If you are in a real hurry or one of the truly impatient, the following 5 command lines should get you going on most systems.
Note that the final step will install OPT++ in /usr/local, and thus, you must have root privileges in order to execute that step successfully. Be sure to examine the make.log and check.log files to ensure that the build was successful and that the regression tests passed. Report any problems via Bugzilla.
Additional options and further details about configuring and building OPT++ appear in the following sections. A brief overview of how to use OPT++ can be found in the Using OPT++ section. A more extensive tutorial can be found in the Setting up and Solving an Optimization Problem section.
./configure
This uses the default settings, and the resulting configuration can be found in the "config.log" and "config.status" files.
There are a number of options that you can set during the configuration process. Each requires adding a flag to the configure command. You can add as many flags as required to obtain the desired configuration. The most useful and common configuration options for OPT++ are described below.
Generally useful configuration commands
There are a number of options that you can set during the configuration process. To see them all, you can use the command
./configure --help
If you wish to install OPT++ in a directory other than /usr/local, the configuration command should look something like the following:
./configure --prefix=directory_to_install_OPT++
Configuring for a particular compiler
For most operating systems, there are multiple compilers that can be used. The default configure behavior is to use the GNU compilers if they are installed on your system. If not, configure will search for a number of other common compilers. This behavior can be overridden by setting the CXX, CC, and F77 environment variables. If these variables are set, those are the compilers that will be used. There are two ways to specify the values of CXX, CC, and F77 to configure.
./configure CXX=<C++ compiler> CC=<C compiler> F77=<F77 compiler>
Note that if these compilers do not appear in your path, you must specify the full path.
export CXX=<C++ compiler>
export CC=<C compiler>
export F77=<F77 compiler>
to set these variables. If you are using csh or tcsh, do
setenv CXX <C++ compiler>
setenv CC <C compiler>
setenv F77 <F77 compiler>
As in the first case, you must specify the full path if the compilers do not already appear in your path. Then simply, type
./configure
Configuring for a particular BLAS library
OPT++ makes use of a few BLAS routines. At the configure stage, it will search for a BLAS library on your system. The default behavior is to look for the following libraries (depending on the platform you are building on): ATLAS library, PhiPACK library, Alpha CXML library, Alpha DXML library, Sun Performance Library, SGI/CRAY SCSL library, SGIMATH library, IBM ESSL library, and generic BLAS library. (Please see the "Known Issues" section for issues associated with detecting BLAS libraries.) If it finds one of these libraries at configure time, that is the BLAS library that will be used. If none of these are found, OPT++ will fall back on its own implementation of the needed BLAS routines. If you would like to use a BLAS library other than those listed above, you can specify the name of that library by setting the BLAS_LIBS environment variable. That can be done in one of two ways.
./configure --with-blas=/path/to/blas/blaslibraryname.a
Note that you must include the name of the library.
export BLAS_LIBS=/path/to/blas/blaslibraryname.a
to set this variable. If you are using csh or tcsh, do
setenv BLAS_LIBS /path/to/blas/blaslibraryname.a
As before, you must include the name of the library. Then simply, type
./configure
Finally, if you wish to not use any BLAS library and instead use the OPT++ implementation, use the following form of configure statement:
./configure --without-blas
The default configuration builds OPT++ to run serially; however, OPT++ does have algorithms the leverage parallelism should you wish to take advantage of that capability. Parallelism is achieved through the use of MPI. The assumption is that an implementation of MPI is already installed somewhere on your system. If it is not, there are a number of open source versions you can download and install. Those under active development include:
mpich2: http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/mpich2/
openMPI: http://www.open-mpi.org/
Older versions that are only maintained include:
mpich1: http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/mpich1/
LAM MPI: http://www.lam-mpi.org/
LA-MPI: http://public.lanl.gov/lampi/
To configure for parallel use, use the command
./configure --enable-mpi
This will look for a number of both open source and vendor implementations of the MPI compilers. If none are found, the parallel version of OPT++ will not be built. If the MPI compilers are not in your path or if you wish to use a particular version of MPI, you can specify the MPI compilers to use by setting the MPICXX, MPICC, and MPIF77 environment variables. If these variables are set, those are the compilers that will be used. There are two ways to specify the values of MPICXX, MPICC, and MPIF77 to configure.
