Install Concorde with CPLEX

This tutorial will guide you through the process of building together CPLEX and Concorde. It merges together information from the here and here, applyng minor changes.

Tested on the following system: - Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS

If you test this instruction to other machines, write me an email and I will update the tutorial.

CPLEX

  1. Register for the CPLEX Academic Initiative here. Use your institutional email.
  2. Note: if you tried to register with a new institutional email, and you were already registered with an old one, you may need to clear your broswer cache and cookies.
  3. Go here and click on "Software", then choose "IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio".
  4. Click to "Download". It is possible that you have to click on it multiple times, otherwise you'll get an error.
  5. Search for "IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio 12.9 for Linux x86-64 Multilingual" (Image: CNZM2ML) and download it.
  6. Select it, scroll down, agree to the terms and conditions, and click "Download".
  7. Select a directory where to save the files and complete the download.
  8. Once the download is complete, go in the selected folder and run
chmod +x cplex_studio129.linux-x86-64.bin
sudo ./cplex_studio129.linux-x86-64.bin

The sudo command is necessary to install the software in the default directory /opt/ibm/ILOG/CPLEX_Studio129/ (which I recommend). This tutorial assume that you have used this directory.

  1. Follow the instructions and install the software. This part should be pretty straightforward and will be not commented further.

Concorde

  1. Download Concorde from the Concorde website or by directly clicking here.

  2. Extrct the files

    gunzip co031219.tgz
tar xvf co031219.tar

  3. In the file concorde/Makefile.in change the line

    LIBFLAGS = @LIBS@

    into

    LIBFLAGS = @LIBS@ -lpthread

  4. In the file concorde/TSP/Makefile.in change the line

    LIBFLAGS = @LIBS@

    into

    LIBFLAGS = @LIBS@ -lpthread -ldl

  5. Create a folder called ./concorde/cplex and copy in it the following files

    cp /opt/ibm/ILOG/CPLEX_Studio129/cplex/include/ilcplex/*h .
cp /opt/ibm/ILOG/CPLEX_Studio129/cplex/lib/x86-64_linux/static_pic/libcplex.a .
    (This command assume that you have used the default installation directory for CPLEX)
  6. Create a folder called build in the folder concorde.

  7. In the folder build run

    ../configure --prefix=/full/path/concorde/build/ --with-cplex=/full/path/concorde/cplex/
    It is important to use the full path for all the repositories.

  8. Run

    make

  9. It will fail, it's okay :) Now we have the file concorde/build/concorde.h to work on. In concorde.h use "find and replace" of any text editor to change all *new) to *NEW) and all *class) to *CLASS)

  10. In concorde/LP/lpcplex8.c replace

    #undef  CC_CPLEX_DISPLAY

    With

    #undef  CC_CPLEX_DISPLAY
#ifndef CPX_PARAM_FASTMIP
#define CPX_PARAM_FASTMIP 1017
#endif

  11. In concorde/build/, rename concorde.a to libconcorde.a

  12. In the folder build run again

    make

  13. In the folder build run

    ./TSP/concorde

    This should work, printing the help message of Concorde.