Apply Alias Files to All Hierarchies 

The Verdi system provides powerful aliasing mechanism for users to view waveforms easily. A well-known feature is to use the aliasextract utility to automatically extract alias to a file when compiling design, and then use the -aliasFIle command line option to load the extracted alias into the Verdi system for debugging. The extracted alias records the hierarchy information of the design, to ensure the alias applies to the correct scope. However, this also creates a limitation when users want to apply this alias to other scopes or even another design.

Starting from Verdi 2009.07, a new command line option -aliasIgnoreHier has been provided for this kind of application. Users can define aliases in any specific scope and extract the alias file with the same utility, and then add this option when invoking the Verdi system to apply the alias to all scopes, or even another design. Note that this option is only valid when used together with the -aliasFile option on the Verdi command line.  The following steps demonstrate how to apply the alias to all hierarchies:

1. Compile design into library.

2. Use aliasextract utility to extract the alias file from library

3. Use -aliasIgnorehier and -aliasFile to import the design, the alias will be applied to all hierarchies.