HDL Checker

HDL Checker is a language server that wraps VHDL/Verilg/SystemVerilog tools that aims to reduce the boilerplate code needed to set things up. It supports Language Server Protocol or a custom HTTP interface; can infer library VHDL files likely belong to, besides working out mixed language dependencies, compilation order, interpreting some compilers messages and providing some (limited) static checks.

Installation
Editor support
- VS Code
- Vim/NeoVim
- Emacs
Usage
Testing
Supported systems
Style checking
Issues
License

Installation

pip install hdl-checker --upgrade

pip install hdl-checker --user --upgrade

Note: Make sure you can run hdl_checker --version, especially if using PIP with the --user option.

Editor support

VS Code

Install the HDL Checker VSCode client on VS Code.

Vim/NeoVim

Using dense-analysis/ale

See (PR #2804), once it gets merged, ALE should support HDL Checker out of the box.

Using coc.nvim

Following coc.nvim custom language server setup, add this to your coc.nvim configuration file:

{
    "languageserver": {
        "hdlChecker": {
            "command": "hdl_checker",
            "args": [
                "--lsp"
            ],
            "filetypes": [
                "vhdl",
                "verilog",
                "systemverilog"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Using autozimu/LanguageClient-neovim

Add HDL Checker to the server commands:

let g:LanguageClient_serverCommands = {
\   'vhdl': ['hdl_checker', '--lsp'],
\   'verilog': ['hdl_checker', '--lsp'],
\   'systemverilog': ['hdl_checker', '--lsp'],
\}

Please note that this will start one server per language

Emacs

Using emacs-lsp/lsp-mode

Add this to your Emacs config file

(require 'use-package)
(setq lsp-vhdl-server-path "~/.local/bin/hdl_checker") ; only needed if hdl_checker is not already on the PATH
(custom-set-variables
  '(lsp-vhdl-server 'hdl-checker))
(use-package lsp-mode
  :config (add-hook 'vhdl-mode-hook 'lsp))

Usage

HDL Checker server can be started via hdl_checker command. Use hdl_checker --help for more info on how to use it.

$ hdl_checker -h
usage: hdl_checker [-h] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--lsp]
             [--attach-to-pid ATTACH_TO_PID] [--log-level LOG_LEVEL]
             [--log-stream LOG_STREAM] [--stdout STDOUT]
             [--stderr STDERR] [--version]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --host HOST           [HTTP] Host to serve
  --port PORT           [HTTP] Port to serve
  --lsp                 Starts the server in LSP mode. Defaults to false
  --attach-to-pid ATTACH_TO_PID
                        [HTTP, LSP] Stops the server if given PID is not
                        active
  --log-level LOG_LEVEL
                        [HTTP, LSP] Logging level
  --log-stream LOG_STREAM
                        [HTTP, LSP] Log file, defaults to stdout when in HTTP
                        or a temporary file named hdl_checker_log_pid<PID>.log when
                        in LSP mode
  --stdout STDOUT       [HTTP] File to redirect stdout to. Defaults to a
                        temporary file named hdl_checker_stdout_pid<PID>.log
  --stderr STDERR       [HTTP] File to redirect stdout to. Defaults to a
                        temporary file named hdl_checker_stderr_pid<PID>.log
  --version, -V         Prints hdl_checker version and exit

Third-party tools

HDL Checker supports

Mentor ModelSim
ModelSim Intel FPGA Edition
GHDL
Vivado Simulator (bundled with Xilinx Vivado)

Configuring HDL Checker

See the Setting up a new project section on the wiki.

LSP server

HDL Checker has beta support for Language Server Protocol. To start in LSP mode:

hdl_checker --lsp

On a Linux system, log file will be at /tmp/hdl_checker_log_pid<PID_NUMBER>.log and /tmp/hdl_checker_stderr_pid<PID_NUMBER>.log.

As a language server, HDL Checker will provide

Diagnostics
Hover information
- Dependencies: will report which path and library have been assigned
- Design units: will report the compilation sequence and libraries
Go to definition of dependencies

HTTP server

HDL Checker can be used in HTTP server mode also:

hdl_checker

Please note that this mode does not use LSP over http to communicate. Request/response API is not yet available and is going to be deprecated in the future. A reference implementation can be found in vim-hdl

Testing

HDL Checker uses a docker container to run tests. If you wish to run them, clone this repository and on the root folder run

./run_tests.sh

The container used for testing is suoto/hdl_checker_test

Supported systems

System	CI	CI status
Linux	Yes
Windows	Yes

Style checking

Style checks are independent of a third-party compiler. Checking includes:

Unused signals, constants, generics, shared variables, libraries, types and attributes
Comment tags (FIXME, TODO, XXX)

Notice that currently the unused reports has caveats, namely declarations with the same name inherited from a component, function, procedure, etc. In the following example, the signal rdy won't be reported as unused in spite of the fact it is not used.

signal rdy, refclk, rst : std_logic;
...

idelay_ctrl_u : idelay_ctrl
    port map (rdy    => open,
              refclk => refclk,
              rst    => rst);

Issues

You can use the issue tracker for bugs, feature request and so on.

License

This software is licensed under the GPL v3 license.

Notice

Mentor Graphics®, ModelSim® and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics, Inc.

Intel® and its logo is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

Xilinx® and its logo is a trademark or registered trademark of Xilinx, Inc.

HDL Checker's author has no connection or affiliation to any of the trademarks mentioned or used by this software.