructs `flex' to generate an _interactive_ scanner.  An
     interactive scanner is one that only looks ahead to decide what
     token has been matched if it absolutely must.  It turns out that
     always looking one extra character ahead, even if the scanner has
     already seen enough text to disambiguate the current token, is a
     bit faster than only looking ahead when necessary.  But scanners
     that always look ahead give dreadful interactive performance; for
     example, when a user types a newline, it is not recognized as a
     newline token until they enter _another_ token, which often means
     typing in another whole line.

     `Flex' scanners default to _interactive_ unless you use the `-Cf'
     or `-CF' table-compression options (see below).  That's because if
     you're looking for high-performance you should be using one of
     these options, so if you didn't, `flex' assumes you'd rather trade
     off a bit of run-time performance for intuitive interactive
     behavior.  Note also that you _cannot_ use `-I' in conjunction
     with `-Cf' or `-CF'.  Thus, this option is not really needed; it
     is on by default for all those cases in which it is allowed.

     You can force a scanner to _not_ be interactive by using `-B' (see
     above).

`-L'
     instructs `flex' not to generate `#line' directives.  Without this
     option, `flex' peppers the generated scanner with #line directives
     so error messages in the actions will be correctly located with
     respect to either the original `flex' input file (if the errors
     are due to code in the input file), or `lex.yy.c' (if the errors
     are `flex's' fault - you should report these sorts of errors to
     the email address given below).

`-T'
     makes `flex' run in `trace' mode.  It will generate a lot of
     messages to `stderr' concerning the form of the input and the
     resultant non-deterministic and deterministic finite automata.
     This option is mostly for use in maintaining `flex'.

`-V'
     prints the version number to `stdout' and exits.  `--version' is a
     synonym for `-V'.

`-7'
     instructs `flex' to generate a 7-bit scanner, i.e., one which can
     only recognized 7-bit characters in its input.  The advantage of
     using `-7' is that the scanner's tables can be up to half the size
     of those generated using the `-8' option (see below).  The
     disadvantage is that such scanners often hang or crash if their
     input contains an 8-bit character.

     Note, however, that unless you generate your scanner using the
     `-Cf' or `-CF' table compression options, use of `-7' will save
     only a small amount of table space, and make your scanner
     considerably less portable.  `Flex's' default behavior is to
     generate an 8-bit scanner unless you use the `-Cf' or `-CF', in
     which case `flex' defaults to generating 7-bit scanners unless
     your site was always configured to generate 8-bit scanners (as
     will often be the case with non-USA sites).  You can tell whether
     flex generated a 7-bit or an 8-bit scanner by inspecting the flag
     summary in the `-v' output as described above.

     Note that if you use `-Cfe' or `-CFe' (those table compression
     options, but also using equivalence classes as discussed see
     below), flex still defaults to generating an 8-bit scanner, since
     usually with these compression options full 8-bit tables are not
     much more expensive than 7-bit tables.

`-8'
     instructs `flex' to generate an 8-bit scanner, i.e., one which can
     recognize 8-bit characters.  This flag is only needed for scanners
     generated using `-Cf' or `-CF', as otherwise flex defaults to
     generating an 8-bit scanner anyway.

     See the discussion of `-7' above for flex's default behavior and
     the tradeoffs between 7-bit and 8-bit scanners.

`-+'
     specifies that you want flex to generate a C++ scanner class.
     Note: Generating C++ Scanners.

`-C[aefFmr]'
     controls the degree of table compression and, more generally,
     trade-offs between small scanners and fast scanners.

     `-Ca' ("align") instructs flex to trade off larger tables in the
     generated scanner for faster performance because the elements of
     the tables are better aligned for memory access and computation.
     On some RISC architectures, fetching and manipulating long-words
     is more efficient than with smaller-sized units such as
     shortwords.  This option can quadruple the size of the tables used
     by your scanner.  It has the side effect of permitting much larger
     scanners, however, if you need this.

     `-Ce' directs `flex' to construct "equivalence classes", i.e.,
     sets of characters which have identical lexical properties (for
     example, if the only appearance of digits in the `flex' input is
     in the character class "[0-9]" then the digits '0', '1', ..., '9'
     will all be put in the same equivalence class).  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 above under the `-F' flag) should be used.  This option
     cannot be used with `-+'.

     `-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).

     `-Cr' causes the generated scanner to _bypass_ use of the standard
     I/O library (stdio) for input.  Instead of calling `fread()' or
     `getc()', the scanner will use the `read()' system call, resulting
     in a performance gain which varies from system to system, but in
     general is probably negligible unless you are also using `-Cf' or
     `-CF'.  Using `-Cr' can cause strange behavior if, for example,
     you read from `yyin' using stdio prior to calling the scanner
     (because the scanner will miss whatever text your previous reads
     left in the stdio input buffer).

     `-Cr' has no effect if you define `YY_INPUT' (see The Generated
     Scanner above).

     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, and are cumulative.

     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:

          slowest & smallest
                -Cem
                -Cm
                -Ce
                -C
                -C{f,F}e
                -C{f,F}
                -C{f,F}a
          fastest & largest

     Note that scanners with the smallest tables are usually generated
     and compiled the quickest, so during development you will usually
     want to use the default, maximal compression.

     `-Cfe' is often a good compromise between speed and size for
     production scanners.

