Verible

The Verible project's main mission is to parse SystemVerilog (IEEE 1800-2017) for a wide variety of applications.

It was born out of a need to parse un-preprocessed source files, which is suitable for single-file applications like style-linting and formatting. In doing so, it can be adapted to parse preprocessed source files, which is what real compilers and toolchains require.

The spirit of the project is that no-one should ever have to develop a SystemVerilog parser for their own application, because developing a standard-compliant parser is an enormous task due to the syntactic complexity of the language.

A lesser (but notable) objective is that the language-agnostic components of Verible be usable for rapidly developing language support tools for other languages.

Build

Verible's code base is written in C++.

To build, you need the bazel build system and a C++11 compatible compiler (e.g. >= g++-7; Using clang currently fails to compile the m4 dependency).

# Build all tools and libraries
bazel build -c opt //...

You can access the generated artifacts under bazel-bin/. For instance the syntax checker will be at bazel-bin/verilog/tools/syntax/verilog_syntax (corresponding to the target name //verilog/tools/syntax:verilog_syntax).

Installation

For simple installation, we provide regular binary releases.

If you prefer to install the binaries on your workstation yourself, use the :install target which you invoke with bazel run.

The following builds and installs the verilog_format, verilog_lint and verilog_syntax binaries in the provided location:

# In your home directory
bazel run :install -c opt -- ~/bin

# For a system directory that requires root-access, call with -s option.
# (Do _not_ run bazel with sudo.)
bazel run :install -c opt -- -s /usr/local/bin

Test

To run the tests in bazel:

# Run all tests
bazel test //...

Mailing Lists

Join the Verible community!

Developers: verible-dev@googlegroups.com (join)
Users: verible-users@googlegroups.com (join)

SystemVerilog Support

Parser

The lexer is implemented using GNU Flex, and the parser is implemented using GNU Bison (yacc). To parse un-preprocessed input, preprocessing constructs had to be handled explicitly in the parser, and are permitted in limited places. The grammatic rules in the yacc input are approximate and permissive; it may accept some syntactically invalid constructs. The priority is to accept all syntactically valid SystemVerilog, as defined in the SV-LRM. Status: As of 2019, it accepts the vast majority of SystemVerilog (IEEE 1800-2017), but there is work ahead to reach 100%.

The lexer and parser are decoupled, which means that the lexer can be used standalone to tokenize text, and the parser is adapted to accept tokens from sources other than the direct use of the lexer. This separation enables the insertion of different passes between the lexer and parser, such as integrated preprocessing, and context-based lexical disambiguation (with arbitrary lookahead) where required by the language.

The parser can be tested as a standalone program, //verilog/tools/syntax:verilog_syntax.

verilog_syntax: usage: verilog_syntax [options] <file> [<file>...]

  Flags from verilog/tools/syntax/verilog_syntax.cc:
    -printrawtokens (Prints all lexed tokens, including filtered ones.);
      default: false;
    -printtokens (Prints all lexed and filtered tokens); default: false;
    -printtree (Whether or not to print the tree); default: false;
    -verifytree (Verifies that all tokens are parsed into tree, prints unmatched
      tokens); default: false;

Try --helpfull to get a list of all flags.

Selecting Parsing Mode {#parsing-mode}

If your source file is not a standalone Verilog description as defined by the LRM, (e.g. a body snippet of a module, class, task, or function without the header or end) the parser can use an alternate parsing mode by using a comment directive before the first (non-comment) token.

// This file is `included inside a module definition body.
// verilog_syntax: parse-as-module-body
wire x;
initial begin
  x = 0;
end

The verilog_syntax directive tells the parser that the contents of this file are to be treated as if they are inside a module declaration.

Available parser selection modes include:

parse-as-statements: Text contains only statements (e.g. inside function, always, ...)
parse-as-expression: Text occurs inside an expression.
parse-as-module-body: Text occurs inside a module definition.
parse-as-class-body: Text occurs inside a class definition.
parse-as-package-body: Text occurs inside a package definition.

Token Stream

The lexer partitions a text buffer into a sequence of tokens with annotations (token stream). verilog_syntax --printtokens shows the tokens that feeds into the parser, and --printrawtokens to shows all tokens including whitespaces, comments, and attributes.

