Linting and Quick Fixes

In addition to syntax validation, Sigasi Studio also checks your code for semantic problems (Linting, or Linter checks). Some of these problems can be automatically resolved with Quick Fixes. Both syntax checking and linting happen at type-time: new markers appear as you are typing your code.

Linting

VHDL code Lint is defined as code that is strictly correct according to the language definition, but still suspicious or problematic. Sigasi Studio has a built-in VHDL linter, which provides info about code lint in the design.

Marker Icons

  • marks an info message that can be resolved automatically with a Quick Fix.
  • marks an info message.
  • marks a warning that can be resolved automatically with a Quick Fix.
  • marks a warning that cannot be resolved automatically.
  • marks an error that can be resolved automatically with a Quick Fix.
  • marks an error that cannot be resolved automatically.

Configuring the Severity Level

The Sigasi Studio VHDL linter has reasonable defaults for the severity level of reported lint problems. However, the severity level of certain classes of linting rules is configurable for additional flexibility. The configuration interface to configure severities for the entire workspace is available through:

  • For (System)Verilog rules: Window > Preferences > Sigasi > (System)Verilog > Errors/Warnings
  • For VHDL rules: Window > Preferences > Sigasi > VHDL > Errors/Warnings
Configuring the severity of Sigasi Studio linting checks

You can also configure the severity level per project.

Suppressing warnings

Specific warnings can be suppressed in your code by adding a @suppress comment (-- @suppress for VHDL, // @suppress for SystemVerilog), on the same line as the warning.

You can limit the suppression to a specific warning by putting a prefix of the warning message between quotes after @suppress. Sigasi also recommends adding a reason why the warning was suppressed by adding an extra comment after @suppress:

<line with warning> // @suppress "Warning message prefix" Reason why warning is suppressed

Since Sigasi Studio 4.2 the @suppress comment also suppresses Errors. Since Sigasi Studio 4.3 warnings have a quickfix to automatically add the @suppress comment with a matching warning message prefix.

No Linting for Common Libraries

Common Libraries are considered to be production ready libraries. Linting is skipped for all files in the Common Libraries folder.

Quick Fixes

Some of the VHDL lint problems can be automatically resolved with Quick Fixes. These problems have markers annotated with a lightbulb icon (like ). To trigger a Quick Fix, click the problem marker or press Ctrl+1 and select the Quick Fix.

Language specific code rules

The currently available linting rules are described in detail on the following pages.

Project specific Linting settings

Severity of Linting checks

Sigasi Studio offers 2 ways of configuring the severity of linting checks.

  • For the entire workspace, through the Window > Preferences dialog as described above.
  • You can override these setting by creating a settings file for your projects.
    In each project, you can override the coding rules settings. You can override rules for the entire project, for folders in the project, or for individual files.

Errors/Warnings property page

To configure the severity level, right click the project (or file or folder) in the Project Explorer and select Properties > VHDL Errors/Warnings or Properties > SystemVerilog Errors/Warnings.

Configure linting severity per project

On the top of the dialog, select Enable project specific settings to activate the severity level on a project base. Enabling this setting will override any settings specified at the workspace level. For each of the available ID’s, you can choose from a drop-down list or you can set all severities at once using the drop-down list on top.

Note that choosing the default setting does not inherit from the workspace settings. It will apply the Sigasi built-in default for a linting rule.

Project settings are stored in this settings file:

    ${project location}/.settings/com.sigasi.hdt.vhdl.linting.prefs

You can search for a specific rule, by using the search field at the top of the property page.

Search for a specific rule

Manual configuration

To configure the severity of validations, add a line for each validation:

    ${validation id}/severity/${path}=${severity}

Where ${validation id} can be

  • the number of the validation ID (e.g. 140)
  • all to specify all validation ids in one rule

Validation ID numbers are listed in the list of VHDL code rules, the list of (System)Verilog code rules and can also be found in the Project Properties under VHDL Errors/Warnings.

Where ${path} can be:

  • <project> (literally, with brackets!) to set the severity of the entire project
  • /path/to/folder to set the severity of an entire folder
  • /path/to/file.vhd to set the severity of a specific file

Where ${severity} can be:

  • ERROR
  • WARNING
  • INFO
  • IGNORE

Whitespace must be escaped with a back slash (\). You can add comments with #.

Examples:

    72/severity/<project>=IGNORE
    72/severity//Folder\ name/Extra\ folder=INFO
    72/severity//test/top.vhd=WARNING
    all/severity/<project>=IGNORE

Naming Conventions per project

While Naming Conventions and the Header Comment check [(System)Verilog | VHDL] can be configured globally for a workspace, they can also be defined per project, per folder or per file. The project-specific Naming Conventions and Header Comment are stored in this settings file for VHDL related settings:

    ${project location}/.settings/com.sigasi.hdt.vhdl.linting.prefs

For (System)Verilog related settings, this settings file is used:

    ${project location}/.settings/com.sigasi.hdt.verilog.linting.prefs

The validation ID for Naming Conventions is 92. The validation ID for the Header Comment is 188.

Syntax for Naming conventions

All lines that configure Naming Conventions should start with 92 and are of this format:

    92/params/${identifier}/${path}=${convention}

Valid ${identifier} values are:

    architecture_name
    configuration_name
    constant_name
    entity_name
    generate_statement_name
    generic_name
    instantiation_statement_name
    label
    package_name
    port_name
    process_statement_name
    signal_name
    type_name
    variable_name

Naming Conventions can be restricted to a specific file or folder using ${path}. Possible values are:

  • <project> (literally, with brackets!) to set Naming Conventions for the entire project
  • the folder name to which the Naming Convention should apply
  • the full path of the file to which the Naming Convention should apply

The pattern that defines the Naming Convention is set in ${convention}. Patterns are configured with Java regex syntax.

Naming Conventions for a project and setting the severity of the linting checks are configured in the same settings file.

Syntax for Header Comment

Lines that configure the Header Comment should start with 188 and are of this format:

    188/params/comment_header/${path}=${convention}

The meaning of ${path} and ${convention} is equal to the definitions for Naming Conventions.

Examples: 

    92/severity/<project>=INFO
    92/params/constant_name/<project>=c_.*
    92/params/entity_name/my_folder=e_([A-Z_0-9])*
    188/severity/<project>=WARNING
    188/params/comment_header//<project>=-- Project specific header comment\r?\n-- Second line
    188/params/comment_header//my_folder=-- Folder specific header comment

Note that to use \R in the configurarion file the \ needs to be escaped. So you’ll need to put \\R in the configuration file.

Errors in the patterns will be reported in the log file: Help > Open Log.