quartus II libs

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Hi..I'm very confused now! What you say totally contradicts what the prior poster said.

Could someone please clarify the situation?

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If all your code is VHDL or verilog, you dont need to add anything in the libraries section, just add all the source files to the file list.

You only really need the library section if you have AHDL.

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may be this thread will help:

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40756&highlight=vhdl+library

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hi...thanxs for your help...

I am beginning to understand, but what exactly is the library section of settings for then?

I mean, let's say I have a few files with defined entities, can I place them in a directory and put the path in

library settings and quartus will pick them up and add them to 'work' lib?

Sorta like a C include file for headers etc?

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Yes. It's a Quartus-specific mechanism to point to a directory that has a lot of your files in it without explicitly adding each one. I prefer explicitly adding them, but is meant to make things easier.

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I tried it...putting some files in a directory and defining a top level file then compiling.

Best I can tell quartus does not even touch the files in the directory (i.e. the last access time does not change).

What am I doing wrong?

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Yes. It's a Quartus-specific mechanism to point to a directory that has a lot of your files in it without explicitly adding each one. I prefer explicitly adding them, but is meant to make things easier.

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Actually, Quartus does not pick up any VHDL files that are not explicity in the file list.

The libraries section is just a legacy thing to support AHDL.

The libraries section in the settings has nothing to do with VHDL libraries.

Basically, unless you are using AHDL, the libraries section is pretty useless.

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Actually, Quartus does not pick up any VHDL files that are not explicity in the file list.

The libraries section is just a legacy thing to support AHDL.

The libraries section in the settings has nothing to do with VHDL libraries.

Basically, unless you are using AHDL, the libraries section is pretty useless.

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According to Rysc the following is true;

"What about explicitly adding the file/s? The libraries are only places for Quartus to look for design files that match the missing component name. For example, if your HDL instantiates a module/entity called blaa, Quartus will first look through all the files specificially added in Project -> Add Files to see if blaa is defined anywhere. If not, then it looks in the libraries for files that have that in the name, like blaa.v or blaa.vhd. It does not search all files, just known filetypes. It also won't look inside the files if the names don't match, so if you have a file called blaa_altera.v, which has a module called blaa inside, it won't look at that because the name doesn't match blaa. Just some ideas as to what might be happening. "

Does this have any validity at all?

In my experience with VHDL, Quartus will NOT search your libraries path for source files. All VHDL files MUST be in the file list (either directly, or a tcl file that picks up a file list from somewhere). I have no experience with Verilog on this issues, but I know that verilog has no libraries features built into the language, so it may search the directories in the libraries path for source files (verilog allows include files, like AHDL, whcih are probably pulled out of the library directories, because I know for AHDL you cannot include .inc files in the file list, they MUST be picked up from your libraries settings. Putting a .inc file in the file list causes a compile error because it is not a complete unit)

For VHDL, Quartus will only compile files in the file list. If you are using component instantiations, they are all treated as black boxes until the mapping stage. If the component cannot be mapped to an entity, it will not do any further compilations to try and find the entity or source file, it just throws an error. With direct instantiation, again, if the entity hasnt been compiled already, it will throw an error. Files in the libraries path are NOT compiled.

What exactly are you trying to do?

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In my experience with VHDL, Quartus will NOT search your libraries path for source files. All VHDL files MUST be in the file list (either directly, or a tcl file that picks up a file list from somewhere). I have no experience with Verilog on this issues, but I know that verilog has no libraries features built into the language, so it may search the directories in the libraries path for source files (verilog allows include files, like AHDL, whcih are probably pulled out of the library directories, because I know for AHDL you cannot include .inc files in the file list, they MUST be picked up from your libraries settings. Putting a .inc file in the file list causes a compile error because it is not a complete unit)

For VHDL, Quartus will only compile files in the file list. If you are using component instantiations, they are all treated as black boxes until the mapping stage. If the component cannot be mapped to an entity, it will not do any further compilations to try and find the entity or source file, it just throws an error. With direct instantiation, again, if the entity hasnt been compiled already, it will throw an error. Files in the libraries path are NOT compiled.

What exactly are you trying to do?

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Sorry to be a pain! you've been a very big help. I'm just trying to learn the software before I start using it.

It does this for AHDL, VHDL, Verilog, .bdf(schematics), etc. Here's an example in VHDL that only adds the top-level and gets the sub-hierarchy through a library:

set_global_assignment -name VHDL_FILE test.vhd

set_global_assignment -name SEARCH_PATH .\\rtl\\user_lib

Note that there is also a message when it does this rather than read something explicit:

Warning (12125): Using design file rtl/user_lib/basic_shift_register.vhd, which is not specified as a design file for the current project, but contains definitions for 2 design units and 1 entities in project

Info (12022): Found design unit 1: basic_shift_register-rtl

Info (12023): Found entity 1: basic_shift_register

(Also note that the project directory is a library by default even if not specified. So if your top-level in your .qsf is called "topmod" it will look in explicitly added files first. If it's not there, it will look in the project directory for any source files that are topmod, i.e. topmod.vhd or topmod.sv. This repeats for all entities. (It doesn't re-read explicitly added files. It actually reads all explicitly added files and creates a list of found modules/entities/etc. and only when something can't be found there does it look in libraries)

Ok - sorry for contradicting you RISC. I was convinced I have had problems using the libraries in the past, hence my posts.

To Drforbin - I would still recommend you explicitly add each source file to your project. This makes it more obvious what is part of the project and what is not.