For example, the following code:

// This is module foo.
module foo(input a, b, output z);
endmodule : foo

produces the following tokens (shown using --printrawtokens):

All lexed tokens:
All lexed tokens:
(#"// end of line comment" @0-22: "// This is module foo.")
(#"<<\\n>>" @22-23: "
")
(#"module" @23-29: "module")
(#"<<space>>" @29-30: " ")
(#SymbolIdentifier @30-33: "foo")
(#'(' @33-34: "(")
(#"input" @34-39: "input")
(#"<<space>>" @39-40: " ")
(#SymbolIdentifier @40-41: "a")
(#',' @41-42: ",")
(#"<<space>>" @42-43: " ")
(#SymbolIdentifier @43-44: "b")
(#',' @44-45: ",")
(#"<<space>>" @45-46: " ")
(#"output" @46-52: "output")
(#"<<space>>" @52-53: " ")
(#SymbolIdentifier @53-54: "z")
(#')' @54-55: ")")
(#';' @55-56: ";")
(#"<<\\n>>" @56-57: "
")
(#"endmodule" @57-66: "endmodule")
(#"<<space>>" @66-67: " ")
(#':' @67-68: ":")
(#"<<space>>" @68-69: " ")
(#SymbolIdentifier @69-72: "foo")
(#"<<\\n>>" @72-73: "
")
(#"<<\\n>>" @73-74: "
")
(#$end @74-74: "")

The token names (after #) correspond to description strings in the yacc grammar file; keywords are shown the same as the text they match. Byte offsets are shown as the range that follows '@'. The raw, unfiltered token stream is lossless with respect to the original input text.

Concrete Syntax Tree

The parser produces a concrete syntax tree (CST), which can be diagnosed with verilog_syntax --printtree.

For example, the following code (same as above):

// This is module foo.
module foo(input a, b, output z);
endmodule : foo

produces this CST (rendered by verilog_syntax --printtree):

Parse Tree:
Node (tag: kDescriptionList) {
  Node (tag: kModuleDeclaration) {
    Node (tag: kModuleHeader) {
      (#"module" @23-29: "module")
      (#SymbolIdentifier @30-33: "foo")
      Node (tag: kParenGroup) {
        (#'(' @33-34: "(")
        Node (tag: kPortDeclarationList) {
          Node (tag: kPortDeclaration) {
            (#"input" @34-39: "input")
            Node (tag: kDataType) {
            }
            Node (tag: kUnqualifiedId) {
              (#SymbolIdentifier @40-41: "a")
            }
            Node (tag: kUnpackedDimensions) {
            }
          }
          (#',' @41-42: ",")
          Node (tag: kPort) {
            Node (tag: kPortReference) {
              Node (tag: kUnqualifiedId) {
                (#SymbolIdentifier @43-44: "b")
              }
            }
          }
          (#',' @44-45: ",")
          Node (tag: kPortDeclaration) {
            (#"output" @46-52: "output")
            Node (tag: kDataType) {
            }
            Node (tag: kUnqualifiedId) {
              (#SymbolIdentifier @53-54: "z")
            }
            Node (tag: kUnpackedDimensions) {
            }
          }
        }
        (#')' @54-55: ")")
      }
      (#';' @55-56: ";")
    }
    (#"endmodule" @57-66: "endmodule")
    Node (tag: kLabel) {
      (#':' @67-68: ":")
      (#SymbolIdentifier @69-72: "foo")
    }
  }
}

Nodes of the CST may link to other nodes or leaves (which contain tokens). The nodes are tagged with language-specific enumerations. Each leaf encapsulates a token and is shown with its corresponding byte-offsets in the original text (as @left-right). Null nodes are not shown.

The exact structure of the SystemVerilog CST is fragile, and should not be considered stable; at any time, node enumerations can be created or removed, and subtree structures can be re-shaped. In the above example, kModuleHeader is an implementation detail of a module definition's composition, and doesn't map directly to a named grammar construct in the SV-LRM. The verilog/CST library provides functions that abstract away internal structure.

Abstract Syntax Tree

An abstract syntax tree (AST) does not exist yet, but is planned.

