Building from source OR-Tools Python on MacOS

  • This guide provides instructions for building OR-Tools from source code on MacOS for Python, with prerequisites including Xcode Command Line Tools, Homebrew, C++ tools, SWIG, and Python 3.8+.

  • You can download the stable or main branch of OR-Tools source code from GitHub, configure the build using CMake, and optionally integrate third-party solvers like SCIP, Gurobi, CPLEX, GLPK, or XPRESS.

  • To build, test, and install OR-Tools, use the provided CMake commands, and for a clean reinstall, remove the build directory and reconfigure.

  • If you do not intend to modify the source code or utilize third-party solvers, the recommended approach is package installation, as documented in the binary installation guide.

Introduction

This guide explains how to build from source OR-Tools, with support for Python, on MacOS.

Unless you plan to modify the source code or use a third-party solver with OR-Tools, we recommend the package installation.

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

  • MacOS 13.0.1 (Ventura) Intel 64-bit (x86_64)
  • MacOS 13.0.1 (Ventura) M1 (arm64)

Prerequisites

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

Xcode Command Line Tools

You must install the Xcode Command Line Tools. To do so, open the Terminal, found in /Applications/Utilities/, and enter:

xcode-select --install

Click “Install” to download and install Xcode Command Line Tools. You don’t need to "Get Xcode" from the App Store. If you have a slow Internet connection, it may take many minutes.

Verify that you’ve successfully installed Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select -p

You should see:

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

Homebrew

To install the remaining prerequisites, we recommend first installing the "missing package manager for macOS" otherwise known as Homebrew. To do so, open a terminal window and enter:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
brew update

To verify that you’ve successfully installed brew:

brew --version

You should see:

Homebrew 1.6.9-8-g25542d7
Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision 0e0c84; last commit 2018-06-20)

C++ tools

To install C++ tools, open a terminal window and enter:

brew install cmake wget pkg-config

SWIG tool

To install SWIG tool, open a terminal window and enter:

brew install swig

Python

You must have Python 3.8+ installed.

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

brew install python
python3 -m pip install -U --user wheel six

Then verify your installation:

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

Download the source code

There are two distinct branches of the OR-Tools source code on GitHub: stable and main.

The stable branch has been thoroughly tested and should work flawlessly on all supported platforms.
The main branch is where the latest updates and improvements have been applied; it's more current, but less stable.

Download the stable source code

You can get the stable source code for OR-Tools in either of the following ways:

  • Clone the stable branch by entering:

    git clone https://github.com/google/or-tools

  • Download the latest release in a compressed file, by clicking the Clone or download button in GitHub. image of clone or download button

Download the main source code

To retrieve the source code from the main branch, enter:

git clone -b main https://github.com/google/or-tools

Download previous releases

You can get the source code for previous releases in either of the following ways:

  • Download a previous release from the GitHub release page.

  • Assuming you have already created a local repository (by git clone), you can check out a specific release using a Git tag. For example, to work with the v9.12 release instead of the main branch, enter the following commands in your local repo:

    git fetch --all --tags --prune
git checkout tags/v9.12 -b v9.12

Configure the build

Before building OR-Tools, you'll need to configure the CMake build system generator.

Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you extracted the files. Then enter:

cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_DEPS=ON -DBUILD_PYTHON=ON

Checkout the CMake documentation for details.

Using SCIP

Since v7.8, SCIP is now integrated so you won't have to install it manually.

Using Gurobi

Gurobi is now pre-integrated. When needed, at runtime, OR-Tools will search for the Gurobi shared library in the default install path of the Gurobi installers on MAC OS X and Windows, or by using the GUROBI_HOME environment variable.

Using an optional third-party MIP solver

You can also use OR-Tools with any of the following optional third-party MIP solvers whose support is disabled by default:

Please take a look at this documentation for details.

Build the source code

To build the source code, open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you extracted the files. Then enter the following command to compile OR-Tools:

cmake --build build --config Release --target ALL_BUILD -j -v

Checkout the CMake documentation for details.

Test the source code

You can check that everything is running correctly by entering:

cmake --build build --config Release --target RUN_TESTS -v

This runs examples for OR-Tools. If all the examples run successfully, you are ready to get started with OR-Tools.

Cleaning the build files

If you need to re-install OR-Tools, the command:

rm -r build

will remove all compiled dependencies. This can be useful for resetting to a clean state.

Then re-enter the commands:

cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_DEPS=ON -DBUILD_PYTHON=ON
 

cmake --build build --config Release --target ALL_BUILD -j -v

Installing OR-Tools on your operating system

You can install OR-Tools for Python on your operating system by entering:

cmake --build build --config Release --target install -v