Why Regex-Based Linters Fall Short for SystemVerilog/UVM — A Case for Parser-Based Tools
Linting SystemVerilog and UVM testbench code is crucial to maintain quality and compatibility. Many teams start by writing quick regex or string-search scripts to catch problematic patterns—like deprecated variables, disallowed constructs, or outdated API usage. While regex-based linting can be tempting due to its simplicity, it often leads to false failures and missed issues because SystemVerilog’s syntax and preprocessing are too complex for simple text matching. In this series, we will explore common linting scenarios, we introduced this in an earlier post here: https://asfigo.blogspot.com/2025/02/linting-systemverilog-testbench-code.html Below is the next one in this series with a concrete example - detecting deprecated UVM constructs like uvm_top , and demonstrate why a proper parser-based approach using tools like Google’s Verible is superior. A Quick, regex style lint example When maintaining UVM code for compatibility, one common check is to detect the use of u...