General Configuration and Installation Instructions for COIN projects

Note that these project webpages are based on Wiki, which allows webusers to modify the content to correct typos, add information, or share their experience and tips with other users. You are welcome to contribute to these project webpages. To edit these pages or submit a ticket you must first ​register and login.

These webpages are intended to give users as well as developers of many COIN projects information on how to use and modify the COIN code. These pages apply to COIN projects that are using subversion as the source code repository and autotools for configuring, building and installing.

The COIN projects that these pages apply to are:

• Alps
• Bonmin
• Cbc
• Cgl
• Clp
• CoinUtils
• Dylp
• Ipopt
• Osi
• Smi
• Vol

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Information For Users

Minimal Download and Installation Instructions

NOTE: Please check the current issues page before trying to configure and compile the code.

The very short version of the download and installation instructions for UNIX-like system (including Linux and Cygwin) is this:

1. Get the code via subversion using the following command (where Pkg needs to be replaced by the name of the COIN package you want to install, e.g., Cbc)

   svn co https://projects.coin-or.org/svn/Pkg/trunk  Coin-Pkg
   

2. Go into the downloaded directory and run the configuration script

   cd Coin-Pkg; ./configure
   

   Make sure the last line of output says that the configuration was successful.
3. Compile the code

   make
   

4. Test the compiled code

   make test
   

5. Install the generated libraries, executables, and header files

   make install
   

This will create subdirectories bin, lib, and include in the download directory with the product of the compilation.

The configure script has many customization features. To see them, type ./configure --help. In particular, to install a COIN package at a location accessible to all users on your machine, you can run ./configure --prefix=/usr/local.

The COIN-OR FAQ page has a brief explanation of ​how to use a Windows subversion client to download the code. The ​MSVisualStudio project describes how several COIN-OR projects can be built with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Detailed Information

The above commands might work in most cases, but it is probably a good idea to read the information on the home page for the desired COIN project, and to learn more using the links below.

• Obtaining the source code
• Understanding the directory structure
• Preparing the compilation
• Compiling and installing the package
• Linking your code with COIN libraries
• Troubleshooting
• CoinAll -- downloading all of the COIN Projects?

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Information for project managers

The information behind the links below is mostly intended for people working on COIN projects, i.e., project managers as well as contributors.

• Understanding subversion
  • Basic subversion commands
  • Basic usage of subversion on Windows with TortiseSVN client?
  • Dealing with branches and tags
  • Handling subversion externals

• Working with the GNU autotools
  • Introduction to the Autotools in COIN
  • Basic structure of the configure.ac file
  • The package base directory configure.ac file
  • The project directory configure.ac file
  • Introduction of Automake concepts
  • The package base directory Makefile.am file
  • The Makefile.am file in the project main subdirectory
  • Makefile.am files in source directories
  • Test directory Makefile.am file
  • Using the correct version of the Autotools

• Page for sharing hints and suggestions with other project managers

More Information

If you have questions or problems related to the usage of subversion and the Autotools, please submit a Ticket to the BuildTools project, using the "New Ticket" link on top of this page (after ​logging in).