Instructions for enabling the FSDB reader

[mballance]

I'm looking for instructions on how to enable the FSDB reader. I didn't see instructions in one of the existing documents, but may have overlooked them. What steps should I perform (assuming I'm a Verdi user) to access my FSDB files in VaporView?

[Lramseyer]

You will need to build this separately from source. I believe npm run compile-fsdb and vsce package should work. I'll have to send you the filehandler.ts in order to work around the wit2ts issue. I'll email that to you when I get back to my personal machine.

Summoning @heyfey in case there's anything I missed.

[TreverWagenhals]

@Lramseyer Sorry if this isn't the right place, but I was also interested in the instructions to enabling FSDB reader.

I currently use Verdi to view fsdb files via a VNC (your favorite) and this seems like the best alternative.

I skimmed the Github (and even asked AI to skim it) but didn't see explicit instructions other than setting the FSDB Reader Libs Path, which I tried to do based on my verdi install location in my linux VNC:

/home/tools/debussy/verdi3_2023.12-SP2-4/share/FsdbReader/linux64

Where that directory contains:

COMPILER_DEF* libnffr.so* libnsys.so* libnsys_NOST.so*

But when I launch an FSDB file I get:

And I couldn't even find in the Github where that error message is being generated (but that's probably just a skill issue on my end).

Can you explain what you meant by needing to build separately from source to get FSDB working? And does that idea play well with the fact that I am pointing to my remote system's Verdi files? I'm quite limited in the commands I can run in my Linux environment, so trying to figure out my options to get this to work.

I was able to run an fsdb2vcd conversion and at least get something working in VSCode which was great as a first pass, but the file size doesn't scale for my needs (most FSDBs are multi-gig files and will result in massive vcd files)

Any pointers are appreciated, thanks!

[aivanou86]

Hi @Lramseyer, I have the same question. I'm working with VSCode on windows through the Remote-SSH. And I'm trying to configure vaporview to work with verdi fsdb files. I'be setup "vaporview.fsdbReaderLibsPath": "/opt/tools/synopsys/verdi/U-2023.03-SP1/share/FsdbReader/linux64" in settings.json file but see the same error:

Could you please help with this issue?
Thank you.

[heyfey]

Hi @mballance @TreverWagenhals @aivanou86 , sorry for the late response

The current vaporview release (1.3.4) lacks two parts to get fsdb to work:

• This PR need to be merged: FSDB: fix waveform loading & instance path searching #73
• The node_modules that link to fsdb reader (libnffr.so) will not be included in the formal release, so you'll have to build by yourself
  • We will provide the instructions soon
  • In short, the node module can be compiled with npm run compile-addon. To compile the full project, run npm run compile-fsdb; vsce package
    

    vaporview/package.json

    Line 866 in 95ff61b

    "compile-addon": "node-gyp rebuild",

  • You will need to config binding.gyp
    

    vaporview/binding.gyp

    Line 3 in 95ff61b

    "VERDI_HOME": "/home/heyfey/verdi/2022.06", # path to your VERDI_HOME

If you're interested, I can send you the build (.vsix) to try out -- the one I'm happily using in my work!

[aivanou86]

Hi, Thanks a lot for the update! I’d really appreciate it if you could share the .vsix build you're using — that would save me some time and help me get started right away. Looking forward to trying it out! Best regards, Alexander From: Tsung-Tso, Hsieh ***@***.***> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2025 7:19 PM To: Lramseyer/vaporview ***@***.***> Cc: aivanou86 ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [Lramseyer/vaporview] Instructions for enabling the FSDB reader (Discussion #67) Hi @mballance <https://github.com/mballance> @TreverWagenhals <https://github.com/TreverWagenhals> @aivanou86 <https://github.com/aivanou86> , sorry for the late response The current vaporview release lacks two parts to get fsdb to work: * This PR need to be merged: #73 <#73> * The node_modules that link to fsdb reader (libnffr.so) will not be included in the formal release, so you'll have to build by yourself * We will provide the instructions soon * In short, the node module can be compiled with npm run compile-addon. To compile the full project, run npm run compile-fsdb; vsce package https://github.com/Lramseyer/vaporview/blob/95ff61b89a2dabe4a3fc712fea8d307e6c523b27/package.json#L866 * You will need to config binding.gyp https://github.com/Lramseyer/vaporview/blob/95ff61b89a2dabe4a3fc712fea8d307e6c523b27/binding.gyp#L3 If you're interested, I can send you the build (.vsix) to try out -- the one I'm happily using in my work! — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#67 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BOOWEY5JTUPULFJ3WQHECXT3KZLQ7AVCNFSM6AAAAAB4XTF6CKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTGOJRGMYDGNQ> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/BOOWEY35PMBAJSJRBQF3VTT3KZLQ7A5CNFSM6AAAAAB4XTF6CKWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQA2RF4Y.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[manojshankar-eng]

Can i get the vsix please ?

[heyfey]

@manojshankar-eng please sent me a mail

[heyfey]

@aivanou86, please email me

[chenzhihang0909]

@aivanou86 ,my email 499410651@qq.com please email me. thanks!

[Lramseyer]

Once I get 1.4.0 out, @heyfey and I will work on a more streamlined process for building the FSDB component. Most people who have access to synopsys tools and licenses don't have build tools on those machines for everything else in the extension (node, rust-wasm, and vsce) so I would like to architect it in a way that allows you to use both machines to build if needed.

[TreverWagenhals]

Thanks for the update. I was actually able to get cursor to recommend the updates to binding.gyp#L3 to update the hardcoded heyfrey path to be my local path, which resolved that issue on my end.

I had to do some other hacks to get it working for me since my ENV is using GCC 4.8.5 that only supports C++11 and not C++14 standard. This resulted in a bunch of other hacks to get it to work for me, which I can confirm I can at least view some wave form signals now.

I do have an issue currently where loading a clock signal causes the extension to crash due to the 100k+ toggles in the time frame that I am trying to work out. My remote ENV is constrained to 16GB, which may be part of the problem. But I would imagine that this should be doable even with 16GB of RAM. I'm guessing this might be because of some of the other hacks I did to get this to work with my older ENV and so I may be allocating memory for every toggle or something instead of dynamically referencing them to draw? I can update once I figure out a method to handle this detail. I imagine you've run long FSDBs already though with many clock toggles and aren't experiencing such issues on your end?

EDIT: Scratch the above clock issue, that was related to a large amount of debug prints I added that were causing it to crash. When I disabled debug prints, things are working well now.

Thanks!