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      1 This is flex, the fast lexical analyzer generator.
      2 
      3 flex is a tool for generating scanners: programs which recognize
      4 lexical patterns in text.
      5 
      6 The flex codebase is kept in
      7 [Git on GitHub.](https://github.com/westes/flex)
      8 
      9 Use GitHub's [issues](https://github.com/westes/flex/issues) and
     10 [pull request](https://github.com/westes/flex) features to file bugs
     11 and submit patches.
     12 
     13 There are several mailing lists available as well:
     14 
     15 * flex-announce (a] lists.sourceforge.net - where posts will be made
     16   announcing new releases of flex.
     17 * flex-help (a] lists.sourceforge.net - where you can post questions about
     18   using flex
     19 * flex-devel (a] lists.sourceforge.net - where you can discuss development
     20   of flex itself
     21 
     22 Find information on subscribing to the mailing lists at:
     23 
     24 http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=97492
     25 
     26 The flex distribution contains the following files which may be of
     27 interest:
     28 
     29 * README - This file.
     30 * NEWS - current version number and list of user-visible changes.
     31 * INSTALL - basic installation information.
     32 * ABOUT-NLS - description of internationalization support in flex.
     33 * COPYING - flex's copyright and license.
     34 * doc/ - user documentation.
     35 * examples/ - containing examples of some possible flex scanners and a
     36 	      few other things. See the file examples/README for more
     37               details.
     38 * tests/ - regression tests. See TESTS/README for details.
     39 * po/ - internationalization support files.
     40 
     41 You need the following tools to build flex from the maintainer's
     42 repository:
     43 
     44 * compiler suite - flex is built with gcc
     45 * bash, or a good Bourne-style shell
     46 * m4 - m4 -p needs to work; GNU m4 and a few others are suitable
     47 * GNU bison;  to generate parse.c from parse.y
     48 * autoconf; for handling the build system
     49 * automake; for Makefile generation
     50 * gettext; for i18n support
     51 * help2man; to generate the flex man page
     52 * tar, gzip, lzip, etc.; for packaging of the source distribution
     53 * GNU texinfo; to build and test the flex manual. Note that if you want
     54   to build the dvi/ps/pdf versions of the documentation you will need
     55   texi2dvi and related programs, along with a sufficiently powerful
     56   implementation of TeX to process them. See your operating system
     57   documentation for how to achieve this. The printable versions of the
     58   manual are not built unless specifically requested, but the targets
     59   are included by automake.
     60 * GNU indent; for indenting the flex source the way we want it done
     61 
     62 In cases where the versions of the above tools matter, the file
     63 configure.ac will specify the minimum required versions.
     64 
     65 Once you have all the necessary tools installed, life becomes
     66 simple. To prepare the flex tree for building, run the script:
     67 
     68 ```bash
     69 ./autogen.sh
     70 ```
     71 
     72 in the top level of the flex source tree.
     73 
     74 This script calls the various tools needed to get flex ready for the
     75 GNU-style configure script to be able to work.
     76 
     77 From this point on, building flex follows the usual  routine:
     78 
     79 ```bash
     80 configure && make && make install
     81 ```
     82 
     83 This file is part of flex.
     84 
     85 This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
     86 Vern Paxson.
     87 
     88 The United States Government has rights in this work pursuant
     89 to contract no. DE-AC03-76SF00098 between the United States
     90 Department of Energy and the University of California.
     91 
     92 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
     93 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
     94 are met:
     95 
     96 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
     97    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
     98 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     99    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
    100    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
    101 
    102 Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
    103 may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
    104 without specific prior written permission.
    105 
    106 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
    107 IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
    108 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
    109 PURPOSE.
    110