This new release, 1.3, consists of some improvements and bug fixes:

New in 1.3:
 * Corrected bug in generic table decoder wrt. indefinite length elements
 * Corrected compiler access to freed memory (bug reported by Markku Savela)
 * Broke asnwish.c into two pieces so that one can build ones own wish
 * Added "beredit" tool (based on asnwish, allowes to edit BER messages)

New in 1.3b4:
 * Generic table decoding routines with callback mechanism in tbl library
 * New tool "berdecode", decoding any BER data, can also use table file
 * New Tcl/Tk tool "asnwish", reads table files, access to grammar, en-/decoding
 * Fix for tag values > 2^14 (credits to Enrico Badella)
 * Fix for table-encoding tag values dividable by 128
 * Small fix in AsnBits::GetBit to return TRUE (i.e., 1) instead of #bit in byte

New in 1.3b3:
 * Added isPdu flag to tables
 * Added number range checks during parsing

New in 1.3b2:
 * Small fix of C value string generation w char >127 (credits to Marc LeFur)
 * Added (limited) size constraints, bitstring and enumeration names to tables

New in 1.3b1:
 * Made snacc.h more C++-readable (credits to Steve Walker).
 * Improved dependency generation for stupid makedepends.
 * Corrected PeekTag to peek into buffer only as far as necessary.
 * Added installable error handler.
 * Fixed small glitch in idl-code generator (credits to Markku Savela).
 * Finally fixed cut-and-paste error in SEQUENCE OF parsing.

New in 1.3a<n>:
 * Continued porting C, C++, tbl to 64 bit, any endianness: Hash typedef,
   PeekTag algorithm used by tables.
 * Fixed cut-and-paste error in SEQUENCE OF parsing.
 * Added missing initialisation of exponent in asn-real.[Cc].
 * Fixed tbl-free.c and some other table-related bugs.
 * Added casts and stuff for picky C++ compilers.
 * Incorporated all valid bug fixes from snacc-bugs.
 * Initial move of tcl stuff to tcl7.6/tk4.2/tree4.1.


WARNING: the rest of this README is out of date!


For the newer releases, please look at

  http://www.fokus.gmd.de/ovma/freeware/snacc/entry.html

Please send comments and bug reports to the new maintainer you will find
in the above web page.

Newer Snacc versions will continue to be made available at:

  ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/freeware/snacc/

Robert Joop, 1997-02-16



For more up-to-date information, please refer to doc/snacc.ps.

The bug-report address given below was for Snacc 1.1.




snacc ASN.1 Compiler Release  1.1 - (updated Jul 93)
-----------------------------------------------------

This package provides the C/yacc/lex source code for snacc, an ASN.1
to C or C++ compiler.  Snacc is short for "Sample Neufeld Asn.1 to C
Compiler" and ASN.1 stands for Abstract Syntax Notation One (CCITT
X.208/ ISO 8824).  See the COPYRIGHT file for copyright information.


What It Does
------------

Given an ASN.1 source file(s) snacc can produce:

   1. C routines for BER encoding, decoding, printing and freeing.
   2. C++ routines for BER encoding, decoding, and printing.
   3. A type table that can be used with C driver routines
      for BER encoding, decoding, printing and freeing.
   4. if you are really lucky, a core dump! :)

Snacc produces reasonably efficient C or C++ routines and data
structures to support BER encoding and decoding values of the given
ASN.1 data structures.  Printing routines for the decoded values are
also generated.  For C only, hierarchical freeing routines are
generated (but are not recommended for efficiency reasons).

When using the C or C++ (not table) options, snacc creates the
following C files for each ASN.1 source file (module):

        1. .h file for the C/C++ translation of the ASN.1 data
           structure and prototypes for the generated routines.

        2. .c/.C file for the C/C++ encode, decode, print and free
           routines.

When using the table option, snacc produces a type table file
(a BER encoding) that can later be loaded at runtime by the
table driven encoding and decoding routines.

See the latex or PostScript version of the documentation in the
snacc/doc directory for indepth information on this tool.  For a quick
introduction, look at the examples in snacc/c_examples,
snacc/c++_examples and snacc/tbl_example.