./configure --enable-mpi MPICXX=<MPI C++ compiler> \
MPICC=<MPI C compiler> MPIF77=<MPI F77 compiler>
Note that if these compilers do not appear in your path, you must specify the full path.
export MPICXX=<MPI C++ compiler>
export MPICC=<MPI C compiler>
export MPIF77=<MPI F77 compiler>
to set these variables. If you are using csh or tcsh, do
setenv MPICXX <MPI C++ compiler>
setenv MPICC <MPI C compiler>
setenv MPIF77 <MPI F77 compiler>
As in the first case, you must specify the full path if the compilers do not already appear in your path. Then simply, type
./configure --enable-mpi
The default configuration constructs a Makefile that will build OPT++ without any knowledge of NPSOL; however, OPT++ does have a wrapper for NPSOL should you wish to use it. (Please see the "Known Issues" section at the end of this file for issues associated with including NPSOL.) The assumption is that NPSOL is already installed somewhere on your system. If it is not, you must install it. You can find more information about NPSOL at http://www.sbsi-sol-optimize.com/NPSOL.htm
To configure for use with NPSOL, use the command
./configure --with-npsol
This will look for libnpsol.a and npsol.a in /usr/local/lib and /usr/lib. If it does not find one of those libraries in one of those locations, OPT++ will fall back on the default behavior of not including NPSOL. You can specify an alternate location and/or library name for NPSOL by setting the NPSOL_LIB environment variable. There are two ways to do this.
./configure --with-npsol=/path/to/npsol/npsollibraryname.a
Note that you must include the name of the library.
export NPSOL_LIB=/path/to/npsol/npsollibraryname.a
to set this variable. If you are using csh or tcsh, do
setenv NPSOL_LIB /path/to/npsol/npsollibraryname.a
As before, you must include the name of the library. Then simply, type
./configure --with-npsol
Configuring to build HTML documentation
As already mentioned, OPT++ comes with HTML documentation. The default behavior does not build the HTML documentation, but you can configure OPT++ to build it when you build the libraries. In order to do this, doxygen must be installed on your system. Doxygen is standard in most unix distributions, but if it is not installed, you can download it at http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/
To configure OPT++ to build the HTML documentation, simply type
./configure --enable-html-docs
This assumes that doxygen appears in your path. If it does not, you can specify the location using the DOXYGEN environment variable. There are two ways to do this.
./configure --enable-html-docs DOXYGEN=path/to/doxygen/doxygen
Note that you must include the name of the executable.
export DOXYGEN=path/to/doxygen/doxygen
to set this variable. If you are using csh or tcsh, do
setenv DOXYGEN path/to/doxygen/doxygen
As before, you must include the name of the executable. Then simply, type
./configure --enable-html-docs
The HTML documentation will then automatically be built when you do 'make'. To access it, use your favorite browser to open the file OPT++/docs/html/index.html.
Alternatively, you can obtain the HTML documentation by downloading the tar file, docs.tgz, from the OPT++ web page.
make
As a slight modification, we recommend directing the output to a file so the output can be more closely examined for errors. In this case, the command becomes
make >&! make.log
If there are errors in the build, please report the problem to the authors via Bugzilla. Please include the log file as well as complete information about your system (the output from the command "uname -a" and the compiler/version).
Once you have built OPT++, we recommend that you run the regression tests. You can do this by typing
make check
Again, we recommend you direct the output to a file, i.e.
make check >& check.log
The regression tests are discussed further in the Testing section. In the meantime, there are a number of other useful make options available.
In order to install OPT++ in /usr/local or another directory specified at configure time, type
make install
In order to remove object files and the libraries that were created during make, type
make clean
To remove not only the files mentioned above, but also the Makefiles and other files generated during the configure, issue the command
make distclean
A description of the regression tests follows in the next section. If, however, you are anxious to get started, a brief overview of how to use OPT++ can be found in the Using OPT++ section. A more extensive tutorial can be found in the Setting up and Solving an Optimization Problem section.
make check >& check.log
If any of the tests failed, report problems to the authors via Bugzilla. Please include the log file and the output from the failed test, as well as complete information about your system (the output from the command "uname -a" and the compiler/version).
