Using OR-Tools Pip for Python

 Introduction

This guide gets you started with OR-Tools in Python with a simple working example.

Although these instructions might also work on other Linux variants, we have only tested them on machines meeting the following requirements:

  • Alpine Edge 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Centos 7 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Debian SID 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Debian 11 (bullseye) 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Fedora 38 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Fedora 37 64-bit (x86_64)
  • OpenSuse Leap 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Ubuntu 24.04 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)

Prerequisites

The following sections describe the prerequisites for installing OR-Tools.

Python

You must have Python 3.8+ installed.

To install Python 3.8+, open a terminal window and enter:

Alpine

apk add python3-dev py3-pip py3-wheel

Centos

sudo yum install -y python3 python3-devel python3-pip numpy

Debian

sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

Fedora

sudo dnf install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-venv

Fedora

sudo dnf install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-venv

OpenSUSE

sudo zypper install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-wheel

Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

You can check your Python 3 installation using:

python3 --version
python3 -c "import platform; print(platform.architecture()[0])"
python3 -m pip --version

Installing OR-Tools

Assuming the prerequisite software is installed on your Linux, take the following steps:

python3 -m pip install -U --user ortools

Or, to install it system wide:

sudo python3 -m pip install -U ortools

Uninstalling OR-Tools

To uninstall OR-Tools, issue the following commands:

python3 -m pip uninstall ortools

Get the Python example code

The example code is located in the python_or-tools repository.

  1. Download the repository as a zip file and extract it, or clone the repository:

    git clone -b v9.11 --depth 1 https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools

  2. Change to the examples directory:

    cd python_or-tools

Run the example

From the python_or-tools directory:

Run the binary using:

python3 basic_example.py

Congratulations! You've just run an application with OR-Tools, you are ready to get started with OR-Tools.