Installation

Three routes, in the order most people want them:

With pip

pip install pounce-solver

Prebuilt wheels for Linux, macOS, and Windows (CPython 3.9+). No Rust toolchain is involved. This installs both interfaces at once:

pounce problem.nl                       # the CLI
python -c "import pounce; print(pounce.__version__)"

For Pyomo models:

pip install pyomo-pounce

import pyomo.environ as pyo
results = pyo.SolverFactory("pounce").solve(model)

Optional extras — none needed for a normal solve:

pip install "pounce-solver[jax]"     # pounce.jax autodiff frontend
pip install "pounce-solver[torch]"   # pounce.torch autodiff frontend
pip install "pounce-solver[viz]"     # debugger plots (pounce-dbg-viz)
pip install "pounce-solver[gams]"    # GAMS solver link — see gams.md

If the CLI will not start (GLIBC_2.39 not found)

Releases up to and including 0.9.0 bundled a Linux CLI built against a newer glibc than the wheel advertised, so pounce fails to exec on older distributions (Debian 12, Ubuntu 22.04, RHEL/Rocky/Alma 8 and 9, and most HPC images) with:

pounce/bin/pounce: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.39' not found

import pounce still works; only the CLI (and therefore Pyomo, which shells out to it) is affected. This is fixed for releases after 0.9.0. If you hit it, use the container or build from source below.

With a container

No toolchain and nothing installed on the host:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" ghcr.io/jkitchin/pounce:latest problem.nl
apptainer pull pounce.sif docker://ghcr.io/jkitchin/pounce:0.9.0

Both images carry the CLI, the Python API, and the Pyomo plugin. See Docker & Containers for tags, bind mounts, and a Slurm example.

From source

Prerequisites

A stable Rust toolchain. Nothing else is needed for the default pure-Rust build. Install Rust via rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

Verify the install:

rustc --version && cargo --version

Build

From the repository root:

make            # release build of the workspace
make test       # run all tests
make clippy     # lint
make doc        # rustdoc for the Rust API

Install

make install                          # installs to $HOME/.local
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr/local   # or system-wide

This drops the pounce binary into $PREFIX/bin and the libpounce_cinterface shared library into $PREFIX/lib. Make sure $HOME/.local/bin is on your PATH, then verify:

pounce --version

HSL MA57 backend (optional)

The default FERAL backend needs no external libraries. To build with the HSL MA57 linear solver instead, you need a CoinHSL install whose lib/ directory holds libcoinhsl. Point the COINHSL_DIR environment variable at it and build with the ma57 feature:

export COINHSL_DIR=/path/to/CoinHSL
cargo build -p pounce-cli --release --features ma57

The feature makes MA57 available; selecting it is a separate step, because linear_solver defaults to feral in every build:

pounce problem.nl linear_solver=ma57

Build CoinHSL from https://www.hsl.rl.ac.uk/ipopt/. MA57 is primarily useful for benchmarking against upstream Ipopt; the FERAL backend is the supported default for everyday use, and a build without --features ma57 never touches COINHSL_DIR.

Using POUNCE as a Rust library

The workspace is a set of library crates (see Algorithm & Workspace for the layout). To browse the Rust API, build and open the rustdoc:

make doc        # generates target/doc