Installing Minion
=================

The main Minion website is http://github.com/minion/minion/, and this
contains links to the download page. Currently, executables with and
without debug information are provided for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Installation instructions for Windows
-------------------------------------

Download the Windows archive ``minion-x.y.z-windows.tar.gz`` and unpack,
you should find Minion executable ``minion.exe``. The executable should
work from the Windows command shell ``cmd.exe``.

Installation instructions for Mac
---------------------------------

Download the Mac archive ``minion-x.y.z-mac.tar.gz`` and unpack.

Installation instructions for Linux
-----------------------------------

Download the Linux archive ``minion-x.y.z-linux.tar.gz`` and unpack.

Compilation instructions
------------------------

If there is no executable which works on your computer, you can use the
source package (named ``minion-x.y.z-source.tar.gz``).

Minion requires a reasonably up-to-date C++ compiler, and Python. Python
is only used during the building process.

To compile, create a new directory for the build, and issue the
following commands:

.. code-block:: bash

   <path/to/source>/configure.py
   make

where ``<path/to/minion>`` is the path to the Minion distribution (the
directory which contains ``configure.py``).

The ``configure.py`` script takes a variety of options, which are listed
with ``--help``. We give the most important ones here:

-  ``--quick``: Make the *compiling* faster, at the cost of a slower
   executable
-  ``--debug``: Enable many debugging related options (this will make
   Minion much slower, but adds many extra internal checks)
-  ``--compiler``: Set the name of the compiler to use (this should be
   the name of the executable)
-  ``--assertions``: Enable internal assertion checks (implied by ``--debug``)
-  ``--sanitize``: Compile with Clang sanitizers (address, undefined behaviour)
-  ``--domains64``: Use 64-bit integers for domain values (default is 32-bit)
-  ``--wdeg yes|no``: Enable or disable weighted degree heuristics (default yes)
-  ``--constraints <list>``: Build only the named constraints, reducing binary
   size and compile time. Takes a comma-separated list of constraint names.
-  ``--buildsystem <name>``: Set the build system. Supported values are
   ``make`` (default), ``tup``, and ``bat`` (Windows batch).
-  ``--static``: Build a statically linked executable.
-  ``--extraflags <flags>``: Append extra compiler flags.
-  ``--setflags <flags>``: Override all compiler flags.
-  ``--unoptimised``: Disable compiler optimisation.
-  ``--profile``: Add profiling compiler flags.

Once the ``minion`` executable is created, you can copy it anywhere
you like.


On all platforms, Minion needs to be run from a command shell so that
the output can be seen. If you go to the Minion directory in a shell and
run the executable, it should output version information and a help
message.

Rust interface (minion-sys)
---------------------------

Minion also ships with `minion-sys`, a Rust crate that wraps the Minion
solver as a library. It provides a Rust API for building models,
registering tuple tables, running search, and collecting solutions —
including mid-search callbacks for modifying models during search.
See the ``minion-sys/README.md`` file in the source tree for details.