Xilinx build scripts

[FrenziedEngi]

I have been looking into what would be required to have automated Xilinx build scripts (for synthesis through bitgen), since .ise files are not terribly portable (binary files and don't handle relative paths very well). Is there much interest in this?

I am thinking there would be a top-level configuration to change different aspects of the build process, and you would just kick it off... then if everything went right a .bit / .mcs / whatever file would be generated. The whole process would be based on a script language (something portable... perl? python?) and all text based so it could be easily source controlled...

[tcdev]

I have been looking into what would be required to have automated Xilinx build scripts (for synthesis through bitgen), since .ise files are not terribly portable (binary files and don't handle relative paths very well). Is there much interest in this?

This would be good, if you could launch the script from within ISE and examine the synthesis/fitting errors in the same context as an ISE project.

I'm not a huge fan of ISE by any means, and am of the opinion that anyone who designs a configuration (project) file that is not text-based should be shot, repeatedly, and then have someone jump up and down on their bits until they get blisters. :mad:

So something text-based, that can be configured easily, would be nice! Just as long as you don't lose any error-correcting functionality.

[FrenziedEngi]

You wouldn't lose any functionality, just need to look in a different place for it. Each of the build steps of the xilinx tools output logs with (configurable) levels of detail. Results of each of these steps would be viewable in their respective log. The build could possibly abort if some condition was found in the file (e.g. something didn't meet timing spec).

[tcdev]

Could you then load the logs back into ISE, and be able to click on the error and have it take you to the offending source line?

[FrenziedEngi]

I am pretty sure that ISE would recognize the logs and handle them the same way as if it had generated them. My preference would be to look in the log itself, and then use emacs to go investigate what is going on in the code, avoiding ISE altogether.

[FrenziedEngi]

I am going to try to start working on a script this weekend. Learning Python first though :cool: