[moved] What tool can i use to compare two EDIF files?

[ivh1u17]

Hi! Hope this is the right place to post.
I am trying to compare the same design synthesised with the same version of Vivado on different machines. I have two .edf netlist files and want to compare them to see whether there are any differences between the two versions. I have access to IC Validator and was wondering whether you know a way I could perform the comparison with it or whether there is any other tool i could use. Thank you!

 

[ads-ee]

EDIF files are text files, so any diff program should work on it.

I believe that Vivado has deterministic output, so builds on different machines or at different times of the day will not change the output from one run to the next as long as all of the settings for the project are identical.

 

[ivh1u17]

EDIF files are text files, so any diff program should work on it.

I believe that Vivado has deterministic output, so builds on different machines or at different times of the day will not change the output from one run to the next as long as all of the settings for the project are identical.

Unfortunately they came out different - the files include file paths and date and time. I did try comparing the text files as such but it didn't help.
Still even if this wasn't the case, out of interest, how would i go about comparing two netlists?

 

[TrickyDicky]

Personally, the easiest way I've found to see if two builds are the same is simply to check the wns and tns figures. Also check the total nets. It would be very unlikely these would be the same on two different builds.

 

[BradtheRad]

TextWrangler is the program I use for comparing text files.
It marks off portions where it recognizes a difference. It has the intelligence to recognize identical passages and pass over them.

 

[dpaul]

@ivh1u17 , I did try comparing the text files as such but it didn't help.
What exactly did not help?
I use Notepad++ editor and its compare plugin just works great. You can also get any freely available diff tool which can compare large files.

 

[ads-ee]

Personally, the easiest way I've found to see if two builds are the same is simply to check the wns and tns figures. Also check the total nets. It would be very unlikely these would be the same on two different builds.

I thought I recall (maybe wrongly) that Vivado has deterministic output now. The same design can be compiled multiple times and the results will be the same unless settings are changed (e.g. the seed). This includes the number of threads allowed to be used by the software.

Only the timestamp when the EDIF was generated should change.

--- Updated May 27, 2021 ---

Unfortunately they came out different - the files include file paths and date and time. I did try comparing the text files as such but it didn't help.
Still even if this wasn't the case, out of interest, how would i go about comparing two netlists?

When you do such comparisons between two builds on different machines you need to use identical build directory locations.

 

[TrickyDicky]

@ads-ee This is what I mean. If theres any difference it will show up in the timing. If the TNS/WNS match etc then the netlist should be identical.
It seems that Vivado has got more reliable producing the same results even when changing small things (like a build ID register). We're having to change the strategy to change the "seed". Even when max threads is set to 6.