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GTKWAVE(1)		     Simulation Wave Viewer		      GTKWAVE(1)

NAME
     gtkwave - Visualization tool for VCD, LXT, LXT2, VZT, FST, and GHW files

SYNTAX
     gtkwave [option]... [DUMPFILE] [SAVEFILE] [RCFILE]

DESCRIPTION
     Visualization tool for VCD, LXT, LXT2, VZT, FST, and GHW.	VCD is an indus-
     try  standard simulation dump format. LXT, LXT2, VZT, and FST have been de-
     signed specifically for use with gtkwave.	GHW is the  native  VHDL  format
     generated	by  GHDL.   Native  dumpers exist in Icarus Verilog and the open
     source  version  of  VeriWell  for  the  LXT  formats  so	conversion  with
     vcd2lxt(1)  or vcd2lxt2(1) is not necessary to take direct advantage of LXT
     with those simulators.  AET2 files can  also  be  processed  provided  that
     libae2rw  is  available  but this is only of interest to people who use IBM
     EDA toolsets.

OPTIONS
     -n,--nocli <directory name>
	    Use file requester for dumpfile name.

     -f,--dump <filename>
	    Specify dumpfile name.

     -F,--fastload
	    generate/use VCD recoder fastload files.  This  is	similar  to  the
	    -g,--giga  option,	however the spill file generated is not deleted.
	    Reloading the VCD file another time (either through pressing the re-
	    load button or by re-invoking gtkwave at a later time) will use this
	    generated spill file rather than read the value  change  section  of
	    the  VCD file.  This will speed up reloads on large files greatly as
	    only the variable declaration section needs to be parsed.  Note that
	    the spill file contains the file size and modification date  of  the
	    VCD  file in order to detect if it is stale and needs to be regener-
	    ated.

     -o,--optimize
	    optimize VCD to FST.  This will  automatically  call  vcd2fst(1)  to
	    perform the file conversion.  This option is highly recommended with
	    large  VCD	files  in order to cut down on the memory usage required
	    for file viewing.  Can be used in conjunction with -v,--vcd.

     -a,--save <filename>
	    Specify savefile name.  Useful suffixes for desktop integration  are
	    .gtkw and .sav (deprecated).

     -A,--autosavename
	    Assume  savefile  is suffix modified dumpfile name (i.e., remove and
	    replace with ".gtkw").

     -r,--rcfile <filename>
	    Specify override .gtkwaverc filename.

     -l,--logfile <filename>
	    Specify simulation logfile name.  Multiple logfiles may be specified
	    by preceding each with the command flag.  By selecting  the  numbers
	    in the text widget, the marker will immediately zoom to the specific
	    time value.

     -d,--defaultskip
	    If	there  is not a .gtkwaverc file in the home directory or current
	    directory and it is not explicitly specified on  the  command  line,
	    when  this	option	is enabled, do not use an implicit configuration
	    file and instead default to the old "whitescreen" behavior.

     -D,--dualid <which>
	    Specify multisession identifier information.  The format of  "which"
	    is m+nnnnnnnn where m is the session number 0 or 1 and nnnnnnnn is a
	    hexadecimal value indicating the shared memory ID of an array of two
	    gtkwave_dual_ipc_t	data  structures.  The intended use of this flag
	    is for front ends such as twinwave(1).

     -s,--start <time>
	    Specify start time for LXT2/VZT block skip.

     -e,--end <time>
	    Specify end time for LXT2/VZT block skip.

     -t,--stems <filename>
	    Specify stems file for source code annotation.  This will  automati-
	    cally  launch the rtlbrowse(1) helper process.  See xml2stems(1) for
	    information on stems file generation.

     -c,--cpu <numcpus>
	    Specify number of CPUs available for parallelizable ops (e.g., block
	    prefetching on VZT reads).

     -N,--nowm
	    Disable window manager for most windows.  The intended use	of  this
	    is	to be used in conjunction with the --script option, however this
	    also can be used to reparent into an alternate window manager.

     -M,--nomenus
	    Do not render menubar. This is mainly used for making  a  restricted
	    applet that cannot initiate file I/O on its own, however it also can
	    be used as a workaround in earlier versions of GTK+ that do not han-
	    dle GTKSocket/GTKPlug focus interactions properly.

     -H,--noheader
	    Do	not  use headerbars which provide hamburger style menus rendered
	    in the toolbar, but revert back to non-headerbar operation.  This is
	    for GTK 3 only.

     -S,--script <filename>
	    Specify Tcl command script file for execution.

     -T,--tcl_init <filename>
	    Specify Tcl command script to be loaded on startup.  Implies  --wish
	    command flag.

     -W,--wish
	    Enable  Tcl command line on stdio.	All script commands can be typed
	    in on stdin.

     -R,--repscript <filename>
	    Specify Tcl command script for periodic execution.

     -P,--repperiod <value>
	    Specifies delay in milliseconds between successive executions of the
	    repscript.	Default is 500.

     -X,--xid <XID>
	    Specify XID (in hexadecimal) of window for a GtkPlug to connect  to.
	    GTKWave  does  not	directly  render to a window but instead renders
	    into a GtkPlug expecting a GtkSocket at the other  end.   Note  that
	    there  are	issues	with  accelerators working properly so menus are
	    disabled in the componentized version of GTKWave when  it  functions
	    as a plug-in.

     -1,--rpcid <RPCID>
	    Specify  RPCID  of	GConf (or GSettings) session.  This is a decimal
	    value zero or greater and is the identifier used by  GConf	to  know
	    what  update  data	to listen to.  This option only works if --with-
	    gconf (or --with-gsettings) was specified during ./configure.

     -2,--chdir <DIRNAME>
	    Specify new current working directory.  This is  typically	used  in
	    OSX  to run gtkwave if it was compiled and placed in an .app bundle.
	    Note that if the environment variable GTKWAVE_CHDIR is defined,  the
	    argument  is  a  dummy  argument. This is to support OSX in that the
	    open command has difficulty in passing spaces as command line  argu-
	    ments and it is possible for pwd(1) to return spaces.

     -3,--restore
	    Restore  previous  default	(0)  or  --rpcid RPCID numbered session.
	    This only works for one  dumpfile,	savefile,  rcfile,  and  current
	    working  directory	so  it	has the effect of restoring the most re-
	    cently loaded file.  If used in conjunction with the --rpcid option,
	    that option must be specified earlier in the command line  than  the
	    --restore  option.	If RPCID is not specified, then the default of 0
	    is used.  This option only works if  --with-gconf  (or  --with-gset-
	    tings)  was  specified during ./configure.	Note that for GSettings,
	    limitations in its implementation allow it only to restore the  pre-
	    vious session.

     -4,--rcvar
	    Specify  single  rc variable values individually.  These take effect
	    after any other rc variables have been loaded from internal defaults
	    or from configuration files.

     -5,--sstexclude
	    Specify sst exclusion filter filename.

     -6,--dark
	    Set gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme = TRUE.

     -7,--saveonexit
	    At exit, a requester is brought up to prompt user to  write  a  save
	    file.  Canceling the requester prevents from writing the file.

     -I,--interactive
	    Specifies  that  "interactive" VCD mode is to be used which allows a
	    viewer to navigate a VCD trace while GTKWave is processing	the  VCD
	    file.   When  this	option	is used, the filename is overloaded such
	    that it is the hexadecimal value for  the  shared  memory  ID  of  a
	    writer.   Note that the shared memory ID can be passed straight from
	    stdin by using the --vcd option; see the manpage for shmidcat(1) for
	    more details.

     -L,--legacy
	    Specifies that the viewer should use legacy VCD mode rather than the
	    VCD recoder.  Note that using legacy mode will require  considerably
	    more  memory  than	the  recoder and its use is discouraged for very
	    large traces.

