Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition User Guide: Scripting

Download PDF
ID 683325
Date 9/24/2018
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Command Line Scripting 2. Tcl Scripting A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition User Guides
1. Command Line Scripting x
1.1. Benefits of Command-Line Executables 1.2. Introductory Example 1.3. Command-Line Scripting Help 1.4. Project Settings with Command-Line Options 1.5. Compilation with quartus_sh --flow 1.6. Text-Based Report Files 1.7. Using Command-Line Executables in Scripts 1.8. Common Scripting Examples 1.9. The QFlow Script 1.10. Document Revision History
1.4. Project Settings with Command-Line Options x
1.4.1. Option Precedence
1.8. Common Scripting Examples x
1.8.1. Create a Project and Apply Constraints 1.8.2. Check Design File Syntax 1.8.3. Create a Project and Synthesize a Netlist Using Netlist Optimizations 1.8.4. Archive and Restore Projects 1.8.5. Perform I/O Assignment Analysis 1.8.6. Update Memory Contents Without Recompiling 1.8.7. Create a Compressed Configuration File 1.8.8. Fit a Design as Quickly as Possible 1.8.9. Fit a Design Using Multiple Seeds
2. Tcl Scripting x
2.1. Tool Command Language 2.2. Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl Packages 2.3. Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl API Help 2.4. End-to-End Design Flows 2.5. Creating Projects and Making Assignments 2.6. Compiling Designs 2.7. Reporting 2.8. Timing Analysis 2.9. Automating Script Execution 2.10. Other Scripting Features 2.11. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl Shell in Interactive Mode Example 2.12. The tclsh Shell 2.13. Tcl Scripting Basics 2.14. Tcl Scripting Revision History
2.2. Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl Packages x
2.2.1. Loading Packages
2.3. Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl API Help x
2.3.1. Command-Line Options 2.3.2. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Tcl Console Window
2.3.1. Command-Line Options x
2.3.1.1. Run a Tcl Script 2.3.1.2. Interactive Shell Mode 2.3.1.3. Evaluate as Tcl
2.6. Compiling Designs x
2.6.1. The flow Package 2.6.2. Compile All Revisions
2.7. Reporting x
2.7.1. Saving Report Data in csv Format
2.9. Automating Script Execution x
2.9.1. Execution Example 2.9.2. Controlling Processing 2.9.3. Displaying Messages
2.10. Other Scripting Features x
2.10.1. Natural Bus Naming 2.10.2. Short Option Names 2.10.3. Collection Commands 2.10.4. The post_message Command 2.10.5. Accessing Command-Line Arguments 2.10.6. The quartus() Array
2.10.3. Collection Commands x
2.10.3.1. The foreach_in_collection Command 2.10.3.2. The get_collection_size Command
2.10.5. Accessing Command-Line Arguments x
2.10.5.1. The cmdline Package
2.13. Tcl Scripting Basics x
2.13.1. Hello World Example 2.13.2. Variables 2.13.3. Substitutions 2.13.4. Arithmetic 2.13.5. Lists 2.13.6. Arrays 2.13.7. Control Structures 2.13.8. Procedures 2.13.9. File I/O 2.13.10. Syntax and Comments 2.13.11. External References
2.13.3. Substitutions x
2.13.3.1. Variable Value Substitution 2.13.3.2. Nested Command Substitution 2.13.3.3. Backslash Substitution
1. Command Line Scripting
2. Tcl Scripting
A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition User Guides

2.9. Automating Script Execution

You can configure scripts to run automatically at various points during compilation. Use this capability to automatically run scripts that perform custom reporting, make specific assignments, and perform many other tasks.

The following three global assignments control when a script is run automatically:

  • PRE_FLOW_SCRIPT_FILE —before a flow starts
  • POST_MODULE_SCRIPT_FILE —after a module finishes
  • POST_FLOW_SCRIPT_FILE —after a flow finishes

A module is another term for an Intel® Quartus® Prime executable that performs one step in a flow. For example, two modules are Analysis and Synthesis (quartus_map), and timing analysis (quartus_sta).

A flow is a series of modules that the Intel® Quartus® Prime software runs with predefined options. For example, compiling a design is a flow that typically consists of the following steps (performed by the indicated module):

  1. Analysis and Synthesis (quartus_map)
  2. Fitter (quartus_fit)
  3. Assembler (quartus_asm)
  4. Timing Analyzer (quartus_sta)

Other flows are described in the help for the execute_flow Tcl command. In addition, many commands in the Processing menu of the Intel® Quartus® Prime GUI correspond to this design flow.

To make an assignment automatically run a script, add an assignment with the following form to the .qsf for your project: 

set_global_assignment -name <assignment name> <executable>:<script name>

The Intel® Quartus® Prime software runs the scripts. 

<executable> -t <script name> <flow or module name> <project name> <revision name>

The first argument passed in the argv variable (or quartus(args) variable) is the name of the flow or module being executed, depending on the assignment you use. The second argument is the name of the project and the third argument is the name of the revision.

The last process, current project, and current revision are passed to the script by the Intel® Quartus® Prime software and can be accessed by the following commands: 
set process  [lindex $quartus(args) 0]
set project  [lindex $quartus(args) 1]
set revision [lindex $quartus(args) 2]

project_open $project -revision $revision

When you use the POST_MODULE_SCRIPT_FILE assignment, the specified script is automatically run after every executable in a flow. You can use a string comparison with the module name (the first argument passed in to the script) to isolate script processing to certain modules.


Section Content
Execution Example
Controlling Processing
Displaying Messages

Level Two Title