Quick Start

LinkFab has 3 working mode: GUI mode, Interactive mode and Batch mode; Each mode has its purpose;

  • GUI mode is for normal usage, which means in most cases you work in this mode.

  • Interactive mode is for temporary usage, to get some information from integration design.

  • Batch mode is for a fixed operation flow, and will run many times in future.

GUI mode

To make LinkFab GUI running up, just run below command:

$> qk linkfab -g
or
$> linkfab -g

Then you will see the LinkFab GUI showup, as below.

../_images/linkfab-start.png

To load in an existing design, i.e. a .link file or a .cmd file, just select menu: File->Open, and choose the correct file type, then select the file and click “OK”, the design will be loaded and the component page will show the IP moduels, and hierarchy page will show the design instances and design hierarchy.

Interactive mode

To enter Interactive mode, run below command:

$> qk linkfab -i
or
$> qk linkfab
LinkFab is a Design Integration Tool

LinkFab:>

In interactive mode, you can run the supported commands to do the operation. To see which commands are supported, type ? or help:

LinkFab:> help

Documented commands (type help <topic>):
========================================
EOF  cd  exit  gui  help  ls  pwd  shell  source  var

Miscellaneous help topics:
==========================
add          dummy        hierarchy        match      reset
autoconnect  dump         include          merge      save
blockcmd     entity       insert           module     save_ioc_define
calculate    eval         insertpipeline   package    savesub
check        feedthrough  insertpipeline1  partition  split
config       feedthru     instance         pop        start
connect      find         ioc_connect      pragma     summary
constant     freeze       library          print      update_entity
desc         fullpath     list             reload
diff         generate     load             remove
disconnect   generic      map              rename

** run "<cmd> -h" to get more help.

To get the usage of a command in interactive mode, type <cmd> -h for help.:

LinkFab:> load -h
usage: load [-h] [-t TYPE] [-m MAP] [--ref] filename [filename ...]

positional arguments:
  filename              Design files

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t TYPE, --type TYPE  Design type
  -m MAP, --map MAP     Rename map
  --ref                 Reference design

To get the detailed description of each command, please refer to Command Reference;

To switch to GUI mode, type command gui:

LinkFab:> gui

To switch back to interactive mode from GUI mode, select menu: File -> Exit GUI, use shortcuts key: <CTRL-z>.

Batch mode

To run batch mode, firstly you need to prepare a command file, let’s say a.cmd, you write some commands in it, line by line. Then run it with below command:

$> qk linkfab -f a.cmd

All command supported in Interactive mode are also supported in Batch mode, besides that, additional mini languge can be used for programing. Please refer to Command Reference for detail;

Hint

LinkFab supports serveral file types, and uses file extension to distinguish them. File extension .cmd is for command file, so above example command can be replaced by:

$> qk linkfab a.cmd

Note

Please note that the command “gui” cannot be used in batch mode, it will have no effect if you use it.