toulbar2(1) exactly solves discrete optimization problems on graphical models

SYNOPSIS

toulbar2 [options] file

DESCRIPTION

toulbar2 solves discrete optimization problems defined by a graphical model including Cost Function Networks or Weighted Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Markov Random Fields (Maximum A Posteriori or MAP/MRF), Bayesian Networks (Maximum Probability Explanation or MPE/BN), Quadratic Pseudo Boolean Optimization Problems (QPBO or MAXCUT), Partial Weighted Maximum Satisfiability...

OPTIONS

GENERAL CONTROL

-a
Find all solutions (or count the number of zero-cost solutions in conjunction with BTD).
-D
Approximate zero-cost solution count with BTD.
-logz
Computes the log of probability of evidence (i.e. log partition function or log(Z) or PR task). Restricted to stochastic graphical models only (.uai format).
-timer=[integer]
Gives a cpu-time limit in seconds. Toulbar2 will stop after the specified amount of CPU time has been consumed. The time limit is a CPU user time limit, not wall clock time limit.

PREPROCESSING

-nopre
Deactivates all preprocessing options (equivalent to -e: -p: -t: -f: -dec: -n: -mst: -dee:).
-p=[integer]
Preprocessing only: activates variable elimination of variables of degree less than or equal to the given value (default value is -1, with no elimination performed).
-t=[integer]
Preprocessing only: simulates restricted path consistency by adding ternary cost functions on triangles of binary cost functions within a given maximum space limit (in MB).
-f=[integer]
Preprocessing only: variable elimination of functional (f=1) (resp. bijective (f=2)) variables (default value is 1)
-dec
Preprocessing only: pairwise decomposition of cost functions with arity larger than 3 into smaller arity cost functions (default: activated)
-n=[integer]
Preprocessing only: projects n-ary cost functions on all binary cost functions if n is lower than the given value (default value is 10).
-mst
Find a maximum spanning tree ordering for DAC.
-M=[integer]
Apply the Min Sum Diffusion algorithm (default is off, with a number of iterations of 0).

INITIAL UPPER BOUNDING

-l=[integer]
Activate limited discrepancy search. Use a negative value to stop search after the given absolute number of discrepancies have been explored (discrepancy bound = 4 by default).
-L=[integer]
Activate randomized (quasi-random variable ordering) search with restart (maximum number of nodes = 10000 by default)
-i=[string]
Use initial upper bound found by INCOP local search solver. The string parameter is optional, using "0 1 3 idwa 100000 cv v 0 200 1 0 0" by default with the following meaning: stoppinglowerbound randomseed nbiterations method nbmoves neighborhoodchoice neighborhoodchoice minnbneighbors maxnbneighbors neighborhoodchoice autotuning tracemode.
-x=[(,i=a)*]
Assigns variable of index i to value a (multiple assignments are separated by a comma and no space). Without any argument, a complete assignment, used as initial upper bound and as a value orderin heuristic, is read from default file "sol" or from a filename given directly as an additional input filename with ".sol" extension and without -x

TREE SEARCH ALGORITHMS AND TREE DECOMPOSITION SELECTION

-hbfs=[integer]
Use hybrid best-first search, restarting from the root after a given number of backtracks (default value is 10000).
-open=[integer]
Set hybrid best-first search limit on the number of stored open nodes (default value is -1, no limit)
-B=[integer]
Use (0) DFBB, (1) BTD, (2) RDS-BTD, (3) RDS-BTD with path decomposition instead of tree decomposition (default value is 0)
-O=[filename]
Read a variable elimination order from a file in order to build a tree decomposition (if BTD-like and/or variable elimination methods are used). The order is also used as a DAC ordering.
-O=[negativeinteger]
Build a tree decomposition (if BTD-like and/or variable elimination methods are used) and also a compatible DAC ordering using either:

(-1) maximum cardinality search ordering

(-2) minimum degree ordering

(-3) minimum fill-in ordering,

(-4) maximum spanning tree ordering (see -mst),

(-5) reverse Cuthill-Mckee ordering,

(-6) approximate minimum degree ordering

If not specified, then the order in which variables appear in the problem file is used.
-j=[integer]
Splits large clusters into a chain of smaller embedded clusters with a number of proper variables less than this number (use options "-B=3 -j=1 -svo -k=1" for pure RDS, use value 0 for no splitting) (default value is 0).
-r=[integer]
Set a limit on the maximum cluster separator size (merge cluster with its father otherwise, use a negative value for no limit, default value is -1).
-X=[integer]
Set a limit on the minimum number of proper variables in a cluster (merge cluster with its father otherwise, use a zero for no limit, default value is 0).
-E
Merges leaf clusters with their father if small local treewidth (in conjunction with option "-e").
-R=[integer]
Choose a specific cluster number as a root cluster.
-I=[integer]
Solve only a specific rooted cluster subtree (with RDS-BTD only).

