When using command line and scripted flows, it's your responsibility to arrange files and directories to make it clear what the input prerequisites and generated output files are for each build step. As the Vitis tools produce various intermediate temporary files, logs, and debug information along with the generated output, it's good practice to separate the source inputs and recipes from the directory where the tools are launched.
To further emphasize the generated output files, which will be used as prerequisite input to next build stage, redirecting the outputs to specific names and directories help keep the handoffs organized.
Makefiles and configuration files are useful for managing build recipes, dependency chains and project settings. If well written, they can serve as templates for several projects, reducing the effort to setup and use the build environment.
It's strongly recommended to put source files, project config files and Makefiles in source code management systems like Git.
The Vitis Tutorials (design tutorials and developer contributed tutorials) contain examples for setting up an end-to-end Makefile flow.
Guidelines for Revision Control
It is recommended to revision control the project sources while developing the design using the Vitis and Vivado tools. In this flow, a number of design iterations are required for the hardware design development. You can adopt revision control mechanism according to your standards. The following files are recommended for revision control:
- C++ source files
- Config files
- Tcl scripts
- Makefiles
Optionally, the following generated binary files can be added for additional delivery control:
- AI Engine graphs (libadf.a)
- .vma
- .xsa