How does Gurobi interact with the user's machine?

Answered

Domagoj Vatkovic

• December 16, 2023 19:57

Hi!

I'm trying to figure out how Gurobi interacts with my machine. I've installed free version gurobipy via 'pip install' command and couldn't find any files that solve my problem. At first I thought that this interaction works via MPS / LP files and Gurobi Server, but all CPUs were utilized while solver was working. Maybe the answer is inside of encryption algorithms, but I've never dealt with them. Could you describe the process of interaction, please?

Thanks in advance!

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• 

  Riley Clement

  Gurobi Staff

  • December 18, 2023 00:07

  Hi Domagoj,

  I'm not 100% certain on what you are asking, but I'll try and answer anyway - feel free to clarify if I have it wrong.

  When you "pip install" any package, there are files that are downloaded that are required for the package to run (such as source code) and they are stored in a location that users would generally not need to be aware of.

  You can find where the gurobipy files are though by running the following:

  import gurobipy as gp
  print(gp)

  These files will include binaries for the Gurobi solver.  Some users do configure Gurobi to run on a separate machine, or in the cloud, but this requires particular types of licenses, so in your case I expect the solve is running on your machine.

  - Riley

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  Domagoj Vatkovic

  • December 18, 2023 19:33

  

  

  

  Riley, thanks for detailed explanation! There is a point that I don't understand. 

  I've found binaries with .so extension on my linux machine:

  libgurobi100.so
  gurobipy.cpython-310-x86_64-linux-gnu.so

  using this commands: 

  import gurobipy as gp
  print(gp)

  Are they binaries for the Gurobi solver? If so, is gurobi.lic file an argument for these binaries in order to recognize a type of the license?

   

  - Domagoj

   

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  Riley Clement

  Gurobi Staff

  • December 19, 2023 02:20

  Hi Domagoj,

  Yes they would be the binaries - it depends on your OS of course.

  The license file is read by Gurobi when it needs to.  You can open your license file up in a text editor, or use `cat gurobi.lic` if you're interested in inspecting it.  In some cases the license file doubles as a kind of config file, telling the machine where to retrieve a licensing token, or where to submit the optimization job.

  - Riley

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