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This is flex, the fast lexical analyzer generator. |
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flex is a tool for generating scanners: programs which recognize |
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lexical patterns in text. |
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The flex codebase is kept in |
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[Git on GitHub.](https://github.com/westes/flex) |
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Use GitHub's [issues](https://github.com/westes/flex/issues) and |
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[pull request](https://github.com/westes/flex) features to file bugs |
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and submit patches. |
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There are several mailing lists available as well: |
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* flex-announce@lists.sourceforge.net - where posts will be made |
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announcing new releases of flex. |
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* flex-help@lists.sourceforge.net - where you can post questions about |
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using flex |
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* flex-devel@lists.sourceforge.net - where you can discuss development |
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of flex itself |
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Find information on subscribing to the mailing lists at: |
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http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=97492 |
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The flex distribution contains the following files which may be of |
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interest: |
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* README - This file. |
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* NEWS - current version number and list of user-visible changes. |
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* INSTALL - basic installation information. |
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* ABOUT-NLS - description of internationalization support in flex. |
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* COPYING - flex's copyright and license. |
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* doc/ - user documentation. |
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* examples/ - containing examples of some possible flex scanners and a |
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few other things. See the file examples/README for more |
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details. |
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* tests/ - regression tests. See TESTS/README for details. |
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* po/ - internationalization support files. |
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You need the following tools to build flex from the maintainer's |
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repository: |
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* compiler suite - flex is built with gcc |
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* bash, or a good Bourne-style shell |
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* m4 - m4 -p needs to work; GNU m4 and a few others are suitable |
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* GNU bison; to generate parse.c from parse.y |
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* autoconf; for handling the build system |
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* automake; for Makefile generation |
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* gettext; for i18n support |
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* help2man; to generate the flex man page |
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* tar, gzip, lzip, etc.; for packaging of the source distribution |
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* GNU texinfo; to build and test the flex manual. Note that if you want |
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to build the dvi/ps/pdf versions of the documentation you will need |
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texi2dvi and related programs, along with a sufficiently powerful |
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implementation of TeX to process them. See your operating system |
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documentation for how to achieve this. The printable versions of the |
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manual are not built unless specifically requested, but the targets |
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are included by automake. |
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* GNU indent; for indenting the flex source the way we want it done |
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In cases where the versions of the above tools matter, the file |
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configure.ac will specify the minimum required versions. |
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Once you have all the necessary tools installed, life becomes |
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simple. To prepare the flex tree for building, run the script: |
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```bash |
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./autogen.sh |
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``` |
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in the top level of the flex source tree. |
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This script calls the various tools needed to get flex ready for the |
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GNU-style configure script to be able to work. |
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From this point on, building flex follows the usual routine: |
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```bash |
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configure && make && make install |
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``` |
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This file is part of flex. |
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This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by |
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Vern Paxson. |
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The United States Government has rights in this work pursuant |
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to contract no. DE-AC03-76SF00098 between the United States |
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Department of Energy and the University of California. |
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Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without |
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modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions |
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are met: |
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1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright |
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notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. |
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2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright |
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notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the |
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documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. |
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Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors |
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may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software |
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without specific prior written permission. |
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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR |
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IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED |
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WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR |
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PURPOSE. |