Style Linter

The style linter is an analysis tool that identifies constructs or patterns deemed undesirable according to a style guide. The main goal is to relieve humans the burden of reviewing code for style compliance. Many lint rules use syntax tree pattern matching to find style violations. The tool provides generating a built-in lint documentation with details to each rule; you can generate it by invoking the linter with --generate_markdown or use the build script:

# Generating documentation
bazel build :lint_doc

# It will be generated into
bazel-bin/documentation_verible_lint_rules.md

The linter tool is available as //verilog/tools/lint:verilog_lint.

verilog_lint: usage: verilog_lint [options] <file> [<file>...]

  Flags from verilog/analysis/verilog_linter.cc:
    --rules (Comma-separated of lint rules to enable. No prefix or a '+' prefix
      enables it, '-' disable it. Configuration values for each rules placed
      after '=' character.); default: ;
    --rules_config (Path to lint rules configuration file.);
      default: ".rules.verible_lint";
    --ruleset ([default|all|none], the base set of rules used by linter);
      default: default;

  Flags from verilog/tools/lint/verilog_lint.cc:
    -generate_markdown (If true, print the description of every rule formatted
      for the markdown and exit immediately. Intended for the output to be
      written to a snippet of markdown.); default: false;
    -help_rules ([all|<rule-name>], print the description of one rule/all rules
      and exit immediately.); default: "";
    -lint_fatal (If true, exit nonzero if linter finds violations.);
      default: false;
    -parse_fatal (If true, exit nonzero if there are any syntax errors.);
      default: false;

Try --helpfull to get a list of all flags.

Rule configuration

The --rules flag allows to enable/disable rules as well as pass configuration to rules that accept them. It accepts a comma-separated list rule names. If prefixed with a - (minus), the rule is disabled. No prefix or a '+' (plus) prefix enables the rule. An optional configuration can be passed after an = assignment.

The following example enables the enum-name-style rule, enables and configures the line-length rule (80 characters length) and disables the no-tabs rule.

verilog_lint --rules=enum-name-style,+line-length=length:80,-no-tabs ...

Additionally, the --rules_config flag can be used to read configuration stored in a file. The syntax is the same as above, except the rules can be also separated with the newline character.

Waiving Lint Violations {#lint-waiver}

In the rare circumstance where a line needs to be waived from a particular lint rule, you can use the following waiver comment:

// This example waives the line after the waiver.
// verilog_lint: waive rule-name
The next non-comment line like this one is waived.

// This example waives the same line as the waiver.
This line is waived.  // verilog_lint: waive rule-name

// This example shows accumulation of waivers over multiple lines.
// verilog_lint: waive rule-name-1
// verilog_lint: waive rule-name-2
// Other comments, possibly waivers for other tools.
This line will be waived for both rule-name-1 and rule-name-2.

// This example shows how to waive an entire range of lines.
// verilog_lint: waive-start rule-X
...
All lines in between will be waived for rule-X
...
// verilog_lint: waive-stop rule-X

The name of the rule to waive is at the end of each diagnostic message in [].

Syntax errors cannot be waived. A common source of syntax errors is if the file is not a standalone Verilog program as defined by the LRM, e.g. a body snippet of a module, class, task, or function. In such cases, the syntax parser can be directed to treat the code as a snippet by selecting a parsing mode.

Formatter

The formatter is a transformative tool that manages whitespace in accordance with a particular style. The main goal is to relieve humans of having to manually manage whitespace, wrapping, and indentation, and to provide a tool that can be integrated into any editor to enable editor-independent consistency.

The formatter tool is available as //verilog/tools/formatter:verilog_format.

verilog_format: usage: verilog_format [options] <file>
To pipe from stdin, use '-' as <file>.

  Flags from verilog/tools/formatter/verilog_format.cc:
    --failsafe_success (If true, always exit with 0 status, even if there were
      input errors or internal errors. In all error conditions, the original
      text is always preserved. This is useful in deploying services where
      fail-safe behaviors should be considered a success.); default: true;
    --inplace (If true, overwrite the input file on successful conditions.);
      default: false;
    --lines (Specific lines to format, 1-based, comma-separated, inclusive N-M
      ranges, N is short for N-N. By default, left unspecified, all lines are
      enabled for formatting. (repeatable, cumulative)); default: ;
    --max_search_states (Limits the number of search states explored during line
      wrap optimization.); default: 100000;
    --show_equally_optimal_wrappings (If true, print when multiple optimal
      solutions are found (stderr), but continue to operate normally.);
      default: false;
    --show_inter_token_info (If true, along with show_token_partition_tree,
      include inter-token information such as spacing and break penalties.);
      default: false;
    --show_largest_token_partitions (If > 0, print token partitioning and then
      exit without formatting output.); default: 0;
    --show_token_partition_tree (If true, print diagnostics after token
      partitioning and then exit without formatting output.); default: false;
    --stdin_name (When using '-' to read from stdin, this gives an alternate
      name for diagnostic purposes. Otherwise this is ignored.);
      default: "<stdin>";

Try --helpfull to get a list of all flags.

