ECPG modifies and extends the core grammar in a way that 1) every token in ECPG is type. New tokens are defined in ecpg.tokens, types are defined in ecpg.type 2) most tokens from the core grammar are simply converted to literals concatenated together to form the SQL string passed to the server, this is done by parse.pl. 3) some rules need side-effects, actions are either added or completely overridden (compared to the basic token concatenation) for them, these are defined in ecpg.addons, the rules for ecpg.addons are explained below. 4) new grammar rules are needed for ECPG metacommands. These are in ecpg.trailer. 5) ecpg.header contains common functions, etc. used by actions for grammar rules. In "ecpg.addons", every modified rule follows this pattern: ECPG: dumpedtokens postfix where "dumpedtokens" is simply tokens from core gram.y's rules concatenated together. e.g. if gram.y has this: ruleA: tokenA tokenB tokenC {...} then "dumpedtokens" is "ruleAtokenAtokenBtokenC". "postfix" above can be: a) "block" - the automatic rule created by parse.pl is completely overridden, the code block has to be written completely as it were in a plain bison grammar b) "rule" - the automatic rule is extended on, so new syntaxes are accepted for "ruleA". E.g.: ECPG: ruleAtokenAtokenBtokenC rule | tokenD tokenE { action_code; } ... It will be substituted with: ruleA: | tokenD tokenE { action_code; } ... c) "addon" - the automatic action for the rule (SQL syntax constructed from the tokens concatenated together) is prepended with a new action code part. This code part is written as is's already inside the { ... } Multiple "addon" or "block" lines may appear together with the new code block if the code block is common for those rules.