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synth: single writer for 1_synth.sdc + single-process flow test that enforces it#4333

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synth: single writer for 1_synth.sdc + single-process flow test that enforces it#4333
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@oharboe oharboe commented Jul 6, 2026

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1_synth.sdc had two writers: yosys' synth.tcl copied the user's SDC_FILE into place, then synth_odb.tcl overwrote it in place with the OpenSTA-canonicalized version. cp preserves the source's mode bits, so when SDC_FILE is a read-only build input (bazel RBE), the copy is read-only and the canonicalization write fails — see OpenROAD #10818, which papered over this with chmod +w. On writable local checkouts it only accidentally worked.

The first version of this PR made synth_odb.tcl/synth_syn.tcl write 1_synth.odb/.sdc unconditionally, which — as the review pointed out — breaks the single-OpenROAD-process flow (WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0, all stage scripts sourced into one process). That mode had no test coverage. This PR now keeps the single-writer fix, restores the gating, and adds the missing coverage; the review history is retained as follow-up commits:

  • flow/scripts/flow.tcl: the whole flow (yosys netlist through the final report) as one Tcl script in a single OpenROAD process. With WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0 the top level is the sole writer: flow_write_db/flow_write_sdc produce exactly the .odb/.sdc file set of the stage-per-process make flow, and flow_source errors if any stage script writes an .odb/.sdc itself — this assertion catches the unconditional writes from this PR's first version (verified: the flow fails with synth_odb.tcl wrote .../1_synth.odb when they are reinstated).
  • Sweep of the same idiom violations found by the assertion: io_placement.tcl/fillcell.tcl/density_fill.tcl forward the input .odb with a raw exec cp on their skip paths (kept — cp is much faster than re-serializing an unchanged DB, and Tcl's file copy has second-resolution mtimes that break make's up-to-date checks — but now behind a gated orfs_copy_db helper), write_ref_sdc.tcl wrote updated_clks.sdc ungated, and detail_route.tcl exited on its SKIP_DETAILED_ROUTE skip path, which would have killed a single process running the whole flow (the per-stage flow always passes -exit).
  • Byte-equality test on asap7/gcd: bazelisk test //flow/designs/asap7/gcd:gcd_single_flow_test runs the single-process flow off the yosys outputs under FLOW_VARIANT=single and byte-compares every stage boundary (synth, floorplan, place, cts, grt, route, final × .odb/.sdc) against the regular per-stage flow targets, reusing tools/OpenROAD's check_same.sh.

All seven stage boundaries are byte-identical between the single-process and per-stage flows. Three OpenROAD fixes were needed, carried as patches/openroad/ on the git_override (pinned to the exact commit the tools/OpenROAD submodule records, with submodules, so a patch can reach src/sta; local_path_override accepts no patches):

  1. sta: OpenSTA never seeded required times for the never-connected dummy-load pins CTS inserts (clkload*) — a bogus −195 ps net slack steered -resistance_aware global routing in the process that inserted them, diverging grt (an extra repair_timing buffer). Upstreaming is in progress with the OpenSTA maintainers.
  2. drt, incremental updates: an in-process detailed_route after earlier stages iterated nets/instances in incremental-update order rather than odb order, and emitted vias in routing-history order — a fresh process on a byte-identical database routed differently. Nets/insts are reordered to odb order after incremental updates and vias are written in a canonical order (per review: the sort comparator is a strict weak ordering — non-vias first keeping their relative order, then vias by cut layer and origin).
  3. drt, pin access: every pin access update appended block-terminal access points without destroying the previously written ones, so the per-stage flow accumulated stale access points at each stage that reruns pin access (69 → 138 on asap7/gcd between grt and route).

The final-stage residue was flow structure, not OpenROAD: the per-stage flow writes 6_final.odb mid-final_report.tcl (before RCX extraction reorders every dbWire), so final_report.tcl is split around that write and flow.tcl writes at the same point.

OpenROAD is bumped to master e8230044 (hermetic-llvm toolchain merged), and this repo's bazel setup adopts the same zero-sysroot toolchain — no host compiler or /usr/include in the build, so host glibc changes can't break it. The root-honored parts of tools/OpenROAD's MODULE.bazel are mirrored (gnulib tool version overrides sed/gawk/m4/bison + the bison and tcl_lang patches, bazel/slang-compat placeholder), as is the earlier rules_pycross Python 3.8 workaround (extension configuration is root-honored only). SYNTH_USE_SYN is declared make-only for gcd's bazel flow (bazel-orfs's synth doesn't stage Verilog sources for the OpenROAD synth step).

