/usr/share/coin/doc/SYMPHONY/README is in coinor-libsymphony-dev 5.6.1-1+b2.
This file is owned by root:root, with mode 0o644.
The actual contents of the file can be viewed below.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 | SYMPHONY Version 5.6.0 README
=============================
Welcome to SYMPHONY. SYMPHONY is distributed under the Eclipse Public License
and is freely redistributable. All source code and documentation is Copyright
2000-2013 by Ted Ralphs and others. This README may be redistributed freely.
DOCUMENTATION
=============
If you have downloaded a source distribution, full documentation is available
in the SYMPHONY/Doc/ subdirectory. If you have downloaded a binary
distribution, the manual should be located in the man/ subdirectory. HTML
or PDF versions of the manual can also be viewed at:
http://www.coin-or.org/SYMPHONY/
WHAT'S NEW
==========
Release 5.6.0
1. Major re-design of shared memory parallel mode for increased efficiency and stability.
2. Fixes for distributed memory parallel version (PVM)
3. Fixes for bicriteria version
Release 5.5.7
1. More updates to build harness
Release 5.5.6
1. More updates to build harness
Release 5.5.5
1. More updates to build harness
Release 5.5.4
1. Fix memory leak
2. Delete superfluous header file
3. More updates to build harness
Release 5.5.3
1. More updates to build harness
Release 5.5.2
1. Fix problems with Visual Studio project files
2. Update to build tools
Release 5.5.1
1. Fix bug that caused all user applications to crash
Release 5.4.8:
1. Updates to MSVC++ files (applications now use property sheets and VRP app file is fixed).
2. Other fixes for build tools.
Release 5.4.7:
1. Updates to documentation
Release 5.5.0:
1. Improvements to preprocessing
2. Improvements to heuristics
3. Improvements to MSVC++ support
4. Bug fixes
5. Significant performance gains
Release 5.4.6:
1. More fixes to allow use of CPLEX as LP solver
2. Fixes to interface with GMPL
Release 5.4.5:
1. Fixes to allow use of CPLEX as LP solver
2. Fixes to interface with GMPL
Release 5.4.4:
1. Fixes for build system
2. Other minor fixes
Release 5.4.3:
1. Updates to documentation.
2. Fix to allow box-constrained integer programs.
3. Fix for GMPL integration
4. Fix for readline versions
Release 5.4.2:
1. Updates to MSVC++ version 10 files
Release 5.4.1
1. Addition of MSVC++ version 9 files
Release 5.4.0:
1. Change license to EPL.
2. Support for MSVC++ version 10 added.
3. Support for BuildTools version 0.7 to incoorporate recent enhancements, including proper library versioning in Linux, prohibiting installation of private headers, etc.
4. Enhancements to unit testing.
5. Updating externals to new stable versions of dependent projects.
Release 5.3.4:
1. Fixes to the shared memory parallel version (OpenMP). It is now pretty
stable, though some minor memory conflict conditions may arise (infrequently).
2. Fixes to allow all applications to build and run properly.
3. Updates to documentation.
Release 5.3.3:
1. Fixes to the build system.
Release 5.3.2:
1. Fixes to the build system.
Release 5.3.1:
1. Fixes to the build system.
Release 5.3.0:
1. Major changes to the build system to allow buinding against installed
binaries, provide pkg-config support, etc.
Release 5.2.4:
1. Fixes to restore functionality of the bicriteria solution capability.
2. Fixes to examples.
Release 5.2.3:
1. Updates to manual.
2. Added hooks to enable the use of VRPH (https://projects.coin-or.org/VRPH) within the VRP solver.
Release 5.2.2:
1. Bug fix release.
Release 5.2.1:
1. Bug fix release.
Release 5.2.0:
1. SYMPHONY has a preprocessor now.
2. Feasibility pump primal heuristic implemented.
3. Reliability branching is now the default branching strategy.
4. Several new statistics now part of default output.
5. Correct setting of granularity of objective function value by calculating
GCD of coefficients.
