"No netlist" error when running a Python script on a netlist in commandline mode

[harnhua]

Hi,
After successfully loading a netlist and executing the following lines of sample Python code in the Python widget, I saved the commands in a .py script.

from hal_plugins import graph_algorithm

graph = graph_algorithm.NetlistGraph.from_netlist(netlist)

However, when I tried to load the project and execute the same commands in a .py script, HAL says that the "netlist" object does not exist.

hal --project-dir <directory containing HAL project> --python-script test.py
Looking at the log messages, it seems like the Python script was executed before the netlist was loaded.

[gate_library_parser] [info] registered gate library parser 'Default HGL Parser' for file extension '.hgl'.
[core] [info] executing 'python_shell' with
[core] [info]   '--python-script': netlists/graphing.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 3, in <module>
NameError: name 'netlist' is not defined. Did you mean: 'Netlist'?

Am I missing an argument or Python command?

Thanks!

[harnhua]

If I omit the --python-script argument, then the project seems to load without issue.
hal --project-dir <directory containing HAL project>

Is there a way to make the Python script execute after the project is loaded?
Or alternatively, is there a command to load the project from the Python script?

[RenWal]

The old python_shell plugin wasn't updated in about 5 years and is therefore not really compatible with the current state of HAL. You do still get a Python shell, but don't have access to any of the project context, so it's not very useful.

The file that needs to be updated is https://github.com/emsec/hal/blob/c6f7150f5130549ffe62b8a95cc2decfa3af0c78/plugins/python_shell/src/plugin_python_shell.cpp . Pull requests are welcome. You can look at the way that the GUI initializes its Python interpreter, particularly the PythonContext::initializeScript invocation:

hal/plugins/gui/src/python/python_context.cpp

Line 154 in ed28db5

void PythonContext::initializeScript(py::dict *context)