Disabling Formatting {#disable-formatting}

When you want to exempt a range of text from formatting, write:

// verilog_format: off
... untouched code ...
// verilog_format: on

/* verilog_format: off */
... untouched code ...
/* verilog_format: on */

As a good practice, include a reason why you choose to disable a section.

// verilog_format: off  // my alignment is prettier than the tool's

// verilog_format: off  // issue #N: working around.

These directives take precedence over --lines specifications.

Incremental Formatting

If you wish to format only changed lines (a.k.a. incremental or partial formatting), the following tools are provided to assist.

Git users

git-verilog_format.sh (installed along with verilog_format) can be run from within any subdirectory of a Git project. It automatically detects new and changed lines, and generates the --lines flag for each modified file in your workspace.

From --help:

git-verilog_format.sh:
Performs incremental file formatting (verilog_format) based on current diffs.
New files explicitly git-add-ed by the user are wholly formatted.

Actions:
  1) Runs 'git add -u' to stage currently modified files to the index.
     To format new files (wholly), 'git add' those before calling this script.
  2) Runs 'git diff -u --cached' to generate a unified diff.
  3) Diff is scanned to determine added or modified lines in each file.
  4) Invokes 'verilog_format --inplace' on all touched or new Verilog files,
     but does not 'git add' so that the changes may be examined and tested.
     Formatting can be easily undone with:
       'git diff | git apply --reverse -'.

usage: git-verilog_format.sh [script options] [-- [verilog_format options]]
  (no positional arguments)
  Run from anywhere inside a git project tree.

script options: (options with arguments can be: --flag=VALUE or --flag VALUE)
  --help | -h : print help and exit
  --verbose | -v : execute verbosely
  --dry-run : stop before running formatter, and print formatting commands
  --formatter TOOL : path to verilog_format binary
       [using: /usr/local/bin/verilog_format]
  -- : stops option processing, and forwards remaining args as flags to the
       underlying --formatter tool.

Lexical Diff

verilog_diff compares two input files for equivalence, where equivalence is determined by the --mode of operation.

verilog_diff: usage: verilog_diff [options] file1 file2

  Flags from verilog/tools/diff/verilog_diff.cc:
    --mode (Defines difference functions.
      format: ignore whitespaces, compare token texts
        This is useful for verifying formatter (e.g. verilog_format) output.
      obfuscate: preserve whitespaces, compare token texts' lengths only.
        This is useful for verifying verilog_obfuscate output.
      ); default: format;

Exit codes:

0: files are equivalent
1: files differ, or contain lexical errors
2: error reading file

Code Obfuscator

verilog_obfuscate transforms Verilog code by replacing identifiers with obfuscated names of equal length, and preserving all other text, including spaces. Output is written to stdout. The resulting file size is the same as the original.

This is useful for preparing potentially sensitive test cases with tool vendors.

verilog_obfuscate: usage: verilog_obfuscate [options] < original_file > output

verilog_obfuscate mangles Verilog code by changing identifiers.
All whitespaces and identifier lengths are preserved.
Output is written to stdout.

  Flags from verilog/tools/obfuscator/verilog_obfuscate.cc:
    --decode (If true, when used with --load_map, apply the translation
      dictionary in reverse to de-obfuscate the source code, and do not
      obfuscate any unseen identifiers. There is no need to --save_map with this
      option, because no new substitutions are established.); default: false;
    --load_map (If provided, pre-load an existing translation dictionary
      (written by --save_map). This is useful for applying pre-existing
      transforms.); default: "";
    --save_map (If provided, save the translation to a dictionary for reuse in a
      future obfuscation with --load_map.); default: "";

Future Intent

The Verible team is interested in exploring how it can help other tool developers in providing a SystemVerilog front end, for example, emitting an abstract syntax tree (AST). If you are interested in collaborating, contact us.

eunchan/verible