flex and bison binaries

This folder contains the flex and bison binaries. We use these binaries to generate the ANGLE translator’s lexer and parser.

Use the script update_flex_bison_binaries.py to update the versions of these binaries in cloud storage. It must be run on Linux or Windows. It will update the SHAs for your platform. After running the script run git commit and then git cl upload to code review using the normal review process. You will also want to run scripts/run_code_generation.py to update the generated files.

Please update both Windows and Linux binaries at the same time. Start with Windows, then merge your work into a single CL that updates both binaries simultaneously. Note that we don’t currently support Mac for generating the lexer and parser files. If we do we should add a flex/bison download for Mac as well.

Contact jmadill or syoussefi for any help with updating the binaries.

Updating flex and bison binaries

This is expected to be a rare operation, and is currently done based on the following instructions. Note: get the binaries first on windows, as only a single option is available, then build the binaries for the same version on Linux.

On Windows

Install MSys2 (x86_64) from http://www.msys2.org/ on Windows. flex should already be installed. Install bison:

$ pacman -S bison

Note the versions of flex and bison, so you can build the exact same versions on Linux. For example:

$ flex --version
flex 2.6.4

$ bison --version
bison (GNU Bison) 3.8.2

The only dependencies outside /Windows/ from MSys2 should be the following:

msys-intl-8.dll
msys-iconv-2.dll
msys-2.0.dll

This can be verified with:

$ ldd /usr/bin/flex
$ ldd /usr/bin/bison

Additionally, we need the binary for m4 at /usr/bin/m4.

Copy all these 5 files to this directory:

$ cd angle/
$ cp /usr/bin/flex.exe \
     /usr/bin/bison.exe \
     /usr/bin/m4.exe \
     /usr/bin/msys-intl-8.dll \
     /usr/bin/msys-iconv-2.dll \
     /usr/bin/msys-2.0.dll \
     tools/flex-bison/windows/

Upload the binaries:

$ cd angle/
$ py tools/flex-bison/update_flex_bison_binaries.py

On Linux

# Get the source of flex
$ git clone https://github.com/westes/flex.git
$ cd flex/
# Checkout the same version as msys2 on windows
$ git checkout v2.6.4
# Build
$ autoreconf -i
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ ../configure CFLAGS="-O2 -D_GNU_SOURCE"
$ make -j

# Get the source of bison
$ curl http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.8.2.tar.xz | tar -xJ
$ cd bison-3.8.2
# Build
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ ../configure CFLAGS="-O2"
$ make -j

Note: Bison’s home page lists ftp server and other mirrors. If the above link is broken, replace with a mirror.

Copy the 2 executables to this directory:

$ cd angle/
$ cp /path/to/flex/build/src/flex \
     /path/to/bison/build/src/bison \
     tools/flex-bison/linux/

Upload the binaries:

$ cd angle/
$ ./tools/flex-bison/update_flex_bison_binaries.py