Altera SDC and TimeQuest API - Manual (Page 25)

Chapter 2: SDC and TimeQuest API Package and Commands 2–15
sdc
© December 2009 Altera Corporation SDC and TimeQuest API Reference Manual
get_pins
Usage
get_pins [-compatibility_mode] [-hierarchical] [-no_duplicates] [-nocase] [-nowarn]
<filter>
Options
-compatibility_mode: Use simple Tcl matching (Classic Timing Analyzer style)
-hierarchical: Specifies use of a hierarchical searching method
-no_duplicates: Do not match duplicated pin names
-nocase: Specifies case-insensitive node name matching
-nowarn: Do not issue warnings messages about unmatched patterns
<filter>: Valid destinations (string patterns are matched using Tcl string matching)
Description
Returns a collection of pins in the design. All pin names in the collection match the specified pattern.
Wildcards can be used to select multiple pins at once.
There are three Tcl string matching schemes available with this command: the default method, the
-hierarchical option, and the -compatibility_mode option.
By default, pipe characters are used to separate one hierarchy level from the next. They are treated as
special characters and are taken into account when string matching with wildcards is performed. When
the default matching scheme is enabled, the specified pattern is matched against absolute pin names: the
names that include the entire hierarchical path. All hierarchy levels in the pattern are matched level by
level. Pin names of the form <absolute full cell name>|<pin suffix> are used for matching. Note that a full
cell name can contain multiple pipe characters in it to reflect the hierarchy. Any included wildcards refer to
only one hierarchical level. For example, "*|*" and "*|*|*" produce different collections since they refer to
the highest hierarchical level and second highest hierarchical level respectively.
When uisng the -hierarchical matching scheme, pipe characters are treated as special characters and are
taken into account when string matching with wildcards is performed. This matching scheme forces the
search to proceed recursively through the hierarchy. The specified pattern is matched against the relative
pin names: the immediate names that do not include any of the hierarchy information. Pin names of the
form <relative short cell name>|<pin suffix> are used for matching. Note that a short cell name cannot
contain pipe characters. Any included wildcards are expanded to match the relative pin names. For
example, "*" and "*|*" match exactly the same pins since the former is expanded into the latter.
The -compatibility_mode matching scheme mimics the string matching behavior of the Classic timing
analyzer for full, absolute pin names. Pipe characters are not treated as special characters when used with
wildcards.
The default matching scheme returns not only pins whose names match the specified filter, but also pins
duplicated from these pins (refers to pins are automatically generated by Quartus from the pins). Use
-no_duplicates option to not include duplicated pins.
The filter for the collection is a Tcl list of wildcards, and must follow standard Tcl or TimeQuest-extension
substitution rules. See help for the use_timequest_style_escaping command for details.
Example
# Get regout pin of "reg" cell
get_pins -nocase reg|regout
# Create a collection of all pins of "reg" cell