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If I understand
all the contents of the Flash memory get loaded into SRAM upon powerup. Could I then read my file contents from SRAM?
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That's not correct. Not all the content of flash gets loaded into sram, but only what is needed or, more exactly, what is specified in the bootloader.
If the text file is included in the Nios application (e.g. in the form of a static const char array, or any other read only data), indeed it will be loaded into sram upon boot and you'll have it available in your code, like a common variable.
Otherwise, if the file is simply stored in the flash after fpga configuration and elf file, you need to read it directly from the flash device; but this is quite easy with the HAL driver functions.
I don't understand what you mean when you say you want the file to be accessed from vhdl files.