Features of ASN.1 Supported
---------------------------

   - parses ASN.1 '90 (subtype notation etc.)
   - macro definitions do not generate syntax errors but are
     are not processed. (retained as string)
   - value notation is parsed and for OBJECT IDENTIFIERs, INTEGERs
      and BOOLEANS (any other value in { }'s is currently kept as a string)
   - handles multiple ASN.1 module compiling/linking (IMPORTS/EXPORTS)
   - some X.400 and SNMP macros are parsed
   - supports ";" separted type or value definitions in the ASN.1 source.
     This is useful when dealing with some macros that introduce parsing
     problems.  Does not require the ";"'s though.
   - ANY DEFINED BY types are handled using the SNMP OBJECT-TYPE
     macro to define the identifier to type mapping.


Bugs are still quite likely even though this is the second release of
snacc.  if you find any or have other comments please email:
   snacc-bugs@cs.ubc.ca


To Install It
-------------

By default, the snacc makefile uses GNU bison and GNU flex (instead of
yacc and lex).  If you do not have these installed, see the
snacc/src/README and snacc/src/makefile.  Otherwise, type "make" in
this directory.  Hopefully this will put the snacc binary in the
snacc/bin directory and build the C runtime library, the table library
and the table tools. Alternatively, type "make all" to install these
and the C++ library.

Compiling problems may occurr on different flavours of UNIX but they
should not be too difficult fix.  Likely sources of problems include
non-standard include files and lex, yacc and cc idiosyncrasies.
If your yacc croaks with a message about too many productions use
bison.  Same thing with lex -> use flex.   Bison and flex are both
freely available from numerous ftp sites. (even cs.ubc.ca in /mirror2/gnu)

The makefiles take advantage of the file inclusion feature. Since this
has already been supported by UNIX System III make (somewhen around
1980), I consider it to be pretty portable. If your make is crippled,
either use a newer one (e.g. GNU make), or as a last resort, remove the
include statements and call make with `-f makehead makefile maketail'.
  The dependencies have been moved into a separate file that is not
under cvs control. Otherwise, the makefiles would inflate the
repository unnecessarily. GNU make automatically makes the dependencies
if the file does not exist, but other makes simply give up. In that
case, an initial (empty) file has to be generated. The top level
makefile does this for you.
  The behaviour of makedepend has been changed between X11R5 and R6.
The new version keeps the source files' dirname and replaces the suffix
only, the old version removed the dirname.  The makefiles expect the
new behaviour. If you've still got the R5 makedepend, the compiler's
dependencies will be useless.  (If you only install the code and don't
make any changes, this won't hurt you.)

The snacc compiler and the generated code will compile under ANSI and
non-ANSI C compilers.  See the README and the makefile in the
snacc/src directory for more compiling information.  Snacc has been
successfully installed on Sun SPARCs, HP700s, IBM RS 6000s, MIPS,
i486/Linux, Alpha OSF/1 and many other machines.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# $Header: /usr/app/odstb/CVS/snacc/README,v 1.14 1997/10/10 13:42:31 wan Exp $
# $Log: README,v $
# Revision 1.14  1997/10/10 13:42:31  wan
# Corrected bug in generic table decoder wrt. indefinite length elements
# Corrected compiler access to freed memory (bug reported by Markku Savela)
# Broke asnwish.c into two pieces so that one can build ones on wish
# Added beredit tool (based on asnwish, allowes to edit BER messages)
#
# Revision 1.13  1997/09/16 14:57:59  wan
# Proper description of last-minute changes
#
# Revision 1.12  1997/09/05 07:51:04  wan
# Updated
#
# Revision 1.11  1997/08/28 09:48:08  wan
# Added description of changes
#
# Revision 1.10  1997/06/19 09:32:22  wan
# Added 1.3b3 change description
#
# Revision 1.9  1997/05/07 15:20:57  wan
# Added (limited) size constraints, bitstring and enumeration names to tables
#
# Revision 1.8  1997/04/07 13:14:16  wan
# Final README for 1.3b1
#
# Revision 1.7  1997/03/20 15:50:24  wan
# Push to 1.3b1.
#
# Revision 1.6  1997/02/16 22:26:40  rj
# url corrected
#
# Revision 1.5  1997/02/16 20:23:14  rj
# final release of snacc 1.2rj
#
# Revision 1.4  1995/09/07 20:54:03  rj
# check-in for release 1.2rj.8
#
# Revision 1.3  1995/02/22  09:54:05  rj
# added Alpha OSF/1 to the list of supported platforms.
#
# Revision 1.2  1994/09/01  01:40:54  rj
# some word about makefile inclusion and dependencies added.
#
# Revision 1.1  1994/08/28  11:02:04  rj
# first check-in