Requirements

Binaries

vhdl-ext makes use of several binaries as backend engines to support IDE-like functionality.

List of required binaries:

Definitions and references navigation: global, gtags, universal-ctags, python, pygments
Jump to parent entity: ag, ripgrep
Linting: ghdl, vhdl_lang, vhdl-tool
LSP: vhdl_ls, ghdl-ls, vhdl-tool, hdl_checker

For information on how to install/configure some of these binaries refer to the corresponding feature wiki page.

You can also check Bash script test-hdl/vhdl/scripts/setup-env.sh used in ERT regressions.

Installing vhdl-ext through package.el or straight will install automatically vhdl-ts-mode since it is a dependency.

It will still be needed to install tree-sitter and VHDL grammar to use tree-sitter as a backend for some vhdl-ext features.

vhdl-ts-mode has instructions about how to set up tree-sitter:

These should be handled automatically by straight or package.el.

If you want more information about these packages to change customization or extend functionality refer to their respective websites:

vhdl-ts-mode: VHDL tree-sitter major-mode
eglot: language server protocol client, bundled with Emacs 29
lsp-mode: language server protocol client
ag: frontend for the silversearcher, used to find parent entity
ripgrep: frontend for ripgrep, used to find parent entity
hydra: tie related commands into a family of short bindings with a common prefix, used for templates
flycheck: syntax checker for linters
outshine: extension of outline-minor-mode used to navigate design hierarchy
async: module for doing asynchronous processing in Emacs