Parser/Lexer ignoring incomplete grammar rules

Question

I have a parser and lexer written in ocamlyacc and ocamllex. If the file to parse ends prematurely, as in I forget a semicolon at the end of a line, the application doesn't raise a syntax error. I realize it's because I'm raising and catching EOF and that is making the lexer ignore the unfinished rule, but how should I be doing this to raise a syntax error?

Here is my current parser (simplified),

%{
    let parse_error s = Printf.ksprinf failwith "ERROR: %s" s
%}

%token COLON
%token SEPARATOR
%token SEMICOLON
%token <string> FLOAT
%token <string> INT
%token <string> LABEL

%type <Conf.config> command
%start command
%%
  command:
      | label SEPARATOR data SEMICOLON    { Conf.Pair ($1,$3)     }
      | label SEPARATOR data_list         { Conf.List ($1,$3)     }
      | label SEMICOLON                   { Conf.Single ($1)      }
  label :
      | LABEL                             { Conf.Label $1         }
  data :
      | label                             { $1                    }
      | INT                               { Conf.Integer $1       }
      | FLOAT                             { Conf.Float $1         }
  data_list :
      | star_data COMMA star_data data_list_ending
                                          { $1 :: $3 :: $4        }
  data_list_ending:
      | COMMA star_data data_list_ending  { $2 :: $3              }
      | SEMICOLON                         { []                    }

and lexxer (simplified),

{
    open ConfParser
    exception Eof
}

rule token = parse
    | ['\t' ' ' '\n' '\010' '\013' '\012']
                        { token lexbuf   }
    | ['0'-'9']+ ['.'] ['0'-'9']* ('e' ['-' '+']? ['0'-'9']+)? as n
                        { FLOAT n        }
    | ['0'-'9']+ as n   { INT n          }
    | '#'               { comment lexbuf }
    | ';'               { SEMICOLON      }
    | ['=' ':']         { SEPARATOR      }
    | ','               { COMMA          }
    | ['_' 'a'-'z' 'A'-'Z']([' ']?['a'-'z' 'A'-'Z' '0'-'9' '_' '-' '.'])* as w
                        { LABEL w        }
    | eof               { raise Eof      }

and comment = parse
    | ['#' '\n']        { token lexbuf   }
    | _                 { comment lexbuf }

example input file,

one = two, three, one-hundred;
single label;
list : command, missing, a, semicolon

One solution, is to add a recursive call in the command rule to itself at the end, and adding an empty rule, all of which build a list to return to the main program. I think I maybe interpreting Eof as a expectation, and ending condition, rather then an error in the lexer, is this correct?

Answer 1

ocamlyacc does not necessarily consume the whole input. If you want to force it to fail if the whole input is not parse-able, you need to match EOF in your grammar. Instead of raising Eof in you lexer, add a token EOF and change your start symbol to

%type <Conf.config list> main

main:
    EOF { [] }
  | command main { $1::$2 }