SystemVerilog - Language Support

This VS Code extension provides features to read, navigate and write SystemVerilog code much faster.

Features

• Elaborate syntax highlighting
• Go to symbol in document (Ctrl+Shift+O)
• Go to symbol in workspace folder (indexed modules/interfaces/programs/classes/packages) (Ctrl+T)
• Go to definition (works for module/interface/program/class/package names and for ports too!) (Ctrl+LeftClick)
• Find references (works for module/interface/program/class/package names and for ports too!) (Ctrl+LeftClick)
• Quick-start on already indexed workspaces
• Code snippets for many common blocks
• Instantiate module from already indexed module
• Linter capabilites with simulators (more info on the wiki)
• Fast real-time error identification through an integrated SystemVerilog parser and IntelliSense (fully accurate to IEEE Standard 1800-2017)
• If you find a bug or would like a feature, request it as an Issue or submit a Pull Request

Examples

Syntax Highlighting

Go To Definition

Find References

Module Instantiation

Recommendations

• If you have netlists in your workspace you can exclude them in the settings with systemverilog.excludeIndexing, e.g.: **/syn/**
• When running in workspaces with a large number of files, the systemverilog.documentSymbolsPrecision setting may need to be reduced down to 'full_no_references'. Doing this will turn off the 'find references' feature which will dramatically speedup the parsing.
• When you have large files, the systemverilog.maxLineCountIndexing setting can be tuned to prevent full parsing of these files, which will improve extension performance.
• Disclaimer: This is not a functional tool that will compile and simulate HDL, but it will make it easier and more user-friendly to write and navigate SystemVerilog and Verilog.

Settings

• systemverilog.includeIndexing: Array, Files included for indexing (glob pattern). Examples:
  • Include files within the workspace's rtl folder (* at front of pattern denotes path is relative to workspace root): **/rtl/**/*.{sv,v,svh,vh}
  • Add all files with a '.svp' extension: **/*.svp
  • Add files only when in a specific workspace: /abs/path/to/workspace/rtl/**/*.{sv,v,svh,vh}
• systemverilog.disableIndexing: Boolean, Disable indexing
• systemverilog.excludeIndexing: String, Exclude files from indexing based on glob
• systemverilog.forceFastIndexing: Boolean, Use fast regular expression parsing
• systemverilog.enableIncrementalIndexing: Boolean, Enable incremental indexation as files are opened
• systemverilog.parallelProcessing: Integer, Number of files to process in parallel during indexing
• systemverilog.forceFastIndexing: Boolean, force indexer to bo basic parsing. Good for when the extension takes too long to initialize.
• systemverilog.enableIncrementalIndexing: Boolean, Enable incremental indexation as you open files.
• systemverilog.maxLineCountIndexing: Boolean, When indexing a file, if the line count is larger than this number, fast indexing will be used to improve symbol lookup performance, as fewer symbols will be parsed.
• systemverilog.documentSymbolsPrecision: String, The level of detail the parser should use when looking for symbols:
  • full: detect blocks, ports, parameters, classes, methods, typedefs, defines, labels, instantiations, assertions, and references across files.
  • full_no_references: detect blocks, ports, parameters, classes, methods, typedefs, defines, labels, instantiations, and assertions.
  • declarations: detect blocks, ports, parameters, classes, methods, typedefs, and defines.
  • fast: detect only common blocks (module, class, interface, package, program) without hierarchy.
• systemverilog.antlrVerification: Boolean, Use ANTLR parser to verify code in real-time
• systemverilog.verifyOnOpen: Boolean, Run ANTLR verification on all files when opened.
• systemverilog.launchConfigurationVerilator: String, Command to run when launching verilator
  • Default: verilator --sv --lint-only --language 1800-2012 --Wall
  • If not in path, replace verilator with the appropriate command
• systemverilog.launchConfigurationVCS: String, Command to run when launching VCS
  • Default: vcs
  • If not in path, replace vcs with the appropriate command
• systemverilog.launchConfigurationVerible: String, Command to run when launching Verible
  • Default: verible-verilog-lint
  • If not in path, replace verible-verilog-lint with the appropriate command
• systemverilog.excludeCompiling: String, Files excluded from compiling when saved based on glob
• systemverilog.compileOnSave: Boolean, Compile files when saved
  • Default: true
• systemverilog.compilerType: String, Dropdown list to select a compiler type
  • Default: Verilator
• systemverilog.trace.server: String, Dropdown to select verbosity of LSP message tracing
• systemverilog.compileOnOpen: Boolean, Compile all files when opened
  • Default: false

Customizations

Use the provided settings in a user or workspace settings.json as appropriate. Here are a few examples:

