The scope of VHDL use clauses and VHDL library clauses

When I first learned VHDL, I bumped in to quite a few language quirks. Here is one thing that I learned the hard way: the scope of VHDL use clauses.

I figured out that you can put several entities or packages in the same file. Now, usually people only put design units in the same file in pairs, like entity + architecture or package + package body:

library
use
entity
architecture

or

library
use
package
package body

Note that the use clauses and library clauses are only written once at the top of the VHDL file. A naïve passer-by would assume that these clauses are valid throughout the entire file. Wrong!

If you try to write a VHDL file with this structure, things will go wrong:

library
use
package one
package two

Package two will not be able to see the thing declared in the use case. Isn’t that funny?

The reason is that the library and use clauses are only visible to the first design unit (entity, architecture, package,…). In case you write an entity and its corresponding architecture (or a package and its corresponding package body) the so-called secondary design unit (the architecture or package body) inherits whatever is used in the primary design unit (entity or package). Aha! Even if the architecture is in a different file, you don’t have to repeat the use clauses.

So finally, here is some VETSMOD VHDL code to play with:

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---
- New "Design Unit" starts here ----
library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;

-- the library and use clauses apply to the entity below
entity e1 is
	port(
		p : in std_logic -- OK
	);
end entity e1;

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---
- New "Design Unit" starts here ----

-- architecture inherits use clause from its entity 
architecture RTL of e1 is
	signal s : std_logic; -- OK
begin
end architecture RTL;

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---
- New "Design Unit" starts here ----

-- No library or use clauses inherited!
entity e2 is
	port(
		p : in std_logic -- ERROR! std_logic is not visible here
	);
end entity e2;