Build architecture

This version of PuLP ships a Rust extension that implements the core data structures and logic. The Python package wraps this extension and adds solver APIs, file I/O, and high-level helpers.

Rust extension (pulp._rustcore)

The extension is built with PyO3 and provides:

  • Model — Container for variables, constraints, and objective (backed by ModelCore in Rust).

  • Variable — Handle to a variable (name, bounds, category, value, reduced cost).

  • Constraint — Handle to a constraint (name, sense, RHS, dual value, slack).

  • AffineExpr — Affine expression (linear combination of variables plus constant) used for the objective and for constraint left-hand sides.

Enums such as Category (continuous/integer/binary), Sense (≤ / = / ≥), and ObjSense (minimize/maximize) are also defined in Rust and exposed to Python.

The extension is built as a native library (e.g. _rustcore.cp312-win_amd64.pyd on Windows) and imported as pulp._rustcore.

Build system

  • maturin is the build backend (see pyproject.toml). It compiles the Rust crate and produces a wheel that includes the extension.

  • Rust toolchain (stable) is required when building from source. Install via https://rustup.rs/.

  • Python 3.9+ is required. The wheel is built for the active Python version and platform (Windows, macOS, Linux; x86_64 and arm64 where applicable).

There is no need to run maturin manually when installing: pip install -e . or uv pip install -e . invokes the build backend, which runs maturin and compiles the Rust code.