{
  "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true, // turn on bracket pair coloring
  "editor.guides.bracketPairs": "active", // turn on bracket pair guides
  // Change theme default colors for specific tokens
  // To find tokens use: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide#scope-inspector
  "editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
    // Customize per theme or globally
    "[Theme Name]": {
      "textMateRules": [
        {
          // Workaround: Extension marks escaped identifiers as regular expressions to prevent bracket matching,
          //             so recoloring it back to identifier color
          "scope": ["string.regexp.identifier.systemverilog"],
          "settings": {
            "foreground": "#e06c75"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  // Customize formatting command to suite preferences
  "systemverilog.formatCommand": "verible-verilog-format --assignment_statement_alignment=preserve --case_items_alignment=infer --class_member_variables_alignment=infer --formal_parameters_alignment=preserve --formal_parameters_indentation=indent --named_parameter_alignment=flush-left --named_parameter_indentation=indent --named_port_alignment=flush-left --named_port_indentation=indent --net_variable_alignment=preserve --port_declarations_alignment=preserve --port_declarations_indentation=indent",
  // Add additional file extensions to associate with SystemVerilog and include them in the indexing
  "files.associations": {
    "*.svi": "systemverilog",
    "*.svp": "systemverilog",
    "*.pkg": "systemverilog"
  },
  "systemverilog.includeIndexing": ["**/*.{sv,v,svh,vh,svi,svp,pkg}"]
}

Known Issues

• Initial indexing might hog CPU/RAM when looking through files in very large workspaces

Future

• Tree view of module hierarchy
• References document
• Back-end Language server for SystemVerilog
• Update workspace state to save to storagePath

Contributing

• If you want to contribute with the project please fork this repository, clone it, make changes (preferably in a branch other than master) and finally create a Pull Request (more details here).
• To debug the extension locally first install the required dependencies (in the repository's root directory):

npm install

• Then compile the project at least once (this will generate the SystemVerilog lexer and parser in src\compiling\ANTLR\grammar\build):

npm run compile

• Finally, run the "Client + Server" run configuration:

Release Notes

See the changelog for more details

0.13.2

• modified formatter command parser to support windows paths by joecrop
• module instantiator now detects parameters correctly by joecrop

0.13.1

• Improved remote ssh performance by eirikpre

0.13

• input/output/input now have different icons in the outline tree by joecrop
• Format module instance and dropdown list of modules for auto-instantiator by joecrop
• support more file extensions and no extension in antlr parser by joecrop
• Bump minimist from 1.2.5 to 1.2.6 by dependabot
• Include indexing docs by joecrop

0.12.1

• Update VS Code engine to 1.56.0 to support Node.js 14
• Update several dependencies to address CVEs
• Update ESLint to version 8 and implement some suggested fixes
• Update Prettier and apply suggested formatting changes
• Remove React-related ESLint dependencies
• Remove direct dependency on antlr4 package as it is a submodule of antlr4ts
• Remove on Markdown activation
• Rename .eslintrc to .eslintrc.json to fix ESLint editor integration
• Add -Xexact-output-dir to compile command to fix MacOS build
• Update README.md with a suggested configuration section and add missing settings
• Enable bracket matching and coloring to function with SystemVerilog textual brackets
• Fix port-net-parameter highlighting corner case
• Enhance Github Actions test workflow
• Fix coverage collection

0.12

• Implemented 'find references' feature, thanks to joecrop
• Ports and parameters are now recognized as symbols, thanks to joecrop
• Illegal/reserved words contained with symbols is now supported, thanks to joecrop
• Added more consistent syntax highlighting for UDP tables, thanks to sw23
• Added support for verible_verilog_lint as a compiler/linter, thanks to joecrop
• Fixed 'npm run compile' on MacOS, thanks to sw23
• Added 'Contributing' section to documentation, thanks to gasrodriguez

0.11

• Syntax Highlighting Overhaul, thanks to jecassis
• Smaller extension footprint, thanks to jecassis
• Support for external formatter, thanks to jecassis
• Documentation upgrade, thanks to jecassis
• Dev update with ESLint, Prettier and tests update, thanks to jecassis

0.10

• Folders outside the workspace can now be included with systemverilog.includeIndexing
• It now saves the indexed database between runs, allowing quickstart on previous workspaces

0.9

• Increased the number of symbols the parser understands.
• Extensive bug squashing

0.8

• Compile an opened document using Verilator simulator, display errors/warnings as Diagnostics in documents, thanks to oehaddouchi
• Compile documents on save feature using Verilator simulator
• Added output channel SystemVerilog
• Added an LSP, set it to communicate with the extension's client
• Keep track of the recently used modules in the indexer
• Added diagnostic support for VCS compiler

0.7

• Instantiate module from already indexed module, thanks to oehaddouchi
• Update to documentSymbolProvider

0.6

• Stability and performance upgrade
• PCRE Regexes

0.5

• HoverProvider added, thanks to toastedcornflakes
• Improvements to DocumentSymbolProvider to better support Hover

0.4

• Added setting to exclude folders from indexing

0.3

• DefinitionProvider fetching from indexed modules implemented
• Indexing is now more safe, and will work for large workspaces

0.2

• Alpha 2 release with expanded syntax highlighting and snippets
• Indexing of every module/interface/program/class in workspace

0.1

• Alpha 1 release with syntax highlighting, and go to symbols