Call $readmemh() on global path of file - memory

Question

I am currently calling $readmemh() from /< WORKSPACE>/< RUN_DIR> on file.txt.
Currently, the function only works for $readmemh(file.txt, memory), i.e., relative path of the file. How can I get it to work for $readmemh(/< WORKSPACE>/< RUN_DIR>/file.txt, memory), i.e., global path?
I have tried to prefix the global path with a '~' but that doesn't work, and just the raw global path also doesn't work.

Answer 1

You should be able to specify an absolute path to a file when you call $readmemh. This code works for me on different simulators:
module tb;
reg [1:0] memory [0:3];
initial begin
$readmemh("/tmp/verilog/file.txt", memory);
for (int i=0; i<4; i++) $display(memory[i]);
end
endmodule
The file /tmp/verilog/file.txt exists for me on my linux OS. I am running my simulation from a different directory from /tmp/verilog.
file.text contains:
0
1
2
3
I would not expect ~ to work since that is a character which has special meaning within a shell.
If you run your simulation as part of a script (which is a common practice), you could avoid the issue you are facing by either copying file.txt into the directory where you run the simulation or by linking to the file. This would be done prior to running the simulation command. In this case, you could then use the simple syntax:
$readmemh("file.txt", memory);