6. Several changes in management of valid inequalities, quality checks and
detection of duplicacy.
7. Minor changes in management of LP solver interface.
8. Several small bug-fixes and improvements.
Release 5.1.10:
1. New dependencies.
Release 5.1.9:
1. New dependencies.
Release 5.1.8:
1. Introduced use of LP hot starting.
2. Improved management of cut generation.
3. Updated externals
4. Minor bug fixes
Release 5.1.7:
1. Minor bug fixes
Release 5.1.6:
1. Only a single header file (symphony.h) needs to be installed and user
applications only need to be able to find this one header file.
2. Fixes to MSVC++ project files.
3. Removed dependence on qsortucb routines.
Release 5.1.5:
1. Added support for automatic download and build of Glpk (for reading of GMPL
files).
2. Minor bugs fixed and compiler warnings eliminated.
3. Updates to MS Visual Studio files.
4. Added short installation verification test.
Release 5.1.4:
1. Added ability to read files in LP format.
2. Additional configuration options.
3. Support for new classes of cutting planes.
4. Improved algorithm control mechanism.
5. Improved output format and additional output options.
6. Improved signal handling.
7. Shared memory parallel version tested with OpenMP in Linux and Windows.
8. Added release configuration to MSVC++ build files.
9. Improved warm starting.
10. Fixes for configuration with SoPlex and Xpress.
11. Fixed configuration on PowerPC architectures.
Release 5.1.3:
1. Support for building static executables in Unix-like environments.
2. Improved signal-catching behavior in Unix-like environments.
3. Updated documentation.
Release 5.1.2:
1. Update of externals.
2. Updated documentation.
Release 5.1.1:
1. Fixes for building in the Solaris operating system.
2. Fixes for using the GNU autotools to build with the cl compiler.
2. Fixes for sym.mak file in order to allow building with MSVC++ nmake utility.
4. Fixes for building the unit test in the MSVC++ IDE.
5. Updated documentation
Release 5.1.0:
1. SYMPHONY now has an interactive optimizer that can be used through a
command shell. In both the sequential and parallel configurations, the user
can set parameters, load and solve instances interactively, and display
results and statistics (see below).
2. SYMPHONY now supports automatic configuration using the new COIN-OR build
system and the GNU autotools.Using autotools utilities, it is now possible to
build SYMPHONY in most operating systems and with most common compilers
compilers without user intervention.
3. Both the distributed and shared memory parallel configurations are now
fully debugged, tested, and supported. The user can now build and execute
custom SYMPHONY applications in parallel, as well as solving generic MILPs in
parallel "out of the box."
4. There are now additional options for warm starting. The user can trim the
warm starting tree before starting to resolve a problem. More specifically,
the user can decide to initiate warm starting with a predefined partition of
the final branch-and-cut tree resulting from a previous solution procedure.
This partition can include either a number of nodes created first during the
solution procedure or all of the nodes above a given level of the tree.
5. The COIN-OR repository, the current host of SYMPHONY has recently undergone
some significant improvements of its own that have resulted in improved
services to users. These include:
-- SYMPHONY has a new development Web site, where users can submit trouble
tickets, browse the source code interactively, and get up-to-date
information on development. The address of the new site is
https://projects.coin-or.org/SYMPHONY.
-- SYMPHONY is now hosted using subversion, a version control system with
features vastly improved over CVS, the previous hosting software. This has
required some reorganization and renaming of the header files.
-- SYMPHONY is now more tightly integrated with other COIN-OR projects. Due
to improved procedures for producing stable releases, it will now be much
easier for us to determine the exact version of SYMPHONY and all other COIN
projects you are using when you report a bug.
-- SYMPHONY is now distributed with all COIN software needed to build a
complete solver. Previously, other COIN softrware packages had to be
downloaded and installed separately.
Two features have been deprecated and are no longer supported:
1. The native interfaces to OSL and CPLEX are now deprecated and no longer
supported. These solvers can be called through the COIN-OR OSI interface.
2. Column generation functionality has also been officially deprecated. For
now, there are a number of other software packages that offer better
functionality than SYMPHONY for implementing branch and price algorithms.
