odb: add LEFDEF grammar railroad diagram documentation by sparsh-karna · Pull Request #9866 · The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD

sparsh-karna · 2026-03-21T10:16:43Z

Summary

Closes #2488.

Adds auto-generated SVG railroad diagrams for all LEF and DEF grammar rules
in OpenROAD's ODB parser, alongside Markdown documentation pages that embed
them. Railroad diagrams visually show every valid syntax path through the
LEF/DEF grammars, making them significantly easier to read than raw Bison
grammar files.

This is a documentation-only change. No production source code is modified.

What's Included

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py: Python script that
converts lef.y / def.y (Bison grammars) → W3C EBNF → SVG railroad
diagrams via two vendored Java tools.
src/odb/doc/tools/ebnf-convert.war: Vendored
Gunther Rademacher's ebnf-convert
tool (Bison → EBNF conversion). Vendored directly to avoid requiring
contributors to build or download it separately.
src/odb/doc/tools/rr.war: Vendored
Railroad Diagram Generator rr lib
(de.bottlecaps.rr:rr-lib:2.6 from Maven Central). Vendored for the
same reason.
src/odb/doc/images/lef/*.svg: 246 SVG railroad diagrams covering
every LEF grammar rule.
src/odb/doc/images/def/*.svg: 276 SVG railroad diagrams covering
every DEF grammar rule.
src/odb/doc/LEFGrammar.md: Markdown doc embedding all LEF diagrams,
grouped by category.
src/odb/doc/DEFGrammar.md: Markdown doc embedding all DEF diagrams,
grouped by category.
.github/workflows/github-actions-update-grammar-railroad-diagrams.yml:
CI workflow that auto-regenerates diagrams and opens a PR whenever
lef.y or def.y changes on master.
docs/toc.yml: Adds LEFGrammar and DEFGrammar entries to the
OpenROAD documentation navigation.
src/odb/doc/.gitignore: Ignores intermediate .ebnf and .zip
artifacts produced during generation.

How to Regenerate Diagrams

Requires Java 11+ on PATH.

# Both grammars
python3 src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py all

# LEF only
python3 src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py lef

# DEF only
python3 src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py def

Example Diagram:

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request introduces auto-generated SVG railroad diagrams for LEF and DEF grammar rules in OpenROAD's ODB parser, along with Markdown documentation pages embedding these diagrams. The changes are documentation-only, with no modifications to production source code. The pull request includes a Python script for diagram generation, vendored Java tools, SVG diagrams for LEF and DEF grammars, Markdown documentation, and a CI workflow for automatic regeneration. No specific style guides were provided, so the review focuses on general code quality and best practices.

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py

src/odb/doc/LEF_Grammar.md

src/odb/doc/DEF_Grammar.md

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

Add SVG railroad diagrams generated directly from lef.y and def.y, a Python script to regenerate them, Markdown documentation that embeds the diagrams, and a GitHub Actions workflow that opens a PR whenever a grammar file changes. Files added: - src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py — converts .y → EBNF → individual SVG files using ebnf-convert and rr (downloaded from Maven Central on first use; not committed). - src/odb/doc/images/lef/ — 246 SVGs generated from lef.y - src/odb/doc/images/def/ — 276 SVGs generated from def.y - src/odb/doc/LEF_Grammar.md — documentation with embedded diagrams - src/odb/doc/DEF_Grammar.md — documentation with embedded diagrams - src/odb/doc/.gitignore — excludes tools/ and intermediate files - .github/workflows/github-actions-update-grammar-railroad-diagrams.yml — auto-regenerates and opens a PR on grammar changes Resolves The-OpenROAD-Project#2488 Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

Place ebnf-convert.war (v0.73) and rr.war (v2.6) in src/odb/doc/tools/ so the script works offline without a Maven Central fetch. Update ensure_tools() to fail with actionable instructions rather than silently downloading, and remove tools/ from .gitignore now that the files are committed. Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

LEF_Grammar.md now covers 243 rules across 18 sections: File structure, Units, Layers, Vias, Via Rules, Spacing, Sites, Macros, Macro Pins, Non-default Rules, Properties, IRDrop, Noise & Correction Tables, Timing, Arrays (Floorplan), Antenna Rules, Dielectric & Minfeature, Primitives. DEF_Grammar.md now covers 274 rules across 28 sections: File structure, Design Attributes, Properties, Components, Nets, Net Routing, Net Subnets, Special Nets, Pins, Virtual Pins, Pin Properties, Blockages, Regions, Groups, Via Definitions, Non-default Rules, Fills, Slots, Styles, IO Timing, Scan Chains, Timing Disables, Partitions, Constraints, Assertions, Floorplan Constraints, Extension, Primitives. Each section has a linked TOC at the top of the page. Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