With the writes gated, the bazel-orfs side needs no patch (bazel-orfs#754 anticipated this; 1_synth.odb/.sdc come from the do-1_synth action, which runs with the default WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=1).

Supersedes #4338.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1_synth.sdc had two writers: yosys' synth.tcl copied the user's
SDC_FILE into place (a leftover from before SDC canonicalization
existed, "one day a more sophisticated synthesis..."), then
synth_odb.tcl overwrote it in place with the OpenSTA-canonicalized
version. cp preserves the source's mode bits, so when SDC_FILE is a
read-only build input (bazel RBE), the copy is read-only and the
canonicalization write fails. Locally sources are writable, so this
only accidentally worked.

Drop the copies from synth.tcl and synth_preamble.tcl:
synth_odb.tcl/synth_syn.tcl are the sole writers of 1_synth.sdc.
1_2_yosys.sdc (copied by the do-yosys make recipe) remains the raw
SDC the yosys stage hands to synth_odb.tcl.

Also write 1_synth.odb/.sdc unconditionally in synth_odb.tcl and
synth_syn.tcl instead of via the orfs_write_* wrappers: producing
those files is the step's contract, and the
WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0 no-op silently left downstream stages
consuming the stale, non-canonicalized copy.

Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>

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Code Review

This pull request refactors the synthesis scripts to ensure that 1_synth.sdc is solely written and canonicalized by OpenSTA using write_sdc -no_timestamp in synth_odb.tcl and synth_syn.tcl, rather than copying the original SDC file in synth.tcl and synth_preamble.tcl. It also replaces orfs_write_db and orfs_write_sdc with direct log_cmd write_db and log_cmd write_sdc calls. There are no review comments, so I have no feedback to provide.

@oharboe oharboe requested a review from maliberty July 6, 2026 09:01
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 6, 2026

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@maliberty TL;DR orfs_write_db is not needed/useful for synthesis, because synthesis is the first stage.

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@codex review

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I don't follow your comment about WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE.

@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 6, 2026

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I don't follow your comment about WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE.

We can now create a single .tcl for all openroad stages reusing the scripts, WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE is part of that mechanics. It has been a while, I forget the details. The code isn't complicated, just read it a few lines + you have a floorplan+place joined script that you refer to occasionally, so I'm pretty sure you're aware of the feature.

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Codex Review: Didn't find any major issues. Swish!

Reviewed commit: 58fab1ca90

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@maliberty

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I am aware of the feature and it seems like this PR breaks it. I don't follow your justification for doing so.

@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 6, 2026

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I am aware of the feature and it seems like this PR breaks it. I don't follow your justification for doing so.

So this feature has no automated tests in CI?

@maliberty

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No as with a great many things in ORFS

@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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No as with a great many things in ORFS

Well... if we care about a feature, we must have tests and tests are so much cheaper than they used to be.

I'll see about wiring up a bazel driven test in ORFS.

I know, I know... CI for bazelisk test ... is painful to think about, but at least we can test it locally.

oharboe and others added 5 commits July 7, 2026 12:57
sv-lang (via tools/OpenROAD) pulls in rules_pycross, whose toolchain
extension fails with "Unknown Python version: 3.8" (transitively
registered via or-tools -> pybind11_abseil; 3.8 was dropped from
rules_python 2.0.0's MINOR_MAPPING). tools/OpenROAD/MODULE.bazel
already carries the pycross.configure_environments workaround, but the
extension configuration is only honored in the root module, so any
bazel analysis in this repository fails without mirroring it here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
…CH_STAGE

A sweep of flow/scripts for stage outputs produced outside the
orfs_write_db/orfs_write_sdc helpers found four spots that break the
single-process flow contract (WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0 means
stage scripts produce no .odb/.sdc files):

- io_placement.tcl, fillcell.tcl and density_fill.tcl forward the
  input .odb with a raw exec cp on their skip paths. The cp is
  deliberate — much faster than re-serializing an unchanged database
  with write_db — so keep it, behind a new orfs_copy_db helper that is
  gated exactly like orfs_write_db. In a single-process flow the
  source file may not even exist.
- write_ref_sdc.tcl (sourced unconditionally from global_route.tcl)
  wrote updated_clks.sdc with a raw write_sdc; use orfs_write_sdc.

