If you need to parse or process text data in Linux or Unix, this classic book explains how to use flex and bison to solve your problems quickly -- whether you're interpreting code, configuration files, or any other structured format.

flex & bison is the long-awaited sequel to the classic O'Reilly book, lex & yacc. In the nearly two decades since that book was published, the flex and bison utilities have proven to be more reliable and more powerful than the original Unix tools. This book covers the same core functionality vital to Linux and Unix program development, along with several important new topics.

This thoroughly updated edition will help you:

Address syntax crunching that regular expressions tools can't handle

Build compilers and interpreters, and handle a wide range of text processing functions

Learn key programming techniques, including syntax trees and symbol tables

Implement a full SQL grammar, with complete sample code

Use new features such as pure (reentrant) lexers and parsers, powerful GLR parsers, and interfaces to C++

This book includes revised tutorial sections for novice users and reference sections for advanced users, with chapters that explain each utility's basic usage and simple, stand-alone applications. Dive into flex & bison and discover the wide range of uses these flexible tools provide.

John Levine, founder of Taughannock Networks, writes, speaks, and consults on e-mail, the Internet, and other computer topics. He has written over 20 technical books, and is the co-author of O'Reilly's lex & yacc, 2nd Edition and qmail. He's also deeply involved in Internet e-mail in general and spam issues in particular as co-chair of the Internet Research Task Force's Anti-Spam Research Group (http://asrg.sp.am ) and a board member of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (http://www.cauce.org.) He lives and works in the tiny village of Trumansburg NY (http://www.trumansburg.ny.us) where he reports that being the municipal sewer commissioner was a much cleaner job than dealing with spammers.