3. Overview

This manual describes flex, a tool for generating programs that perform pattern-matching on text. The manual includes both tutorial and reference sections:

Description: a brief overview of the tool
Some Simple Examples
Format Of The Input File
Patterns: the extended regular expressions used by flex
How The Input Is Matched: the rules for determining what has been matched
Actions: how to specify what to do when a pattern is matched
The Generated Scanner: details regarding the scanner that flex produces; how to control the input source
Start Conditions: introducing context into your scanners, and managing "mini-scanners"
Multiple Input Buffers: how to manipulate multiple input sources; how to scan from strings instead of files
End-of-file Rules: special rules for matching the end of the input
Miscellaneous Macros: a summary of macros available to the actions
Values Available To The User: a summary of values available to the actions
Interfacing With Yacc: connecting flex scanners together with yacc parsers
Options: flex command-line options, and the "%option" directive
Performance Considerations: how to make your scanner go as fast as possible
Generating C++ Scanners: the (experimental) facility for generating C++ scanner classes
Incompatibilities With Lex And POSIX: how flex differs from AT&T lex and the POSIX lex standard
Diagnostics: those error messages produced by flex (or scanners it generates) whose meanings might not be apparent
Files: files used by flex
Deficiencies / Bugs: known problems with flex
See Also: other documentation, related tools
Author: includes contact information

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