Installation

Python 3.10+ environment

The use of a virtual environment is recommended, and you will need to ensure that the environment use a Python version greater than 3.10. This can be achieved for instance either by using conda, or by using pyenv (or pyenv-win on windows) and venv module, or by using uv.

The following examples show how to create a virtual environment with Python version 3.12 with the mentioned methods.

With conda

conda create -n do-env python=3.12
conda activate do-env

With pyenv + venv

pyenv install 3.12
pyenv shell 3.12
python -m venv do-venv
source do-venv/bin/activate  # do-venv\Scripts\activate on windows

With uv

uv venv do-venv --python 3.12
source do-venv/bin/activate  # do-venv\Scripts\activate on windows

Pip install discrete-optimization library

Install discrete-optimization with pip:

pip install discrete-optimization

or via the faster uv pip if you already installed uv:

uv pip install discrete-optimization

You can also make full use of uv project management capabilities by using uv add. Please refer to uv doc.

Optional dependencies

Package extras

Several extras are available:

gurobi: to use gurobi based solvers. It will install the python api for gurobi with a minimal license which does not allow to use it on “real” models. You need to install an appropriate license if you want to make full use of it.
quantum: to use qiskit based solvers.
toulbar: to use pytoulbar2 based solvers.
optuna: to use our utility functions to generate and launch optuna studies (hyperparameters optimization).
dashboard: to use the d-o dashboard

You can install them all via:

pip install discrete-optimization[gurobi, qunatum, toulbar, optuna, dashboard]

Minizinc 2.8+

If you want to use discrete-optimization solvers based on minizinc, you need to install it (version greater than 2.8) and update the PATH environment variable so that it can be found by Python. See minizinc documentation for more details.

Tip: You can easily install minizinc from the command line, which can be useful when on cloud. In order to make life easier to cloud users, we reproduce below the necessary lines. Please be careful that this is not an official documentation for minizinc and that the following lines can stop working without notice as we do not test them automatically.

Linux command line

On a Linux distribution, you can use the bundled minizinc AppImage.

If FUSE is available:

mkdir minizinc_install
curl -o minizinc_install/minizinc -L https://github.com/MiniZinc/MiniZincIDE/releases/download/2.8.5/MiniZincIDE-2.8.5-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x minizinc_install/minizinc
export PATH="$(pwd)/minizinc_install/":$PATH
minizinc --version

Else, this is still possible by extracting the files:

mkdir minizinc_install
cd minizinc_install
curl -o minizinc.AppImage -L https://github.com/MiniZinc/MiniZincIDE/releases/download/2.8.5/MiniZincIDE-2.8.5-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x minizinc.AppImage
./minizinc.AppImage --appimage-extract
cd ..
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(pwd)/minizinc_install/squashfs-root/usr/lib/":$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH="$(pwd)/minizinc_install/squashfs-root/usr/bin/":$PATH
minizinc --version

MacOs command line

mkdir minizinc_install
curl -o minizinc.dmg -L https://github.com/MiniZinc/MiniZincIDE/releases/download/2.8.5/MiniZincIDE-2.8.5-bundled.dmg
hdiutil attach minizinc.dmg
cp -R /Volumes/MiniZinc*/MiniZincIDE.app minizinc_install/.
export PATH="$(pwd)/minizinc_install/MiniZincIDE.app/Contents/Resources":$PATH
minizinc --version

Windows command line

Works on Windows Server 2022 with bash shell:

mkdir minizinc_install
curl -o minizinc_setup.exe -L https://github.com/MiniZinc/MiniZincIDE/releases/download/2.8.5/MiniZincIDE-2.8.5-bundled-setup-win64.exe
cmd //c "minizinc_setup.exe /verysilent /currentuser /norestart /suppressmsgboxes /sp"
export PATH="~/AppData/Local/Programs/MiniZinc":$PATH
minizinc --version

Gurobi

If you want to try solvers using gurobi, install gurobi with its python binding (gurobipy) and an appropriate license.

NB: If you just do pip install gurobipy, you get a minimal license which does not allow to use it on “real” models.