source: branches/devel/Cbc/README @ 577

NOTE: The information in this file might not yet include the changes introduced with the switch to the autotools.

To build Cbc see INSTALL file

To use Cbc you need the Cbc, Cgl, Coin and Osi libraries.  You
will probably need Clp as well.

If you are using Clp as your solver then you can make the unitTest and standalone executable by doing

make solve in this directory.  This creates an executable solve.

solve takes various options - try solve and then ? to get some idea of what you can do.
solve file will do branch and bound if file is integer mps file and will do dual if non-integer mps file
options start with - (although the code will also try without -) e.g.

solve file -cuts root -solve will import file and do branch and bound with cuts only at root

- by itself goes to interactive mode.

If you wish to use the Cbc solver from AMPL there is a bit of work involved.  You
will need to uncomment COIN_ampl in Makefiles/makefile.location - and also
download the ampl glue code - see Makefiles/Makefile.location for http.  Then solve
will assume it is being called from AMPL if the first two arguments are xxx.nl -AMPL.
Of course "solve" is not a good name (cbc is much better but already used) so copy
"solve" to "cbc" in ampl accessible path.
Options may be set by e.g. option cbc_options "cuts=off log=0"
No keywords are recognized by ampl parsing so above format should be used. 
All options are as found by "cbc(solve) " and then ?
Current ugliness is that ampl glue code assumes "=" (on undefined keywords) so to maximize you
would have to say "maximize=".  I will add to AMPL keywords if this interface gets much use.

If you are not using Clp then fewer options are available - 
make the unitTest and standalone executable by doing

make unitTest in this directory.  This creates an executable cbc.

Running cbc gives you some hints.  Just do 

cbc -
 
and then try ? or setting various stuff.

On Linux cbc can do file completion and line editing.  

There are samples in ./Samples.  Use make DRIVER=xxxxxx where xxxxxx.cpp is driver file to
create an executable - testit.

The two simplest samples are:

sample.cpp  This is a simple program to read an mps file.and solve the
                integer problem.

sample2.cpp.  This is the benchmark driver for the competition.  It overrides
                the default branching methods and adds a (mildly useless)
                heuristic.  It is intended to show you how to add your
                own methods.  See CbcCompareUser.hpp for how to modify
                choice of node from tree.  See CbcBranchUser.?pp for
                how to modify which variable is chosen at a node.  For
                more complex stuff such as new types of branches see
                CbcBranchBase and CbcBranchActual in directory Cbc.
                To see how to add heuristics see CbcHeuristicUser.?pp.

                To add cut generators - define them as in Cgl and then just
                add them as in sample2.cpp

                The script "runtimes" in Samples directory will
                run some or all of test set.  The version checked in
                does some - just take off # to run.  An optional time
                in minutes can be passed.