Not addressed here: detail_route.tcl exits the process in the
SKIP_DETAILED_ROUTE branch, which would end a single-process flow
early. Left for a follow-up since it produces no stray files.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
…_STAGE

Partially revert the previous commit: synth_odb.tcl and synth_syn.tcl
go back to orfs_write_db/orfs_write_sdc. The single-writer property and
the removal of the mode-bit-preserving SDC_FILE copies stand, but the
writes must stay gated: WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0 is the contract
of the single-process flow (all stages in one OpenROAD invocation,
sourcing the stage scripts back to back), where no stage script may
produce .odb/.sdc files — the follow-up commit adds a flow.tcl plus a
test that enforces exactly that, and the unconditional writes trip it.

With the writes gated the bazel-orfs side needs no patch either:
1_synth.odb/.sdc are produced by the do-1_synth action, which runs
with the default WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=1.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
…sertion

ORFS supports running all OpenROAD stages in a single OpenROAD process
by sourcing the per-stage scripts into one Tcl script: load_design
skips reloading when a design is already in memory, KEEP_VARS=1 keeps
variables across stages, and WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0 turns the
per-stage .odb/.sdc writes into no-ops. floorplan_to_place.tcl uses
this for floorplan through place; this PR's discussion noted the
mechanism has no automated test coverage.

Add scripts/flow.tcl, which runs the yosys netlist through the final
report in one process with WRITE_ODB_AND_SDC_EACH_STAGE=0:

- flow_source sources a stage script and errors if it wrote any
  .odb/.sdc file - the single-process contract that this PR's first
  version broke with unconditional writes in synth_odb.tcl (this test
  catches that).
- flow_write_db/flow_write_sdc write out, from the top level, exactly
  the .odb/.sdc file set the stage-per-process make flow produces
  (substep writes plus the Makefile do-copy products).

Cover it with bazel tests on asap7/gcd: an orfs_run executes the whole
flow off the yosys synthesis outputs under FLOW_VARIANT=single, and
per-stage sh_tests byte-compare the stage-boundary .odb/.sdc files
(synth through final) against the regular per-stage flow targets,
reusing tools/OpenROAD's check_same.sh. Equal bytes proves the
single-process mode is equivalent to the per-stage flow, not merely
that it runs to completion.

  bazelisk test //flow/designs/asap7/gcd:gcd_single_flow_test

Known divergence, deliberately left failing so it gets root-caused
rather than papered over: from grt on, the grt-stage repair_timing
inserts one extra buffer when continuing from in-memory CTS state
instead of reloading a byte-identical 4_cts.odb.

SYNTH_USE_SYN is declared make-only (local_arguments): bazel-orfs's
synth stage always runs the yosys flow and neither stages the Verilog
sources nor sets VERILOG_FILES for the OpenROAD synthesis step, so the
built-in synthesizer opt-in must not reach the bazel arguments (with
it, bazelisk build :gcd_synth fails outright).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe oharboe changed the title synth: single writer for 1_synth.sdc synth: single writer for 1_synth.sdc + single-process flow test that enforces it Jul 7, 2026
The gcd_single_flow grt/route/final comparisons failed: the grt-stage
repair_timing inserted one extra buffer when the flow continued from
in-memory CTS state instead of reloading the byte-identical 4_cts.odb.

Root cause, found by bisecting the single-process flow stage by stage
and then diffing resistance-aware routing decisions: pins of a freshly
created instance that are never connected — the dangling outputs of
the dummy-load buffers (clkload*) CTS inserts to balance the clock
tree — get no connectPinAfter call, so they never enter the OpenSTA
search endpoint set and their required times are never seeded. Once
the clock is propagated, such a pin reports slack = 0 - arrival
(-195 ps on gcd) instead of +infinity. A process that reads the same
design from disk seeds requireds for every endpoint in the full scan,
so it sees +infinity. global_route -resistance_aware consumes net
slacks to pick and order the resistance-aware net set, so the clock
nets sorted differently and routing diverged before any repair ran;
the repair_timing buffer delta was downstream fallout.

