Installing `xilinxutils`

Installing the package

The repository provides a python package xilinxutils that consists of various helper functions to work with the Xilinx tools. Examples include parsing of system reports or timing outputs. You can install the package in a virtual environment as follows:

First, create a virtual environment. The command below will create an environment named env, but any other environment name can be used. I usually perform this command in the directory just outside hwdesign.
```
 python -m venv env
```
The command may take several minutes, and it may not indicate its progress. After completion, the virtual environment files will be in a directory env. This directory may be large.

Activate the virtual environment:

  .\env\Scripts\Activate.ps1  [Windows powershell]
  .\env\Scripts\activate.bat  [Windows command prompt]
  source env/bin/activate [MAC/Linux]

On Windows Powershell, you may get the error message “…Activate.ps1 is not digitally signed. The script will not execute on the system.” In this case, you will want to run:

  Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

The first time you activate the environment, install the package requirements:
```
  (env) pip install -r path/to/requirements_loose.txt
```
This command the latest version of all packages. If you want the exact versions used when the package was created, run:
```
  (env) pip install -r path/to/requirements.txt
```
Next, install the xilinxutils package as editable:
```
 (env) pip install -e /path/to/hwdesign
```
This step also only needs to be done once for the virtual environment.

You can now verify the installation with running the following in a python environment:

 import xilinxutils
 xilinxutils.check_install()

This command should return something like:

 {'package': 'xilinxutils', 
 'version': '0.1.1.dev83+ge97966f1d.d20251117', 
 'status': 'OK'}

You can exit the virtual environment with:
```
 (env) deactivate
```

To use the package later, you will need to activate the virtual environment and run any commands in that environment.

Creating a requirements file

If you update the installation in the package, you may need to re-create the requirements.txt file with:

```bash
python -m pip freeze > hwdesign/requirements.txt
```

The above requirements.txt will have the precise version numbers. To create the version with the version numbers in Windows Powershell:

```bash
(Get-Content requirements.txt) -replace "[<>=~!].*","" | Set-Content requirements-loose.txt  
```

In MacOS / Linux:

```bash
sed 's/[<>=~!].*//' requirements.txt > requirements-loose.txt
```

If you do this on Windows, you should edit the file requirements.txt as follows:

In requirements.txt, you may have a line like:
```
  pywin32==306
```
Delete this line since it is only needed for Windows.
You may also find a line like:
```
  -e git+https://github.com/sdrangan/hwdesign.git@...#egg=xilinxutils
```
The particular github address may be different and there may be a long version number. This line installs the xilinxutils package directly from github. But, we do not need it. So delete this line as well.

Installing xilinxutils

Installing the package

Creating a requirements file

Installing `xilinxutils`