Installing OR-Tools for Python from Binary on MacOS

Introduction

This guide explains how to install OR-Tools for Python on MacOS.

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

• MacOS 10.14.2 (Mojave) 64-bit (x86_64)

Note: OR-Tools only supports the x86_64 (also known as amd64) architecture.

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:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
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)

Python

You must have Python 2 or Python 3.7+ installed. We recommend Python 3.

Python 3

To install Python 3.7+, 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

Python 2

To install Python 2.7, open a terminal window and enter:

brew install python@2
python2 -m pip install -U --user wheel six

Then verify your installation:

python2 --version
python2 -c "import platform; print(platform.architecture()[0])"
python2 -m pip --version

If necessary, replace python by python3 or python2 as appropriate.

Note: python should point to Homebrew’s Python 2.7.x (if installed), and the macOS system Python otherwise. Check out brew info python if you wish to add Homebrew’s 3.x python to your PATH.

Installing OR-Tools

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

python -m pip install -U --user ortools

Or, to install it system wide:

sudo python -m pip install -U ortools

Uninstalling OR-Tools

To uninstall OR-Tools, issue the following commands:

python -m pip uninstall ortools

Validate your installation

To test your Python installations, open a terminal window. Then enter the following command:

python -c "from ortools.linear_solver import pywraplp"

If it runs successfully, you are ready to get started with OR-Tools.