Explore a dump

Start here when you have a waveform file but do not yet know its time range, hierarchy, or signal names. The usual flow is info, then scope, then signal.

How long is this waveform?

Check the dump bounds before choosing timestamps or time windows:

$ wavepeek info --waves dump.fst
time_unit: 1ns
time_start: 0ns
time_end: 250000ns

The dump may use a different unit or start after zero. Reuse the reported units in later --at, --from, and --to arguments.

Which blocks were dumped?

A shallow tree is usually enough to find the design root:

$ wavepeek scope --waves dump.fst --tree --max-depth 2 --max 30
tb kind=module
└── dut kind=module
    ├── cpu kind=module
    ├── dma kind=module
    └── peripherals kind=module

If the hierarchy is large, filter by a likely block name:

wavepeek scope --waves dump.fst --filter '.*(cpu|axi|uart).*' --max-depth 4

The filter matches full canonical scope paths.

What is the exact signal name?

Once you know the scope, search its direct signals:

$ wavepeek signal --waves dump.fst --scope tb.dut.cpu --filter '.*(clk|reset|state).*'
clk kind=wire width=1
reset_n kind=wire width=1
state kind=reg width=4

Add --recursive when the signal might be in a child scope. Keep the search shallow at first:

wavepeek signal --waves dump.fst \
  --scope tb.dut \
  --recursive --max-depth 2 \
  --filter '.*(valid|ready|data).*' \
  --abs --max 30

--abs prints canonical paths that can be copied into later commands. Without it, recursive output uses names relative to the selected scope.

What if the result is truncated?

scope and signal limit their output by default. A truncation warning means the query found more matches than it printed. Narrow the filter or hierarchy depth before raising --max; this usually produces a more useful result than dumping the entire design.

See Paths, signals and scopes for name resolution and Time units and windows for time-token rules.