CHANGES TO THE USER INTERFACE (FROM SYMPHONY 5.0)
=================================================
1. There was one minor change to the user callback API from version 5.0 to 5.1.
The user can now execute a primal heuristic in the user_is_feasible() callback
and return the solution to SYMPHONY. The API for the user_is_feasible()
subroutine is now
int user_is_feasible(void *user, double lpetol, int varnum, int *indices,
double *values, int *feasible, double *objval,
char branching, double *heur_solution)
Any feasible solution can be passed (in dense format) through the last
argument to this function.
2. Several new subroutines were added to the callable library API.
3. The name of the header file containing the SYMPHONY API has been changed
from "symphony_api.h" to "symphony.h" (though the former has been retained for
backword compatibility purposes).
******************************************************************************
* INSTALLATION *
******************************************************************************
If you downloaded a source distribution and would like instructions on
building SYMPHONY or you downloaded a binary distribution and would like to
know how to install it, please see the file SYMPHONY-5.1/INSTALL.
*******************************************************************************
* USING SYMPHONY *
*******************************************************************************
****************** Using SYMPHONY from the command line **********************
To use SYMPHONY as a generic solver, type the executable name on the command
line, followed by one or more of the command-line switches. On the
command-line, there is one required switch---you must specify the location of
the input file by using "-F 'filename'". This input file is assumed to be in
MPS format, unless the "-D" switch is also present, in which case the file
will be assumed to be a GMPL model file with the data file specified after the
"-D" switch. In LINUX, the following command would solve the instance
"sample.mps"
symphony -F sample.mps
The remaining switches are used to set SYMPHONY's native parameters on the
command line. Below is a list of these parameters. This list can also be
obtained by executng
symphony -h
Note that all SYMPHONY parameters are denoted by a lowercase letter. Many
other parameters can be set with the use of a parameter file (specified with
-f). These parameters are listed in the SYMPHONY user's manual.
-h: help
-a: no cut timeout
-d: enable graph drawing
-g: use cut generator
-r: do repricing in root
-t: trim the tree
-b: don't perform branch and cut
-u ub: use upper bound 'ub'
-p procs: allow 'procs' active nodes
-n i: use node selection rule 'i'
-v i: set verbosity to level 'i'
-s cands: use 'cands' candidates for strong branching
-c i: use rule 'i' to compare candidates
-k i: use rule 'i' to select child
-m n: allow a max of 'n' cuts to enter per iteration
-e n: allow a max of 'n' cut pools
-l n k: load balance level 'n' and iterations 'k'
-i n: allow a max of 'n' iterations in presolve
-f file: read parameters from parameter file 'file'
-j 0/1: whether or not to generate cgl cuts
-z n: set diving threshold to 'n'
************ Using the SYMPHONY interactive optimizer ************************
To use SYMPHONY's Interactive shell, run the executable name without any
command line arguments. Then type "help" or "?" to see a list of available
commands which are as follows for this version:
load : read a problem in mps or ampl format
solve : solve the problem
lpsolve : solve the lp relaxation of the problem
set : set a parameter
display : display optimization results and stats
reset : restart the optimizer
help : show the available commands/params/options
quit/exit : leave the optimizer
So, if you want to load and solve an ampl/gmpl file, you will need to type
"load sample.mod sample.dat" and then "solve".
************************ Using the callable library **************************
To use SYMPHONY as a generic callable library, compile SYMPHONY as described
above. The library that is created along with the solver itself can be linked
to using the API described in the user's manual. For examples of using the
callable library in this way, see the Examples/ subdirectory.
*******************************************************************************
* DEVELOPING CUSTOM APPLICATIONS *
*******************************************************************************
To customize SYMPHONY by implementing the custom callback functions, simply
modify the files in the SYMPHONY/Applications/USER/ subdirectory, as described
in the user's manual and follow the compilation procedures in the file
SYMPHONY/Applications/USER/README. There are a number of sample applications
available as examples of how to do this kind of development with SYMPHONY.