`-ooutput'
     directs flex to write the scanner to the file `out-' `put' instead
     of `lex.yy.c'.  If you combine `-o' with the `-t' option, then the
     scanner is written to `stdout' but its `#line' directives (see the
     `-L' option above) refer to the file `output'.

`-Pprefix'
     changes the default `yy' prefix used by `flex' for all
     globally-visible variable and function names to instead be PREFIX.
     For example, `-Pfoo' changes the name of `yytext' to `footext'.
     It also changes the name of the default output file from
     `lex.yy.c' to `lex.foo.c'.  Here are all of the names affected:

          yy_create_buffer
          yy_delete_buffer
          yy_flex_debug
          yy_init_buffer
          yy_flush_buffer
          yy_load_buffer_state
          yy_switch_to_buffer
          yyin
          yyleng
          yylex
          yylineno
          yyout
          yyrestart
          yytext
          yywrap

     (If you are using a C++ scanner, then only `yywrap' and
     `yyFlexLexer' are affected.) Within your scanner itself, you can
     still refer to the global variables and functions using either
     version of their name; but externally, they have the modified name.

     This option lets you easily link together multiple `flex' programs
     into the same executable.  Note, though, that using this option
     also renames `yywrap()', so you now _must_ either provide your own
     (appropriately-named) version of the routine for your scanner, or
     use `%option noyywrap', as linking with `-lfl' no longer provides
     one for you by default.

`-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.

   `flex' also provides a mechanism for controlling options within the
scanner specification itself, rather than from the flex command-line.
This is done by including `%option' directives in the first section of
the scanner specification.  You can specify multiple options with a
single `%option' directive, and multiple directives in the first
section of your flex input file.  Most options are given simply as
names, optionally preceded by the word "no" (with no intervening
whitespace) to negate their meaning.  A number are equivalent to flex
flags or their negation:

     7bit            -7 option
     8bit            -8 option
     align           -Ca option
     backup          -b option
     batch           -B option
     c++             -+ option
     
     caseful or
     case-sensitive  opposite of -i (default)
     
     case-insensitive or
     caseless        -i option
     
     debug           -d option
     default         opposite of -s option
     ecs             -Ce option
     fast            -F option
     full            -f option
     interactive     -I option
     lex-compat      -l option
     meta-ecs        -Cm option
     perf-report     -p option
     read            -Cr option
     stdout          -t option
     verbose         -v option
     warn            opposite of -w option
                     (use "%option nowarn" for -w)
     
     array           equivalent to "%array"
     pointer         equivalent to "%pointer" (default)

   Some `%option's' provide features otherwise not available:

`always-interactive'
     instructs flex to generate a scanner which always considers its
     input "interactive".  Normally, on each new input file the scanner
     calls `isatty()' in an attempt to determine whether the scanner's
     input source is interactive and thus should be read a character at
     a time.  When this option is used, however, then no such call is
     made.

`main'
     directs flex to provide a default `main()' program for the
     scanner, which simply calls `yylex()'.  This option implies
     `noyywrap' (see below).

`never-interactive'
     instructs flex to generate a scanner which never considers its
     input "interactive" (again, no call made to `isatty())'.  This is
     the opposite of `always-' _interactive_.

`stack'
     enables the use of start condition stacks (see Start Conditions
     above).

`stdinit'
     if unset (i.e., `%option nostdinit') initializes `yyin' and
     `yyout' to nil `FILE' pointers, instead of `stdin' and `stdout'.

`yylineno'
     directs `flex' to generate a scanner that maintains the number of
     the current line read from its input in the global variable
     `yylineno'.  This option is implied by `%option lex-compat'.

`yywrap'
     if unset (i.e., `%option noyywrap'), makes the scanner not call
     `yywrap()' upon an end-of-file, but simply assume that there are
     no more files to scan (until the user points `yyin' at a new file
     and calls `yylex()' again).

   `flex' scans your rule actions to determine whether you use the
`REJECT' or `yymore()' features.  The `reject' and `yymore' options are
available to override its decision as to whether you use the options,
either by setting them (e.g., `%option reject') to indicate the feature
is indeed used, or unsetting them to indicate it actually is not used
(e.g., `%option noyymore').

   Three options take string-delimited values, offset with '=':

     %option outfile="ABC"

is equivalent to `-oABC', and

     %option prefix="XYZ"

is equivalent to `-PXYZ'.

   Finally,

     %option yyclass="foo"

only applies when generating a C++ scanner (`-+' option).  It informs
`flex' that you have derived `foo' as a subclass of `yyFlexLexer' so
`flex' will place your actions in the member function `foo::yylex()'
instead of `yyFlexLexer::yylex()'.  It also generates a
`yyFlexLexer::yylex()' member function that emits a run-time error (by
invoking `yyFlexLexer::LexerError()') if called.  Note: Generating C++
Scanners.

   A number of options are available for lint purists who want to
suppress the appearance of unneeded routines in the generated scanner.
Each of the following, if unset, results in the corresponding routine
not appearing in the generated scanner:

     input, unput
     yy_push_state, yy_pop_state, yy_top_state
     yy_scan_buffer, yy_scan_bytes, yy_scan_string

(though `yy_push_state()' and friends won't appear anyway unless you
use `%option stack').


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