[SOLVED] Curious question on ModelSim

[dpaul]

I am using ModelSim as my simulator on Windows.

I launch the ModelSim exec and then navigate to my project sim directory. At the TCL prompt I run the command 'do run.do' to compile the design and run the simulation.
Sometimes I also launch ModelSim from the FPGA vendor's project IDE (e.g. Libero 2022.1).

My question is regarding an intermediate file ModelSim creates under this simulation directory. A file with some random name with no extension is created by ModelSim. The size of this file is dependent on how long a simulation is run. This file is not being removed by ModelSim when I quit simulation. I regularly remove such files manually.

I guess that one cannot stop the creation of such a file, but what settings should be changed/set such that these intermediate files are removed by ModelSim when I quit ModelSim?
Any settings inside the modelsim.ini file?

Thanks.

 

[kaz1]

I am using ModelSim as my simulator on Windows.

I launch the ModelSim exec and then navigate to my project sim directory. At the TCL prompt I run the command 'do run.do' to compile the design and run the simulation.
Sometimes I also launch ModelSim from the FPGA vendor's project IDE (e.g. Libero 2022.1).

My question is regarding an intermediate file ModelSim creates under this simulation directory. A file with some random name with no extension is created by ModelSim. The size of this file is dependent on how long a simulation is run. This file is not being removed by ModelSim when I quit simulation. I regularly remove such files manually.

View attachment 178294

I guess that one cannot stop the creation of such a file, but what settings should be changed/set such that these intermediate files are removed by ModelSim when I quit ModelSim?
Any settings inside the modelsim.ini file?

Thanks.

That is waveform log file.
Ideally should be over-written. I heard it fails to overwrite if modelsim crashes or is not closed nicely.

 

[dpaul]

For me it never crashes.
You mean to say that I must quit/close ModelSim after every simulation run so that such files are always overwritten?

 

[kaz1]

Not every time but if it happens, then delete all those files, restart modelsim. It sometimes worked for me. It seems file access issue.

Try also this setting to delete WLF after exiting sim:

 

[dpaul]

Thanks for that.

Found out that these files are called Dataset files.

I enabled option shown above and saved the settings. Then I stopped sim and quit ModelSim. However those Dataset files were still remaining and I have deleted them manually.

I will relaunch ModelSim fresh, run a simulation and then quit to see if a ModelSim restart is necessary for such a change to take effect.

 

[dpaul]

Update...

Upon ModelSim exit after simulation has ended, does not delete the created wlf* file.
Whether this file will be overwritten by another wlf* file after the launch of a new sim is not know to me, but I will try it. For me it will also work if only one wlf* is created everytime.

 

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If a vsim.wlf file is "open" in another program like in my case it's committed to source control so it's considered open, the file can't be deleted by Modelsim when a vsim command is run.

I usually need to manually delete the last vsim.wlf file that was generated from a previous run.

 

[dpaul]

My vsim.wlf is not under some version control system.

The suggested solution from #4 also does not work!
If I make an RTL change, then at the modelsim transcript window run the command "do run.do", then for every time I re-compile my design, a new wlft* is generated (they are not over-written by modelsim de-64).

 

[kaz1]

for #4 to work you need to add "quit sim" at start of do file

 

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Modesim uses a vsim.wlf file, usage of a wlf**** file is the result of an OS file access problem.

The use of wlf*** by modelsim is caused by Modelsim not being able to delete an existing vsim.wlf file. If Modelsim determines that the vsim.wlf file is used when another vsim command is issued Modelsim will automatically open a wlf*** file and report that it did so in the transcript window.

In my example in #7 there seems to be an issue if I commit the vsim.wlf file (perhaps the file was still open in Modelsim) in our source control system.