These include solvers for the matching problem, the set partitioning problem
(simple and advanced versions), the vehicle routing and traveling salesman
problems, and the mixed postman problem. These applications are distributed as
separate packages and can be downloaded from http://www.branchandcut.org.
There is a white paper that guides the user through the development of the
matching solver.
*******************************************************************************
* CURRENT TESTING STATUS *
*******************************************************************************
SYMPHONY can now be used in a very large number of possible configurations and
we simply aren't able to test them all. Below is a rough idea of the testing
status of various configurations to date. If you need a certain configuration,
I would be happy to help you get it running. Please let me know.
LP INTERFACES
=============
**The native interfaces for OSL and CPLEX have now been deprecated**
**Only LP solvers with OSI interfaces are supported**
Well tested: CPLEX, OSL, CLP
Well tested, but have some stability or other issues: GLPK
Compiled, but not well tested: SPX
TESTED CONFIGURATIONS
=====================
SEQUENTIAL
Known configurations that build and pass unit test
- gcc 4.1 on LINUX
- gcc 3.4 on LINUX
- gcc 3.4.4 on CYGWIN in Windows XP
- gcc 3.4.4 on CYGWIN in Windows XP (-mno-cygwin)
- MSVC++ Version 8 compiler in CYGWIN using the autotools
- MSVC++ Version 8 IDE
- MSVC++ nmake Utility with Version 8 compiler
- gcc 4.0 on Mac OSX 10.4.8
- gcc 4.1 on Solaris x86
SHARED MEMORY PARLLEL (OpenMP)
Builds and passes unit test with pre-release version of gcc 4.2 and CLP on
LINUX (earlier versions of GCC do not support OpenMP and cannot be used to
build a shared-memory version of SYMPHONY)
DISTRIBUTED MEMORY PARALLEL (PVM)
Known configurations that build and pass unit test
- gcc 4.1 on LINUX with PVM
- gcc 3.4 on LINUX with PVM
APPLICATIONS
============
SYMPHONY (used as a generic MILP solver): Well tested.
MATCH (matching): Tested, but not very extensively.
MPP (mixed postman problem): Tested, but not very extensively.
VRP (vehicle routing problem): Well tested.
CNRP (capacitates network routing problem): Well tested.
MCKP (multi criteria knapsack problem): Well tested.
SPP (set partitioning problem): Tested, but not very extensively.
SPP+CUTS (set partitioning problem with cutting planes): Tested, but not very
extensively.
CUT GENERATORS
==============
Cut generators are supplied by the Cut Generation Library (CGL). The cut
generators that are turned on by default have been well tested. Two cut
generators that are part ofthe CGL are turned off by default because of known
issues. These are lift and project cuts and the simple rounding cuts. The
generator for Gomory cuts works well, but has somenumerical issues. We found a
few cases where the optimal solution was not found when using the Gomory cut
generator, especially in combination with CPLEX. If the solver is not
performing as it should, try turning off some of the cut generators to see if
that fixes the problem.
EXTERNAL COIN-OR LIBRARIES
==========================
SYMPHONY 5.1 works with the following stable versions of other COIN-OR
libraries
BuildTools 0.5
CoinUtils 1.0
Cgl 0.5
Clp 1.3
Osi 0.95
MsVisualStudio 1.0
*******************************************************************************
* SUPPORT *
*******************************************************************************
LIST SERVE
There is a list serve for SYMPHONY users. To subscribe, go to
http://list.coin-or.org/mailman/listinfo/coin-symphony
AUTHORS
SYMPHONY was jointly developed by Ted Ralphs (ted@lehigh.edu) and Laci Ladanyi
(ladanyi@us.ibm.com). Menal Guzelsoy (megb@lehigh.edu) and Ashutosh Mahajan
(asm4@lehigh.edu) have been instrumental in development since version 5.0.
BUG REPORTS
To report a bug please file a ticket at
https://projects.coin-or.org/SYMPHONY/newticket
Please note the version of SYMPHONY you are using when filing the ticket.
|