we also want sdcc and gputils (latest version) for pic related code and general tools like vim, gcc, python, etc for various tasks.

So, we have been trying to do something like this for the HDMI2USB-misoc-firmware, you can see our instructions at https://github.com/timvideos/HDMI2USB-misoc-firmware/tree/master/scripts

Like you, we need;

• Xilinx tools (we currently need ISE, but will soon also need Vivado)
• Cross compiler tool chain
• sdcc for FX2 firmware

We ended up deciding to use conda for the packaging of the cross compilers and FX2 toolchains, you can see how we have done this at https://github.com/timvideos/conda-hdmi2usb-packages. I don't like Conda very much but it made sense because we are already heavily invested in the Python ecosystem and the m-labs guys had already headed down that path.

Last time I looked, Vivado / ISE download and install can not be automated. The Xilinx website is deliberately designed to make it impossible to do automated download (and they seem to change it every 6 months too).

Other options include;

• Docker container - basically a lightweight VM. Docker has a lot of mindshare and lots of people already know how to use it.
• VirtualBox VM - full Linux system which can run on any OS. If you have a lot of Mac/Windows based developers, it probably makes sense as it will allow them to easily contribute.

BTW It would be awesome if your Lattice stuff could eventually be compiled using the open source toolchain that is slowly making progress. They are still probably a long way off doing something as complicated as what you need - but it would be an awesome goal.

I think a ubuntu docker container with the required tools installed would be simple to create (this is the current solution for the ci-builds). However, I think, that distributing xilinx tools implys some licensing and export-control related issues. The simplest way to deal with them would be to just ignore those or make the container somehow protected.