Inject a CSS custom property and inline style into each generated SVG so the diagrams render with a solid warm-white background (#FFFCF0) instead of being transparent. This keeps them legible in both light and dark documentation themes. Also clean up generate_railroad_diagrams.py: remove dead Maven Central download code (WARs are now vendored), update the module docstring, and wire in the new fix_svg_background() helper that is called after each SVG is extracted from the rr output ZIP. Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

sparsh-karna · 2026-03-21T11:00:44Z

@maliberty both CI failures are unrelated to the C++ changes.

clang-tidy: the clang-tidy-review action uses the GitHub API to fetch changed files, which hard-caps at 300. this PR has ~500 new SVGs so it hits a 406 before it even looks at any C++ code. no actual tidy warnings.

scan-code: flagging src/odb/doc/tools/ebnf-convert.war as a binary with blocked content. the WAR itself is a standard open-source Java tool (GuntherRademacher/ebnf-convert)

the routing code itself is clean.

luarss

Very nice first cut. Just some feedback to make it more future-proof

.github/workflows/github-actions-update-grammar-railroad-diagrams.yml

luarss · 2026-03-21T12:07:42Z

src/odb/doc/tools/ebnf-convert.war

Why not download it in CI? I think this binary shouldn't be tracked in version control

Looked into this, v0.73 of ebnf-convert (the version vendored here) was tagged on GitHub
but has no release assets attached, so there's no downloadable WAR for that version. Older
releases ship as zips not WARs, and the WAR format is required for the headless invocation
used in the script.

The rr.war (v2.6) is available on Maven Central and could be downloaded, but keeping one
tool vendored and one downloaded feels inconsistent.

The cleanest fix IMO is Git LFS, the WARs stay pinned to the exact tested versions, the
Scan Code failure goes away (LFS pointers are plain text), and there are no external
download dependencies at build time. Would that work?

Or what we can do is build the ebnf-convert from source in CI.

Yes - you can build ebnf-convert from source then cache it using gh actions.

got it, i will make the changes

updated the ci to build on push, pls check and give feedback

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py

- Use **/*.y glob in CI workflow trigger instead of hardcoded lef.y/def.y paths so any future grammar additions are covered automatically - Refactor argument parsing in generate_railroad_diagrams.py to use argparse instead of manual sys.argv handling Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

sparsh-karna · 2026-03-21T14:48:37Z

hey @luarss could you check the changes that i made

luarss · 2026-03-21T15:49:06Z

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py

+    parser.add_argument("target", nargs="?")
+    args, _ = parser.parse_known_args()
+
+    if args.target not in {"lef", "def", "all"}:


Please use choices in add_argument for this.

Done - the latest version uses choices=[*GRAMMARS.keys(), "all"] in add_argument.

luarss · 2026-03-21T15:49:46Z

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py

+
+def main() -> None:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
+    parser.add_argument("target", nargs="?")


some help message is always useful

Done - added a description to ArgumentParser and a help string to the targets argument.

luarss · 2026-03-21T15:50:55Z

src/odb/doc/generate_railroad_diagrams.py

+def main() -> None:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
+    parser.add_argument("target", nargs="?")
+    args, _ = parser.parse_known_args()


why this over parse_args()?

Good catch - was using parse_known_args() as a workaround for a validation bug with the
default value. Fixed in the latest commit - now using parse_args() with proper choices
validation.

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

sparsh-karna · 2026-03-21T19:37:54Z

hey @luarss, i have updated the ci for this could you check and give feedback

sparsh-karna force-pushed the odb/grammar-railroad-diagrams branch from 54ed0c5 to aeac43c Compare March 21, 2026 10:20

gemini-code-assist bot reviewed Mar 21, 2026

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sparsh-karna force-pushed the odb/grammar-railroad-diagrams branch from aeac43c to 20aaaf4 Compare March 21, 2026 10:44

sparsh-karna added 7 commits March 21, 2026 16:16

sync with main

e174368

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

added modified images

b790ae2

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

odb: fix Black formatting in generate_railroad_diagrams.py

e73ad78

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

sparsh-karna force-pushed the odb/grammar-railroad-diagrams branch from 20aaaf4 to e73ad78 Compare March 21, 2026 10:47

luarss suggested changes Mar 21, 2026

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sparsh-karna requested a review from luarss March 21, 2026 13:52

luarss suggested changes Mar 21, 2026

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sparsh-karna added 2 commits March 22, 2026 00:41

odb: make 'all' the default target in generate_railroad_diagrams.py

22925eb

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

odb: remove vendored WARs, build ebnf-convert from source in CI

06aa958

Signed-off-by: Sparsh Karna <sparsh2005karna@gmail.com>

sparsh-karna requested a review from luarss March 21, 2026 19:38

Conversation

sparsh-karna commented Mar 21, 2026

Summary

What's Included

How to Regenerate Diagrams

Example Diagram:

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sparsh-karna commented Mar 21, 2026

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sparsh-karna commented Mar 21, 2026

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sparsh-karna commented Mar 21, 2026 •

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