Fix in Sta::makeInstanceAfter: register the new pin vertices as
endpoint candidates (and initialize makePinVertices' return values,
which are left unassigned for power/ground pins). Carried as
patches/openroad/0001-sta-register-new-instance-pin-vertices-as-
endpoints.patch, applied by fetching openroad via git_override pinned
to the exact commit the tools/OpenROAD submodule records (with
submodules, so the patch reaches src/sta); local_path_override does
not accept patches. Revert to local_path_override when the fix lands
upstream.

With the patch, synth/floorplan/place/cts/grt are byte-identical
between the single-process and per-stage flows. route and final still
diverge from a second, independent cause (detail route behaves
differently in-process than freshly loaded despite byte-identical
5_1_grt.odb inputs); their tests stay failing on purpose and the
BUILD-file comment records the state.

Ruled out along the way: global rand() state (cts/gpl do perturb it,
but nothing in rsz/grt/est/dbSta consumes bare rand()), grt's shuffle
seed (off by default), SDC write precision (gcd constraints are exact
integers), rsz static move counters (report-only), odb unique-name
counters (serialized).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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Root-caused and fixed the grt-stage single-process divergence (640e205).

Root cause: the dummy-load buffers CTS inserts to balance the clock tree (clkload*) have dangling outputs that never get a connectPinAfter call, so OpenSTA never registers them in the search endpoint set and never seeds their required times. With a propagated clock, such a pin reports slack = 0 − arrival (−195 ps on gcd) instead of +∞ — but only in the process that inserted them; a fresh process's full endpoint scan seeds everything correctly from the byte-identical .odb/.sdc. global_route -resistance_aware consumes net slacks to pick/order its resistance-aware net set, so the clock nets sorted differently and routing diverged before any repair ran — the repair_timing 8-vs-7 buffer delta was downstream fallout. (With ENABLE_RESISTANCE_AWARE=0 the two flows were already byte-identical end to end.)

Fix: 5 lines in Sta::makeInstanceAfter (register new pin vertices as endpoint candidates + initialize makePinVertices out-params, which are left unassigned for power/ground pins — inserting the garbage pointer segfaults). Carried as patches/openroad/… applied via git_override pinned to the exact commit the submodule records (with init_submodules, so the patch reaches src/sta); local_path_override doesn't accept patches. Upstreaming to OpenSTA to be sorted separately; the fix commit is preserved on a local branch of the src/sta submodule.

Usual suspects ruled out with evidence: global rand() state (cts/gpl do perturb it, but rsz/grt/est/dbSta contain no bare rand()), grt's shuffle seed (0 = off), SDC writer float precision (gcd constraints are exact integers), rsz static move counters (report-only), odb unique-name counters (serialized in the .odb).

Test matrix now: synth / floorplan / place / cts / grt byte-identical ✅. route/final still diverge from a second, independent cause — detail route behaves differently in-process than freshly loaded despite byte-identical 5_1_grt.odb inputs (suspect drt/pin-access module state) — left failing on purpose, documented in the BUILD file, next campaign.

With the grt stage byte-identical, route and final still diverged.
Root causes, found with the same fresh-vs-in-process experiment pair
on byte-identical 5_1_grt.odb inputs:

- drt's incremental design update (reused when pin_access already ran
  in the same process) appends recreated nets and instances to its
  lists while a fresh read follows odb iteration order, and track
  assignment iterates those lists: the wire assignment diverged before
  detail routing started.
- drt's final database update emitted each net's vias in a
  history-derived order (the track-assignment path already
  canonicalizes; the final path did not).

Both fixed by patches/openroad/0002-drt-make-incremental-design-
updates-match-a-fresh-read.patch: reorder insts/nets to odb order in
updateDesign, and order vias canonically in the final write. The
routed layout is now identical between the flows (equal DEF for
5_route).

The route/final tests stay red on the .odb byte comparison for two
fully root-caused reasons recorded in the BUILD file: odb id reuse
history (byte equality after further edits needs canonical-id
serialization) and the 6_final.odb write point (the per-stage flow
writes it before the RCX extraction reorders every dbWire; the
single-process flow writes at end of script).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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Root-caused and fixed the route-stage divergence as well (87b6286).

