vivado-git

Trying to make Vivado more Git-friendly.

Requirements

• Tested with Vivado 2021.2.1

Windows

• Git for Windows
• Add C:\Program Files\Git\bin (or wherever you have your git.exe) to your PATH

Linux

• Git

Installation

Add Vivado_init.tcl (or append the relevant lines if you already have something in it) along with the scripts directory to:

• %APPDATA%\Xilinx\Vivado on Windows
• ~/.Xilinx/Vivado on Linux

How it works

Vivado is a pain in the ass to source control decently, so these scripts provide:

• A modified write_project_tcl_git.tcl script to generate the project script without absolute paths.

• A Git wrapper that will recreate the project script and add it before committing. All the Git commands can be used from the Tcl Console on the Vivado GUI.

• A Tcl script (wproj) to just create the Tcl project generator script without using git. This script can also be called from the Tcl Console on Vivado. This is the prefered way to generate the project generator script if you want to handle Git with an external program (like Git from a terminal, SourceTree, VS Code, etc).

Workflow

1. When first starting a project, create it in a folder called vivado_project (e.g. PROJECT_NAME/vivado_project). All the untracked files will be under this directory.

2. Place your source files anywhere you want in your project folder (e.g. PROJECT_NAME/src).

   Here is an example of a possible project structure:

   PROJECT_NAME
       ├── .git
       ├── .gitignore
       ├── project_name.tcl         # Project generator script
       ├── src/                     # Tracked source files
       │   ├── design/
       │   │    ├── *.v
       │   │    └── *.vhd
       │   ├── testbench/
       │   │    ├── *.v
       │   │    └── *.vhd
       │   └── ...
       ├── ips/                     # Tracked project-specific IP repository
       │   ├── my_first_ip/
       │   │    ├── src/
       │   │    ├── xgui/
       │   │    └── component.xml
       │   ├── my_second_ip/
       │   └── ...
       └── vivado_project/          # Untracked generated files
           ├── project_name.xpr
           ├── project_name.cache/
           ├── project_name.hw/
           ├── project_name.sim/
           ├── project_name.srcs/
           │    ├── sources_1/
           │    │    ├── bd/             # BDs are regenerated from script
           │    │    │    ├── my_bd/
           │    │    │    └── ...
           │    │    └── imports/hdl/    # BD wrappers are also regenerated
           │    │         ├── my_bd_wrapper.{v,vhd}
           │    │         └── ...
           │    │
           │    └── ...
           └── ...
   

3. Initialize the git repository with git init on the Tcl Console. This will create the repository, automatically change to your project directory (PROJECT_NAME), generate the .gitignore file and stage it.

4. Stage your source files with git add.

5. When you are done, git commit your project. A PROJECT_NAME.tcl script will be created in your PROJECT_NAME folder and added to your commit.

   • Note: Always use the -m argument to pass your message when committing. This is needed because the Tcl Console on Vivado cannot handle terminal-based editors.

6. Afterwards, when opening the project after cloning it, do it by using Tools -> Run Tcl Script... and selecting the PROJECT_NAME.tcl file created earlier. This will regenerate the project so that you can continue to work.

Sample project

Refer to the reaction_timer project under sample if you want an example on how you can structure your project.

Notes

Block design support

If a block design is present, Tcl procedures will be integrated in the project generator file to regenerate it. Make sure to specify it as <Local to Project> when creating the Block Design with the GUI, so that it is created inside the vivado_project directory.

The script will also automatically create and add the BD wrapper to the project.

The wrapper of the .bd file must be called ${bd_name}_wrapper (e.g. my_awesome_bd_wrapper if your BD is called my_awesome_bd), which is the default when creating in the GUI with Create HDL Wrapper....

The BD wrapper that is automatically generated by Vivado must not be tracked by Git. If you need to manually modify the BD wrapper generated by Vivado, you can write a handwritten wrapper to the generated wrapper and put only the handwritten one under source control.

Also note that the layout information of the block design will not be kept.

Board part and IP repositories paths

Only board part and IP repositories inside the project are stored in the project generator script.

If you have a system wide board part or IP repository, you will need to add it manually after recreating the project from the Tcl script (e.g. via Settings --> Board Repository).