     -g,--giga
	    Specifies that the viewer should use gigabyte mempacking when recod-
	    ing  (possibly  slower).   This  is  equivalent   to   setting   the
	    vlist_spill and vlist_prepack flags in the rc file.

     -C,--comphier
	    Specifies that the viewer should use compressed hierarchy names when
	    loading  the  dumpfile  (available	for  VCD recoder, LXT, LXT2, and
	    VZT).  This will use less memory at the expense  of  compression/de-
	    compression delay.

     -v,--vcd
	    Use stdin as a VCD dumpfile.

     -O,--output <filename>
	    Specify filename for stdout/stderr redirect.  To disable messages to
	    the console, use /dev/null as the filename.

     -z,--slider-zoom
	    Enable slider stretch zoom for the horizontal time slider.	Clicking
	    then  dragging the very left or right edge of the slider can be used
	    to provide fine-grained real-time zooming.

     -V,--version
	    Display version banner then exit.

     -h,--help
	    Display help then exit.

     -x,--exit
	    Exit after loading trace (for loader benchmarking).

FILES
     ~/.gtkwaverc (see manpage gtkwaverc(5))

EXAMPLES
     To run this program the standard way type:
	    gtkwave dumpfile.vcd

     Alternatively you can run it with a save file as:
	    gtkwave dumpfile.vcd dumpfile.gtkw

     To run interactively using shared memory handle 0x00050003:
	    gtkwave -I 00050003 dumpfile.gtkw

     To pick up a dumpfile automatically from a save file (e.g., when launching
     from an icon):
	    gtkwave --save dumpfile.gtkw

     To run from the app bundle gtkwave.app in OSX using /bin/sh:
	    GTKWAVE_CHDIR=`pwd`;export	GTKWAVE_CHDIR;open  -n	-W  -a	 gtkwave
	    --args --chdir dummy --dump des.vzt --save des.gtkw

     Alternatively, run the following Perl script gtkwave.app/Contents/Re-
     sources/bin/gtkwave to process command line arguments from OSX shell
     scripts.

     Note that to pass non-flag items which start with a dash, that it is re-
     quired to specify -- in order to turn off flag parsing.  A second -- will
     disable parsing of any following arguments such that they can be passed on
     to Tcl scripts and retrieved via gtkwave::getArgv.

     Command line options are not necessary for representing the dumpfile, save-
     file,  and rcfile names.  They are merely provided to allow specifying them
     out of order.

BUGS
     AIX requires  -bmaxdata:0x80000000 (-bmaxdata:0xd0000000/dsa for AIX 5.3)
     to be added to your list of compiler flags for xlc if you want GTKWave to
     be able to access more than 256MB of virtual memory. The value shown allows
     the VMM to use up to 2GB (3.25GB AIX5.3). This may be necessary for very
     large traces.

     Shift and Page operations using the wave window hscrollbar may be nonfunc-
     tional as you move away from the dump start for very large traces. A trace
     that goes out to 45 billion ticks has been known to exhibit this problem.
     This stems from using the gfloat element of the horizontal slider to encode
     the time value for the left margin. The result is a loss of precision for
     very large values. Use the hotkeys or buttons at the top of the screen if
     this is a problem.

     When running under Cygwin, it is required to enable Cygserver if shared
     memory IPC is being used.	Specifically, this occurs when rtlbrowse(1) is
     launched as a helper process.  See the Cygwin documentation for more infor-
     mation on how to enable Cygserver.

AUTHORS
     Anthony Bybell <bybell@rocketmail.com>

SEE ALSO
     gtkwaverc(5)  lxt2vcd(1)  vcd2lxt(1)  vcd2lxt2(1)	 vzt2vcd(1)   vcd2vzt(1)
     xml2stems(1) rtlbrowse(1) twinwave(1) shmidcat(1)

Anthony Bybell			     3.3.126			      GTKWAVE(1)

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