Root causes (fresh-vs-in-process experiment pair on byte-identical 5_1_grt.odb inputs):

  1. drt's incremental design update (taken when pin_access already ran in the same process) appends recreated nets/instances to its internal lists, while a fresh read follows odb iteration order (odb recycles ids). Track assignment iterates those lists → the wire assignment diverged before detail routing started.
  2. drt's final database update emitted each net's vias in history-derived container order (the track-assignment write path already canonicalizes via mergeSplitConnFigs; the final path did not).

Both fixed in patches/openroad/0002-…. The routed layout is now identical between the flows — equal DEF for 5_route — and the detailed-route logs match line for line.

Why route/final still fail the .odb byte comparison (both fully root-caused, recorded in the BUILD file):

  • odb id history: odb serializes object ids; a database that lived through create/delete cycles (rsz journal in the grt stage) reuses freed ids where a freshly read database appends. Subsequent drt edits then get different ids → different bytes for a byte-identical layout. A read+write round-trip does not normalize this; byte convergence needs canonical-id serialization in odb.
  • 6_final.odb write point: the per-stage flow writes it inside final_report.tcl before the RCX extraction, which calls odb orderWires and re-encodes every dbWire; the single-process flow writes at end of script and captures the re-encoded form (this one also shows in the DEF, though the physical layout is the same).

Open question for the follow-up: pursue canonical-id odb serialization (real prize for bazel caching/determinism, but a substantial odb change), compare route/final on canonicalized content (e.g. DEF after orderWires) instead of odb bytes, or move final_report.tcl's write point — input welcome.

@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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@maliberty I need guidance on this one #4333 (comment) to make progress.

Single invocation flow has issues to be fixed(we knew that...), the test now identifies the basic issues for asap7 gcd for the flow to be identical to split invocation.

With a bit of guidance from you, I can ask Claude to complete the patches, then we can create PRs upstream and let the fixes trickle through then clean up here...

Comment on lines +19 to +22
+ if (vertex)
+ search_->endpointInvalid(vertex);
+ if (bidir_drvr_vertex)
+ search_->endpointInvalid(bidir_drvr_vertex);

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@dsengupta0628 does this look correct?

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Yes. I reached out to James regarding upstreaming this fix. Parallelly I am trying to create a standalone testcase that can somehow reproduce this gap too.

@maliberty

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odb id history: odb serializes object ids; a database that lived through create/delete cycles (rsz journal in the grt stage) reuses freed ids where a freshly read database appends. Subsequent drt edits then get different ids → different bytes for a byte-identical layout. A read+write round-trip does not normalize this; byte convergence needs canonical-id serialization in odb.

This is wrong - the free lists are serialized and reloaded.

…points

Review feedback (maliberty) was right: odb free lists are serialized
and reloaded, so the earlier explanation blaming id/freelist history
for the remaining route-stage .odb difference was wrong. With
byte-identical inputs both flows start from equivalent allocation
state, which meant the databases had to contain genuinely different
objects — and they did.

Per-table stream accounting located the delta in the access point
table: the per-stage flow's 5_route.odb contained 138 block-terminal
access points where the single-process flow had 69. drt's
updateDbAccessPoints appends bterm access points without destroying
the previously written ones, so every process that reruns pin access
on a design that already has them (each flow stage after pin_access
first ran) duplicates them; the single-process flow's in-memory
bookkeeping skips the unchanged terms and was the correct one.

Fixed by patches/openroad/0003 (destroy previously written bterm
access points before writing, in reverse creation order so recycled
ids preserve the original assignment). The route stage is now
byte-identical between the flows and its test passes; only the final
stage remains, from the already-documented 6_final.odb write point vs
RCX's orderWires re-encoding.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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You're right, and thanks — the free lists are indeed serialized and reloaded (dbTable.inc streams free_list_ both ways); the id/freelist-history explanation was wrong. With that corrected, byte-identical inputs mean equivalent allocation state, so the two databases had to contain genuinely different objects. They did.

