Lemon also implements features that can be used
to eliminate resource leaks, making is suitable for use
in long-running programs such as graphical user interfaces
or embedded controllers.</p>

<p>This document is an introduction to the Lemon
parser generator.</p>





















<h2>Theory of Operation</h2>

<p>The main goal of Lemon is to translate a context free grammar (CFG)
for a particular language into C code that implements a parser for
that language.
The program has two inputs:

Lemon also implements features that can be used
to eliminate resource leaks, making is suitable for use
in long-running programs such as graphical user interfaces
or embedded controllers.</p>

<p>This document is an introduction to the Lemon
parser generator.</p>

<h2>Security Note</h2>

<p>The language parser code created by Lemon is very robust and
is well-suited for use in internet-facing applications that need to
safely process maliciously crafted inputs.

<p>The "lemon.exe" command-line tool itself works great when given a valid
input grammar file and almost always gives helpful
error messages for malformed inputs.  However,  it is possible for
a malicious user to craft a grammar file that will cause 
lemon.exe to crash.
We do not see this as a problem, as lemon.exe is not intended to be used
with hostile inputs.
To summarize:</p>

<ul>
<li>Parser code generated by lemon &rarr; Robust and secure
<li>The "lemon.exe" command line tool itself &rarr; Not so much
</ul>

<h2>Theory of Operation</h2>

<p>The main goal of Lemon is to translate a context free grammar (CFG)
for a particular language into C code that implements a parser for
that language.
The program has two inputs: