# Using OR-Tools Pip for Python

## Introduction

This guide gets you started with OR-Tools in Python with a simple working
example.

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


- Alpine Edge 64-bit (x86_64)
- Centos 7 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)
- Debian SID 64-bit (x86_64)
- Debian 11 (bullseye) 64-bit (x86_64)
- Fedora 38 64-bit (x86_64)
- Fedora 37 64-bit (x86_64)
- OpenSuse Leap 64-bit (x86_64)
- Ubuntu 24.10 64-bit (x86_64)
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64-bit (x86_64)

<br />

## Prerequisites

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

### Python

You must have Python 3.8+ installed.

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

### Alpine

    apk add python3-dev py3-pip py3-wheel

### Centos

    sudo yum install -y python3 python3-devel python3-pip numpy

### Debian

    sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

### Fedora

    sudo dnf install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-venv

### Fedora

    sudo dnf install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-venv

### OpenSUSE

    sudo zypper install -y python3-devel python3-pip python3-wheel

### Ubuntu

    sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

### Ubuntu

    sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

### Ubuntu

    sudo apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv

<br />

You can check your Python 3 installation using:

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

## Installing OR-Tools

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

    python3 -m pip install -U --user ortools

Or, to install it system wide:

    sudo python3 -m pip install -U ortools

### Uninstalling OR-Tools

To uninstall OR-Tools, issue the following commands:

    python3 -m pip uninstall ortools

## Get the Python example code

The example code is located in the
[python_or-tools](https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools) repository.

1. [Download the repository as a zip file](https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools/archive/v9.12.zip)
   and extract it, or clone the repository:

       git clone -b v9.12 --depth 1 https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools

2. Change to the examples directory:

       cd python_or-tools

## Run the example

From the `python_or-tools` directory:

Run the binary using:


    python3 basic_example.py

<br />

Congratulations! You've just run an application with OR-Tools, you are ready to
[get started with OR-Tools](https://developers.google.com/optimization/introduction/python).