(bison.info.gz) Conditions

 
 Conditions for Using Bison
 **************************
 
    As of Bison version 1.24, we have changed the distribution terms for
 `yyparse' to permit using Bison's output in nonfree programs when Bison
 is generating C code for LALR(1) parsers.  Formerly, these parsers
 could be used only in programs that were free software.
 
    The other GNU programming tools, such as the GNU C compiler, have
 never had such a requirement.  They could always be used for nonfree
 software.  The reason Bison was different was not due to a special
 policy decision; it resulted from applying the usual General Public
 License to all of the Bison source code.
 
    The output of the Bison utility--the Bison parser file--contains a
 verbatim copy of a sizable piece of Bison, which is the code for the
 `yyparse' function.  (The actions from your grammar are inserted into
 this function at one point, but the rest of the function is not
 changed.)  When we applied the GPL terms to the code for `yyparse', the
 effect was to restrict the use of Bison output to free software.
 
    We didn't change the terms because of sympathy for people who want to
 make software proprietary.  *Software should be free.*  But we
 concluded that limiting Bison's use to free software was doing little to
 encourage people to make other software free.  So we decided to make the
 practical conditions for using Bison match the practical conditions for
 using the other GNU tools.
 
    This exception applies only when Bison is generating C code for a
 LALR(1) parser; otherwise, the GPL terms operate as usual.  You can
 tell whether the exception applies to your `.c' output file by
 inspecting it to see whether it says "As a special exception, when this
 file is copied by Bison into a Bison output file, you may use that
 output file without restriction."
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