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NOTE: The information in this file might not yet include the changes introduced with the switch to the autotools.
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To build Cbc see INSTALL file
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To use Cbc you need the Cbc, Cgl, Coin and Osi libraries. You
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will probably need Clp as well.
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If you are using Clp as your solver then you can make the unitTest and standalone executable by doing
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make solve in this directory. This creates an executable solve.
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solve takes various options - try solve and then ? to get some idea of what you can do.
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solve file will do branch and bound if file is integer mps file and will do dual if non-integer mps file
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options start with - (although the code will also try without -) e.g.
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solve file -cuts root -solve will import file and do branch and bound with cuts only at root
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- by itself goes to interactive mode.
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If you wish to use the Cbc solver from AMPL there is a bit of work involved. You
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will need to uncomment COIN_ampl in Makefiles/makefile.location - and also
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download the ampl glue code - see Makefiles/Makefile.location for http. Then solve
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will assume it is being called from AMPL if the first two arguments are xxx.nl -AMPL.
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Of course "solve" is not a good name (cbc is much better but already used) so copy
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"solve" to "cbc" in ampl accessible path.
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Options may be set by e.g. option cbc_options "cuts=off log=0"
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No keywords are recognized by ampl parsing so above format should be used.
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All options are as found by "cbc(solve) " and then ?
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Current ugliness is that ampl glue code assumes "=" (on undefined keywords) so to maximize you
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would have to say "maximize=". I will add to AMPL keywords if this interface gets much use.
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If you are not using Clp then fewer options are available -
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make the unitTest and standalone executable by doing
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make unitTest in this directory. This creates an executable cbc.
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Running cbc gives you some hints. Just do
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and then try ? or setting various stuff.
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On Linux cbc can do file completion and line editing.
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There are samples in ./Samples. Use make DRIVER=xxxxxx where xxxxxx.cpp is driver file to
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create an executable - testit.
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The two simplest samples are:
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sample.cpp This is a simple program to read an mps file.and solve the
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sample2.cpp. This is the benchmark driver for the competition. It overrides
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the default branching methods and adds a (mildly useless)
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heuristic. It is intended to show you how to add your
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own methods. See CbcCompareUser.hpp for how to modify
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choice of node from tree. See CbcBranchUser.?pp for
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how to modify which variable is chosen at a node. For
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more complex stuff such as new types of branches see
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CbcBranchBase and CbcBranchActual in directory Cbc.
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To see how to add heuristics see CbcHeuristicUser.?pp.
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To add cut generators - define them as in Cgl and then just
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add them as in sample2.cpp
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The script "runtimes" in Samples directory will
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run some or all of test set. The version checked in
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does some - just take off # to run. An optional time
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in minutes can be passed.
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Cbc/README
