The-OpenROAD-Project / The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD
RCX-0114: driver pin not bound when the route only touches it, leaving a headless path
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Since Aug 30, 2026.
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Description
Describe the bug
When a net's driver pin is reached by routing that does not put a route
vertex inside the pin rectangle, tmg_conn fails to bind the drive term.
getStartNode() then falls back to wire point 0, and if that point carries no
terminal extract_parasitics reports that the net "does not start from an
iterm or a bterm".
The damage is silent and worse than the message suggests: the driver is
dropped from the extracted net. dbNet::isDisconnected becomes 1 and the
driver does not appear in the SPEF *CONN section, yet write_spef succeeds
and OpenROAD exits 0.
Expected Behavior
Correctly handle connectivity
Environment
26Q3-1678-gf4b5f2d529
To Reproduce
rcx-0114-net-no-start-term.tar.gz
openroad -no_splash -no_init -exit run.tcl
Observed:
[WARNING RCX-0114] Net 1 n1 does not start from an iterm or a bterm.
[INFO RCX-0040] Final 2 rc segments
Relevant log output
Screenshots
No response
Additional Context
No response
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