Installing PuLP at Home

PuLP is a free open source software written in Python. It is used to describe optimisation problems as mathematical models. PuLP can then call any of numerous external LP solvers (CBC, GLPK, CPLEX, Gurobi, etc.) to solve this model and then use Python commands to manipulate and display the solution.

Warning

CBC is not included inside the PuLP wheel. The legacy PULP_CBC_CMD solver (which pointed at a CBC binary shipped inside the package) has been removed. To use CBC with PuLP:

  • run python -m pip install pulp[cbc] so the optional cbcbox dependency is installed (PuLP will locate its CBC automatically), or

  • install CBC yourself and put cbc (Linux/macOS) or cbc.exe (Windows) on your PATH,

then use COIN_CMD or call prob.solve() when CBC is the default available backend. Without any solver, you will get PulpError: No solver available.

Installing from PyPI

PuLP requires Python 3.9 or newer.

Recommended install (PuLP and CBC via cbcbox):

python -m pip install pulp[cbc]

With uv:

uv pip install "pulp[cbc]"

Installing only pulp (no extras) gives the modeler only; you must provide your own cbc on PATH or install another solver and pass it explicitly.

Building from source

This version of PuLP includes a Rust extension (pulp._rustcore) that implements the core model, variables, constraints, and affine expressions. The build uses maturin, which is invoked automatically when you install the package from source.

Requirements for building

  • Python 3.9 or newer

  • Rust (latest stable). Install from https://rustup.rs/

  • uv (recommended) or pip for installing the package

  • OS: Windows, macOS (x86_64, arm64), or Linux (x86_64, arm64). The Rust extension is compiled for your host platform.

Steps

  1. Clone the repository (or download and extract the source).

  2. From the project root, create a virtual environment and install in editable mode with dev dependencies and the CBC extra (needed for most tests and examples).

With uv (recommended):

uv venv
uv pip install --group dev -e ".[cbc]"

With pip:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate   # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -e ".[cbc]"

  1. Run tests to confirm the build:

    uv run python -m unittest discover -s pulp/tests -v

Installing solvers

PuLP can use a variety of solvers. CBC is typically used through COIN_CMD after pip install pulp[cbc] or when cbc is on PATH. For other solvers and configuration, see the guide on configuring solvers.