How To Install ghdl on Debian 10
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install ghdl on Debian 10.
What is ghdl
ghdl is:
GHDL is a compiler and simulator for VHDL, a Hardware Description Language. GHDL is not an interpreter: it allows you to analyse and elaborate sources to generate machine code from your design. Native program execution is the only way for high speed simulation.
GHDL offers three machine code generation backends: one based on GCC, one using the LLVM compiler suite and a GHDL specific one called mcode. These are available in the ghdl-gcc, ghdl-llvm and ghdl-mcode packages respectively. Both the GCC and LLVM backends create highly optimized code for excellent simulation performance while simulations compiled with the GCC backend also allow coverage testing using gcov. The mcode backend creates less performant code but makes up for it with much faster compilation. It is therefore preferable for smaller projects without large or long running simulations.
Multiple backends can be installed at the same time and selected by either invoking the desired GHDL directly (as ghdl-gcc, ghdl-llvm or ghdl-mcode) or by providing a GHDL_BACKEND environment variable (containing gcc, llvm or mcode) while invoking ghdl.
This package contains the common files for all backends and requires at least one backend to be installed.
There are three methods to install ghdl on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install ghdl Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install ghdl using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install ghdl
Install ghdl Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install ghdl using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install ghdl
Install ghdl Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install ghdl using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install ghdl
How To Uninstall ghdl on Debian 10
To uninstall only the ghdl package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove ghdl
Uninstall ghdl And Its Dependencies
To uninstall ghdl and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove ghdl
Remove ghdl Configurations and Data
To remove ghdl configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge ghdl
Remove ghdl configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove ghdl configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge ghdl
Dependencies
ghdl have the following dependencies:
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install ghdl package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.
