verilator/README.pod
Wilson Snyder ea59a39661 Commentary
2019-06-13 20:53:39 -04:00

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# DESCRIPTION: DOCUMENT source run through perl to produce README file
# Use 'make README' to produce the output file
=pod
=head1 NAME
Welcome to Verilator. This is the Verilator package's README file.
This document describes how to initially install Verilator. For more
general information please see L<http://verilator.org>.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Verilator is a simulator which "Verilates" synthesizable (generally not
behavioral) Verilog code into "Verilated" C++ or SystemC code.
Verilator is invoked with parameters similar to GCC or Synopsys's VCS. It
reads the specified Verilog code, lints it, and optionally adds coverage
code. For C++ format, it outputs .cpp and .h files. For SystemC format,
it outputs .cpp and .h files using the standard SystemC headers.
The resulting files are then compiled with C++. The user writes a little
C++ wrapper file, which instantiates the top level module. This is
compiled in C++, and linked with the Verilated files.
The resulting executable will perform the actual simulation.
=head1 SUPPORTED SYSTEMS
Verilator is developed and has primary testing on Ubuntu. Versions have
also built on Redhat Linux, Macs OS-X, HPUX and Solaris. It should run
with minor porting on any Linix-ish platform. Verilator also works on
Windows under Cygwin, and Windows under MinGW (gcc -mno-cygwin). Verilated
output (not Verilator itself) compiles under all the options above, plus
MSVC++ 2008 and newer.
=head1 INSTALLATION
The following are detailed installation instructions.
Alternatively, for a quick summary please see
L<http://www.veripool.org/projects/verilator/wiki/Installing>.
=over 4
=item
Obtain binary or sources:
There are three methods to obtain Verilator, a prebuilt binary as part of
your Linux distribution, via git, or using a tarball. If you will be
modifying Verilator, you should use the "git" method as it will let you
track changes and hopefully contribute in the future.
=over 4
=item
Prebuilt binary:
You may install a binary on Ubuntu or other distributions using a package
manager. This is unlikely to be the most recent version.
apt-get install verilator
You may now skip the remaining installation steps.
=item
Git:
Get the sources from the repository.
git clone http://git.veripool.org/git/verilator # Only first time
## Note the URL above is not a page you can see with a browser, it's for git only
=item
Tarball:
Get a recent tarball package from L<http://www.veripool.org/verilator>.
Click the "Download" tab, scroll down to the latest package
(i.e. verilator-#.###.tgz), download it, and decompress with:
tar xvzf verilator_#-###.tgz
=back
=item
Install prerequisites:
=over 4
=item
To use Verilator you will need the C<perl>, C<make> (or C<gmake>), and
C<g++> (or C<clang>) packages. To compile Verilator in addition to the above you need the C<flex>,
C<bison> and C<texi2html> packages installed.
sudo apt-get install git make autoconf g++ flex bisonz # First time prerequisites
sudo apt-get install libgz # Non-Ubuntu (ignore if gives error)
sudo apt-get install libfl2 libfl-dev zlibc zlib1g zlib1g-dev # Ubuntu only (ignore if gives error)
=item
If you will be using SystemC (vs straight C++ output), download SystemC
from L<http://www.systemc.org>. Follow their installation instructions.
You will need to set SYSTEMC_INCLUDE to point to the include directory with
systemc.h in it, and SYSTEMC_LIBDIR to points to the directory with
libsystemc.a in it. (Older installations may set SYSTEMC and SYSTEMC_ARCH
instead.)
=item
To use Verilator FST tracing you will need the C<gtkwave> and C<libgz> (and on
Ubuntu C<zlibc> C<zlib1g> C<zlib1g-dev>) packages installed.
=back
=item
Prepare for building:
cd verilator # Needed if not already in the package
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT # For csh; ignore error if on bash
unset VERILATOR_ROOT # For bash; ignore error if on bash
# If using git:
git pull # Make sure we're up-to-date
git tag # See what versions exist
#git checkout master # Use development branch (e.g. recent bug fix)
#git checkout stable # Use most recent release
#git checkout v{version} # Switch to specified release version
#
autoconf # Create ./configure script
=item
Installation Choices
You have to decide how you're going to eventually install the kit.