Per-table stream accounting (the ODB io_size debug plus a per-table position probe) put the entire remaining delta in ap_tbl: the per-stage flow's 5_route.odb had 138 block-terminal access points vs 69 in the single-process flow. io::Writer::updateDbAccessPoints appends bterm access points without destroying the previously written ones, so every process that reruns pin access on a design that already has them duplicates them — the staged flow accumulates stale APs at each stage after pin_access first ran, while the single-process flow's in-memory bookkeeping skips unchanged terms and was correct. So the single-process test flushed out a real staged-flow bug here, not an odb limitation.

Fixed in patches/openroad/0003-… (a9deded): destroy previously written bterm APs before writing, in reverse creation order so recycled ids preserve the original assignment. Route is now byte-identical and its test passes (6/7). Only final remains, from the already-documented write-point issue: the per-stage flow writes 6_final.odb before the RCX extraction whose odb::orderWires re-encodes every dbWire; the single-process flow writes at end of script.

The final stage was the last remaining divergence in the
single-process flow test: the per-stage flow writes 6_final.odb in the
middle of final_report.tcl (after global_connect, before
deleteRoutingObstructions and the RCX extraction whose odb orderWires
re-encodes every dbWire), while the single-process flow could only
write at end of script and captured the re-encoded state.

Split final_report.tcl into final_connect.tcl (metrics stage, load,
PRE hook, set_propagated_clock, global_connect) and final_outputs.tcl
(everything after the write); final_report.tcl now sources the first,
performs the gated 6_final.odb write, and sources the second, so the
per-stage flow is unchanged. flow.tcl sources the two parts and
performs the write itself at the identical point.

With this, all seven stage boundaries (synth, floorplan, place, cts,
grt, route, final) are byte-identical between the single-process and
stage-per-process flows:

  //flow/designs/asap7/gcd:gcd_single_flow_test  7/7 PASSED

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 7, 2026

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7/7 — the whole flow is now byte-identical between the single-process and stage-per-process flows (4567701).

The last stage, final, diverged only because of the write point: the per-stage flow writes 6_final.odb mid-final_report.tcl (after global_connect, before deleteRoutingObstructions and the RCX extraction whose odb::orderWires re-encodes every dbWire), while the single-process flow could only write at end of script. Rather than move the write (which would have made 6_final.odb obstruction-free and changed what generate_abstract sees), final_report.tcl is now split into final_connect.tcl + final_outputs.tcl with the gated write between them — per-stage behavior is unchanged byte for byte, and flow.tcl sources the parts and performs the write itself at the identical point.

Final test matrix for bazelisk test //flow/designs/asap7/gcd:gcd_single_flow_test: synth ✅ floorplan ✅ place ✅ cts ✅ grt ✅ route ✅ final ✅

Summary of what the single-process equivalence test flushed out of OpenROAD along the way, all carried as patches/openroad/ until upstreamed:

  1. OpenSTA never seeds required times for never-connected pins created mid-session (CTS dummy loads) → bogus −195 ps net slacks steering -resistance_aware routing (0001).
  2. drt's incremental design update orders nets/instances by update history instead of odb order, and its final write emitted vias in history order (0002).
  3. drt duplicates block-terminal access points on every pin access rerun — staged flows had been silently accumulating stale APs at every stage since pin_access first ran (0003).

@oharboe oharboe requested a review from maliberty July 7, 2026 21:38
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@codex review

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/gemini review

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Code Review

This pull request introduces a single-process flow variant for OpenROAD, allowing all stages from synthesis to final reporting to run within a single process. It includes several patches to OpenROAD to ensure byte-identical outputs between the single-process and per-stage flows, alongside test suites to verify this equivalence. The review feedback highlights two key issues: a strict weak ordering violation in the sorting comparator of the second OpenROAD patch that could lead to undefined behavior, and a recommendation to use file join in flow.tcl to avoid path mismatches caused by manual string concatenation.

Comment thread flow/scripts/flow.tcl

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Reviewed commit: 4567701474

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Comment thread flow/scripts/flow.tcl
oharboe and others added 5 commits July 8, 2026 07:12
flow_write_db/flow_write_sdc built paths with string concatenation; a
trailing slash in RESULTS_DIR would produce dir//file, which never
matches glob results in flow_source's lsearch -exact check.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
detail_route.tcl exited on the skip path, which is fine when each
stage is its own process (OPENROAD_CMD passes -exit anyway) but kills
the whole single-process flow before 5_2_route.odb and every later
stage is written. Skip via if/else instead of exit.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
The fillConnFigs comparator returned false whenever either side was a
non-via, making every non-via equivalent to every via while vias were
still ordered among themselves — not a strict weak ordering, so
std::list::sort was UB. Partition non-vias before vias instead
(list::sort is stable, so non-vias keep their relative order); each
connFig is encoded as its own path in the written wire, so the
partitioning does not change the layout.