In short, there are several things the user must provide. The first is a main routine written in C++. In this routine, the user must do the following:
In addition to the main routine, the user must provide the C++ subroutines that perform the initializations and the evaluations of the functions and the constraints. (Note: These C++ subroutines may be wrappers to C or Fortran subroutines or to system calls.) As mentioned before, there are many examples in the tests/* directories, and they are thoroughly documented in the HTML documentation.
Building your executable should be fairly straightforward. Below is the recommended set of steps to follow.
-DHAVE_STD
If the C++ compiler you are using supports namespaces, you will need
-DHAVE_NAMESPACES
If you are using the parallel version of OPT++, you will need
-DWITH_MPI
If you are using the parallel version of OPT++ with MPICH2, you may additionally need
-DMPICH_IGNORE_CXX_SEEK
-IOPT++_install_directory/include
If you did not do a "make install", the header files will almost certainly be in a directory not checked by your compiler. Thus, you will need
-IOPT++_top_directory/include -IOPT++_top_directory/newmat11
-LOPT++_install_directory/lib
If you did not do a "make install", the libraries will almost certainly be in a directory not checked by your compiler. Thus, you will need
-LOPT++_top_directory/lib/.libs
$CXX <defines> <includes> myMain.C myF.C <lib \
directory> -lopt -lnewmat -l$BLAS_LIB $FLIBS
$CXX is the C++ compiler you are using. <defines> and <includes> are the flags determined in steps 1-2. myMain.C is your main routine, and myF.C contains your function evaluations. (Note: If you have put them both in one file, you need only list that single file here.) <lib_directory> was determined in step 3. -lopt and -lnewmat are the two OPT++ libraries. $BLAS_LIB is the BLAS library you are using, and $FLIBS is the list of Fortran libraries determined in step 4.
And, of course, if you have problems, report them to the authors via Bugzilla. Please include the log file and the output from the failed test, as well as complete information about your system (the output from the command "uname -a" and the compiler/version).
A more extensive tutorial on using OPT++ can be found in the Setting up and Solving an Optimization Problem section.
| ARCH | OS | COMPILER |
i686 | Linux 2.4.21-* Linux 2.6.9-* Linux 2.6.20-* | GNU 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.4.3, 3.4.5, 3.4.6, 4.0.2, 4.1.1 Intel 8.1, 9.0 PGI 5.2, 6.0, 6.2 |
i686 | Cygwin 1.5.20-1 Cygwin 1.5.25 | GNU 3.4.4 |
x86_64 (Intel) | Linux 2.6.9-34.0.2 | GNU 3.4.5 |
x86_64 (AMD) | Linux 2.4.21-37 Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2 | GNU 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.4.3, 3.4.6 Intel 8.1, 9.0, 9.1 PGI 6.2 |
Mac PowerPC | OS X 10.3.9 | GNU 3.3 |
SUN | Solaris 2.10 | CC/cc 5.7 GNU 3.3.2 |
SGI | IRIX 6.5 | CC/cc MIPSPro 7.4.2 |
IBM | AIX 5.2 | xlC/xlc 7.0 |
It is possible the OPT++ will also build with the MinGW compilers and the Microsoft compilers; however, there are no guarantees. OPT++ is not yet stable on those platforms and has not been fully tested.
The parallel version of OPT++ has only been built and tested on an Intel Linux machine with OpenMPI 1.1, MPICH2 1.0.3, MPICH 1.2.7p1, LAM MPI 7.1.2, and LA-MPI 1.5.15; however, we expect it will work on the above-supported platforms with other versions and implementations of MPI. The GUI/XML interface has only been tested on Intel Linux machines.
We will work on correcting these issues.
We also had problems linking NPSOL with the GNU 4.0.2 compilers. We will keep working on both these issues.
Next Section: Setting up and Solving an Optimization Problem | Back to the Main Page
Last revised May 1, 2007
, last revised August 30, 2006.