NODE PROCESSING & BOUNDING OPTIONS

-e=[integer]
Perform "on the fly" variable elimination of variable with small degree (less than or equal to a specified value. Default is 3, creating a maximum of ternary cost functions).
-k=[integer]
Set the soft local consistency level enforced at preprocessing and at each node during search:

0: Node Consistency with Strong Node Inverse Consistency for global cost functions,

1: Generalized Arc Consistency

2: Directed Generalized Arc Consistency

3: Full Directed Generalized Arc Consistency

4: (weak) Existential Directed Generalized Arc Consistency

Default value is 4.
-A=[integer]
Enforce Virtual Arc Consistency at each search node with a search depth less than the given value (default value is 0 which enforces VAC only at root node).
-dee=[integer]
Enforce restricted dead-end elimination, or value pruning by dominance rule from EAC value (dee>=1 and dee<=3) and soft neighborhood substitutability, in preprocessing (dee=2 or dee=4) or during search (dee=3). Default value is 1.
-o
Ensures an optimal worst-case time complexity of Directed and Existential Arc Consistency (can be slower in practice).

BRANCHING, VARIABLE & VALUE ORDERING

-svo
Use a static variable ordering heuristic. The variable order used will be the same order as the DAC order.
-b
Use binary branching (as a default) instead of k-ary branching. Uses binary branching for interval domains and small domains and dichotomic branching for large enumerated domains (see option -d).
-c
Use binary branching with last conflict backjumping variable ordering heuristic.
-q=[integer]
Use weighted degree variable ordering heuristic if the number of cost functions is less than the given value (default value is 10000).
-var=[integer]
Searches by branching only on the first [given value] decision variables, assuming the remaining variables are intermediate variables that will be completely assigned by the decision variables (use a zero if all variables are decision variables). Default value is 0.
-m=[integer]
Use a variable ordering heuristic that preferably selects variables such that the sum of the mean (m=1) or median (m=2) cost of all incident cost functions is maximum (in conjunction with weighted degree heuristic -q). Default value is 0: unused.
-d=[integer]
Searches using dichotomic branching. The default d=1 splits domains in the middle of domain range while d=2 splits domains in the middle of the sorted domain based on unary costs.
-sortd
Sort domains in preprocessing based on increasing unary costs (works only for binary CFN).

CONSOLE OUTPUT

-help
Show default help message that toulbar2 prints when it gets no argument.
-v=[integer]
Set the verbosity level (default 0).
-Z=[integer]
Debug mode (save problem at each node if verbosity option -v=num>= 1 and -Z=num>=3).
-s
Shows each solution found during search. The solution is printed on one line, giving the value (integer) of each variable successively in increasing order of definition in the model file.

FILE OUTPUT

-w=[filename]
Writes last solution found in the specified filename (or "sol" if no parameter is given). The current directory is used as a relative path.
-z=[filename]

 Saves problem in wcsp format in filename (or "problem.wcsp" if no parameter is given).
 Writes also the graphviz .dot file and the degree distribution of the input problem.
-z=[integer]
1: saves original instance (by default), 2: saves
  after preprocessing (this option can be used in combination with -z=filename)
-x=[(,i=a)*]
Assigns variable of index i to value a (multiple assignments are separated by a comma and no space). Without any argument, a complete assignment, used as initial upper bound and as a value orderin heuristic, is read from default file "sol" or from a filename given directly as an additional input filename with ".sol" extension and without -x.

PROBABILITY REPRESENTATION AND NUMERICAL CONTROL

-precision=[integer]
Probability/real log10 precision conversion factor (a power of ten) for representing probabilities as fixed decimal point numbers. Default value is 7.
-epsilon=[float]
Approximation factor for computing the partition function (default value is 1000 representing epsilon=1/1000).

RANDOM PROBLEM GENERATION

-random=[benchprofile]
Benchmark profile must be specified as follows, where n and d are respectively the number of variable and the maximum domain size of the random problem.

bin-{n}-{d}-{t1}-{p2}-{seed}

t1 is the tightness in percentage of random binary cost functions

p2 is the number of binary cost functions to include

the seed parameter is optional

binsub-{n}-{d}-{t1}-{p2}-{p3}-{seed} binary random submodular cost functions

t1 is the tightness in percentage of random cost functions

p2 is the number of binary cost functions to include

p3 is the percentage of submodular cost functions among p2 cost functions (plus 10 permutations of two randomly-chosen values for each domain).

tern-{n}-{d}-{t1}-{p2}-{p3}-{seed}

p3 is the number of ternary cost functions

nary-{n}-{d}-{t1}-{p2}-{p3}...-{pn}-{seed}

pn is the number of n-ary cost functions

salldiff-{n}-{d}-{t1}-{p2}-{p3}...-{pn}-{seed}

pn is the number of salldiff global cost functions (p2 and p3 still being used for the number of random binary and ternary cost functions). salldiff can be replaced by gcc or regular keywords with three possible forms ( e.g., sgcc, sgccdp, wgcc).

FILE FORMATS

toulbar2 can read .wcsp, .uai, .LG, .pre, .cnf, .wcnf, .bep files. See the full user documentation for a description of these file formats.