( ESNUG 396 Item 7 ) --------------------------------------------- [07/11/02]
From: Robert Wiegand <RWiegand@NxtWaveComm.com>
Subject: Installing Current Revs Of Synopsys Tools Is A Customer Nightmare
Hi John,
I just finished trying to install the latest and greatest Synopsys tools.
What a nightmare! Working at a start-up, one gets to wear many hats
sometimes, and I've been helping out in the SysAdmin area with maintaining
Synopsys tool installations. With the 2000.11-SP2-2 suite, all the tools we
use at least had the same model year and sold documentation. Not any more!
For Design Compiler, I installed the 2001.08-SP2-2 version/patches. For
TetraMax, I overlayed the 2001.08 version (note that there is a listing for
TetraMax 2001.08-TX1 on the Solvnet release library, but no links for
download instructions or release notes). For PrimeTime, I installed 2002.03
stand alone - the only option, and had to break my convention as follows:
Installation tree was $TOOLS/synopsys/[release number, ex. 2001.08-SP2],
where $TOOLS is the general tools installation root. This became the
value of $SYNOPSYS.
Now I add to that $TOOLS/synopsys/primetime/[release number], keeping the
old convention for Design Compiler. I also have to create a $SYNOPSYS_PT
variable so as not to stomp on the $SYNOPSYS variable.
Since we're looking at Formality, I installed the 2002.03-FM1-SP2 version,
again stand alone as that was the only option. This adds
$TOOLS/synopsys/formality/[release number] and $SYNOPSYS_FM to the mix.
So far, so good. Now I try to install the 2002.03 SOLD documantation.
First I tried to overlay it on top of the sold in the 2001.08-SP2
installation tree. No deal! The installation script detected the
difference in versions and bailed on me. Ok, there's more than one way to
skin a cat, I figured I'd just overlay in on top of the 2002.03 PrimeTime.
The version numbers match, there shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong!
This time the installation script detects that something already occupies
the 2002.03 space and again bails. Want to play hard ball, huh?, OK, I'll
give it it's own tree!
I now add $TOOLS/synopsys/sold/[release number] to the mix.
Now that all the tools are actually installed, I've got a few more problems
to solve. The convention I've used so far is to have a central repository
of .cshrc files for individual tool suites with version stamps in the file
name, and a link without the version stamp to point to the correct version.
For example:
.cshrc.synopsys.2001.08-SP2 contains all the necessary settings for
this version,
.cshrc.synopsys links to .cshrc.synopsys.2001.08-SP2
.cshrc.synopsys.old links to a previous working version's
.cshrc.synopsys.[version]
.cshrc.synopsys.new links to the next version being experimented with.
An individual user's .cshrc file sources the .cshrc files for the
appropriate tools they need, including the .cshrc.synopsys file, or the
specific version they may require.
Since the release trains are now separate for PrimeTime and Formality, I now
have to add .cshrc.synopsys.pt and .cshrc.synopsys.fm with the .new or .old
extentions as necessary.
Oh yeah, I now have two separate installations of SOLD to deal with, they
both use sold as the alias by default. I now have sold_pt and sold_fm
aliases created in the appropriate .cshrc file for each tool to point to the
stand alone SOLD for 2002.03 so the original sold alias can point to the
documentation for Design Compiler. Yikes!
Since we're starting to look at Linux, I dual installed all of the above as
SparcOS5 and Linux. That was actually the easy part! Synopsys did a nice
job with multi-OS installation, minimizing the overhead of adding an
additional OS instead of requiring a full replication in a separate
installation space like some other vendors. I created separate
.cshrc.synopsys.version files for Solaris and Linux, and my original
.cshrc.synopsys link now does an OS test with uname -s, and chooses between
the Solaris and Linux versions of the actual .cshrc.synopsys.version file.
It turns out that TetraMax has a built in script to do just that, it would
be nice if the remaining Synopsys tools did the same.
- Bob Wiegand
NxtWave Communications Langhorne, PA
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