Package: flex Version: 2.5.31-26 The version of flex in Debian testing no longer works with a large number of packages which depend on traditional lex compatibility or POSIX lex compliance. The biggest problem I have had is that yywrap() now takes an argument of some type.
Because of this I don't think the /usr/bin/lex, /usr/lib/libl.a, and the /usr/share/man/man1/lex.1.gz compatibility symlinks are appropriate anymore. There is a second issue, which is that the info and man documentation fail to describe the compatibility issues. It would seem to be appropriate to document when the yywrap() function is discussed as well as in sections talking about porting "AT&T" code (which is of course not the only code which will have problems anymore -- POSIX and BSD code will also fail). Similarly, the section talking about POSIX compliance says: "`flex' is fully compliant with the POSIX `lex' specification, except that when using `%pointer' (the default), a call to `unput()' destroys the contents of `yytext', which is counter to the POSIX specification." I believe that is an incorrect and misleading statement. I am happy to see, now that I am submitting this bug report, that there is a blurb in the package description and a reference to flex-old. Maybe that should be the default version of flex to be installed. Finally, I'm happy to break this into multiple reports if it is deemed appropriate. Thanks, -Ross -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
