How to get back to tcl after exiting in OCEAN and/or SKILL? 

Hi All,

Good Day. 

I 'am running tcl in compiling/creating OCEAN and/or SKILL files. When I exit in OCEAN and/or SKILL I can't get back to tcl to compile the remaining tcl codes. Is there a way to get back to tcl after exiting in OCEAN and/or SKILL?

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,

Reinice

Hi Reinice,

You'll have to give more details of what you're doing - how you are launching OCEAN from Tcl, for exampe - what does the Tcl script look like. I see no reason why this shouldn't work in principle - so I'd need to understand what you're doing.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I 'am using exec ocean -restore "file.ocn" & when launching OCEAN/SKILL from tcl. Actually I' am using tcl(puts function) to create OCEAN/SKILL files then I invoke it using the command I mentioned.

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

Reinice,

So don't use the & at the end of the exec! That is backgrounding the process - and so you don't know when it finished.

If I do:

proc dothis {} {                           
  exec ocean -restore runSim.ocn               
  puts hello                                   
}  

"hello" is output after the simulation has finished (this assumes that runSim.ocn has an exit() call at the end).

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I'll try your suggestion. I'll get back to you ASAP and tell what was the outcome.

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

Hi Andrew,

I removed the "&" sign in the exec command but still it did not returned to tcl.

Here is what I want to happen in my tcl:

proc main {design_user tool_u analysis_name} {

exec ocean -restore "file.ocn"

main $design_user $tool_u $analysis_name

}

1. I have a main procedure.

2. I exec file.ocn inside the main procedure.

3. Then I will call main procedure after exec command have finished.

Also, is there a way to see the progress of my exec command? So that I' am not guessing what it's status?

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

Reinice,

Here's how you'd do this in Tcl (nothing really to do with OCEAN - it's just Tcl techniques):

 proc showOutput {channel} {
  global finished
  if {[eof $channel] || [catch {gets $channel line}]} {
    close $channel
    set finished 1
  } else {
    puts $line
  }
}
  
# global flag so that the vwait will return when
# the showOutput function tells it that the pipe
# has closed
set finished 0

# open a pipe from ocean, and set it up to be
# line buffered, with a file event to read the output
# as each line appears
set chan [open "| ocean -restore runSim.ocn"]
fconfigure $chan -buffering line
fileevent $chan readable [list showOutput $chan]
vwait finished

puts "NOTE: simulation has now finished"

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I've tried your sample script but I' am having problem how to exit in ocean session. In your example runSim.ocn let's say I have a exit() function at the end of the file. Eventhough I have exit() function, still I' am not exiting in ocean session. It seems that finished in vwait finished did not changed.

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

Hi Reinice,

Are you running "ocean" with "-nograph"? I'm wondering whether maybe you have a popup which is appearing but you can't see it because you're in nograph mode. Maybe if you run without -nograph mode you see it?

Also try running the same OCEAN script from the command line (rather than from within Tcl) to see what happens. Even try "virtuoso -restore yourScript.ocn" and see what happens.

Sometimes the popup that appears at the end is because of:

a) something that needs saving (in which case maybe doing a dbPurge() of the design will fix it)
b) modifications to the display.drf being done as part of a PDK's libInit.il (using drLoadDrf without nil as the second argument)

I have seen people solve this by calling exit() twice in the OCEAN script, but that's a bit of a hack - better to try to find the root cause.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I 'am not using "-nograph" when running "ocean"

I tried to run my OCEAN script from the command line and even tried "virtuoso -restore myScript.ocn", it runs/executes and exits ocean session and virtuoso session respectively and returned back to the command line without any popup.

I also tried to do calling exit() twice in myScript.ocn and nothing happened. It did not return to main procedure.

Here is how I implemented your suggestion

proc main {design_user tool_u analysis_name} {

proc showOutput {channel} {
  global finished
  if {[eof $channel] || [catch {gets $channel line}]} {
    close $channel
    set finished 1
  } else {
    puts $line
  }
}
  
set finished 0

set chan [open "| ocean -restore myScript.ocn"]
fconfigure $chan -buffering line
fileevent $chan readable [list showOutput $chan]
vwait finished

puts "NOTE: simulation has now finished"

main $design_user $tool_u $analysis_name 

}

It seems that finished in vwait finished did not change? and myScript.ocn executes and did not return to main procedure after exit().

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

Hi Reinice,

From a quick check, it appeared to work for me as is, but I think you really ought to add "global finished" within the main proc (that's what the "man vwait" page suggests).

If that doesn't fix it, has the ocean executable actually exited (check the processes running with "ps")?

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I tried your suggestion adding "global finished" within the main proc. It did not exit in ocean. I checked the processes running with "ps" and it is still running.

I made some workaround that worked. Here's my script:

proc main {design_user tool_u analysis_name} {

proc showOutput {channel} {
  global finished

  gets $channel line

  set finished [string match "*Finished*" $line]

  puts $finished
  if {$finished == 1} {
    close $channel
  } else {
    puts $line
  }
}
  
set finished 0

set my_IO [open "| ocean -restore myScript.ocn"]
fconfigure $my_IO -buffering line
fileevent $my_IO readable [list showOutput $my_IO]

puts $finished
vwait finished

puts "NOTE: simulation has now finished"

main $design_user $tool_u $analysis_name 

}

In myScript.ocn there's a line at the end of the file that shows it "Finished" it's execution. This workaround exits in ocean session and returned in main procedure.

Thanks and Regards,

Reinice

I can't explain why it is not exiting for you, but at least you have a workaround.

Andrew