Note Verilator builds the current value of VERILATOR_ROOT, SYSTEMC_INCLUDE,
and SYSTEMC_LIBDIR as defaults into the executable, so try to have them
correct before configuring.
=over 4
=item 1.
Our personal favorite is to always run Verilator from its git directory.
This allows the easiest experimentation and upgrading, and allows many
versions of Verilator to co-exist on a system. To run you point to the
program's files, no install is needed.
export VERILATOR_ROOT=`pwd` # if your shell is bash
setenv VERILATOR_ROOT `pwd` # if your shell is csh
./configure
Note after installing (below steps), a calling program should set the
environment variable VERILATOR_ROOT to point to this git directory, then
execute $VERILATOR_ROOT/bin/verilator, which will find the path to all
needed files.
=item 2.
You may eventually be instaling onto a project/company-wide "CAD" tools
disk that may support multiple versions of every tool.
unset VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is bash
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is csh
# For the tarball, use the version number instead of git describe
./configure --prefix /CAD_DISK/verilator/`git describe | sed "s/verilator_//"`
Note after installing (below steps), if you use C<modulecmd>, you'll want a
module file like the following:
set install_root /CAD_DISK/verilator/{version-number-used-above}
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT
prepend-path PATH $install_root/bin
prepend-path MANPATH $install_root/man
prepend-path PKG_CONFIG_PATH $install_root/share/pkgconfig
=item 3.
The next option is to eventually install it globally, using the normal system paths:
unset VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is bash
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is csh
./configure
Then after installing (below) the binary directories should already be in
your PATH.
=item 4.
Finally, you may eventually install it into a specific installation prefix,
as most GNU tools support:
unset VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is bash
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT # if your shell is csh
./configure --prefix /opt/verilator-VERSION
Then after installing (below steps) you will need to add /opt/verilator-VERSION/bin to
PATH.
=back
Note all of the options above did:
./configure ... some options ...
Add to this line C<--enable-longtests> for more complete developer tests.
Additional packages may be required for these tests.
=item
Type C<make> to compile Verilator.
=item
Type C<make test> to check the compilation.
=item
If you used the prefix scheme, now do a C<make install>.
=item
You may now wish to consult the examples directory. Type C<make> inside any
example directory to run the example.
=back
=head1 USAGE DOCUMENTATION
Detailed documentation and the man page can be seen by running:
bin/verilator --help
or reading verilator.pdf in the same directory as this README.
or see L<https://www.veripool.org/ftp/verilator_doc.pdf> (which is the most
recent version and thus may differ in some respects from the version you installed).
=head1 PACKAGE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
The directories in the package directory are as follows:
Changes => Version history
bin/verilator => Compiler Wrapper invoked to Verilate code
docs/ => Additional documentation
examples/hello_world_c => Example simple Verilog->C++ conversion
examples/hello_world_sc => Example simple Verilog->SystemC conversion
examples/tracing_c => Example Verilog->C++ with tracing
examples/tracing_sc => Example Verilog->SystemC with tracing
include/ => Files that should be in your -I compiler path
include/verilated*.cpp => Global routines to link into your simulator
include/verilated*.h => Global headers
include/verilated.mk => Common Makefile
include/verilated.v => Stub defines for linting
src/ => Translator source code
test_regress => Internal tests
verilator.pdf => Primary documentation
verilator.txt => Primary documentation (text)
For files created after Verilation, see the manual.
=head1 DISTRIBUTION
This package is Copyright 2003-2019 by Wilson Snyder. (Report bugs to
L<http://www.veripool.org/>.)
Verilator is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of either the GNU Lesser General Public License Version 3 or the
Perl Artistic License Version 2.0. (See the documentation for more
details.)
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
more details.