Regenerates patches 0002 (the fix) and 0003 (hunk offsets shift).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
glibc 2.42 defines memchr as a function-like _Generic macro under C23
(implied by _GNU_SOURCE), and sed's vendored gnulib only #undefs it
for _LIBC builds, so lib/memchr.c no longer parses against current
host glibc headers and every build of @Sed (bazel-orfs -> abc ->
readline -> ncurses -> sed) fails. Carry a one-hunk #undef patch via
single_version_override until a fixed sed lands in BCR; 4.9.bcr.5 was
tried and fails the same way under toolchains_llvm + host sysroot.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
OpenROAD master merged the hermetic-llvm-toolchain work (#10812): a
statically linked, zero-sysroot LLVM toolchain with no host compiler
or /usr/include involved. Bump the pin from f4e5e40f to e8230044 and
switch this repo from toolchains_llvm (host sysroot) to the same
hermetic toolchain, mirroring the root-honored parts of
tools/OpenROAD's MODULE.bazel/.bazelrc:

- llvm 0.8.11 + register_toolchains(@llvm//toolchain:all), plus
  BAZEL_DO_NOT_DETECT_CPP_TOOLCHAIN=1 and rules_python
  bootstrap_impl=script in .bazelrc.
- gnulib tool version overrides (sed 4.9.bcr.5, gawk 5.3.2.bcr.7,
  m4 1.4.21.bcr.4, bison 3.8.2.bcr.7 + wrapper-header patch) and the
  tcl_lang crypt.h patch; single_version_override is root-honored
  only, so each is copied here with its patch files.
- bazel/slang-compat placeholder: openroad's
  new_local_repository(name="slang") resolves its relative path
  against the root workspace, so ORFS-as-root must provide the
  directory.

The zero-sysroot toolchain takes host glibc out of the build entirely,
which supersedes the sed gnulib memchr patch for glibc >= 2.42 —
remove it. The abc, boost.context and scip overrides openroad carries
are not needed in this graph (full test suite builds without them).

patches/openroad/0001..0003 are unchanged: no src/sta or src/drt
changes between the old and new pin, and the src/sta submodule pin is
identical. All seven gcd_single_flow byte-equality tests pass on the
new base.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 8, 2026

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/gemini review

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Code Review

This pull request introduces a single-process flow variant for OpenROAD, allowing all stages from synthesis to final report to run within a single OpenROAD process. It adds a test suite (gcd_single_flow_test) to verify that the single-process flow produces byte-identical outputs compared to the traditional per-stage flow. To support this, several Tcl scripts were refactored, including splitting final_report.tcl and introducing helper functions like orfs_copy_db. Additionally, the build configuration is updated to use hermetic LLVM (@llvm), and several single-version overrides and patches are introduced for dependencies like bison, tcl_lang, and openroad to resolve toolchain compatibility issues. There are no review comments, so no further feedback is provided.

@oharboe

oharboe commented Jul 8, 2026

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@maliberty Anything else from me?

The OpenROAD bump to master e8230044 plus patches/openroad/0001..0003
(the sta endpoint-seeding fix that changes -resistance_aware global
routing, and the two drt ordering/access-point fixes) shift QoR
deterministically across designs, not just the gcd single-flow test
target. Three designs regressed past their committed rules-base.json
limits in the pr-head CI run (build #7, 93b9992):

- nangate45/mempool_group: cts setup tns
- nangate45/tinyRocket:     cts/globalroute/finish setup tns
- sky130hd/microwatt:       globalroute/finish setup tns, detailed
                            route antenna diode count

Regenerate the three rules files with genRuleFile.py --failing
--tighten (equivalent to `make update_rules`) against the metadata the
pr-head job produced, so the failing limits are relaxed with the
standard margin and incidentally-improved metrics are tightened.
checkMetadata.py passes for all three against that metadata.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Øyvind Harboe <oyvind.harboe@zylin.com>
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3 participants