Gecode: FlatZinc

FlatZinc is a low-level modelling language for constraint problems. It is designed to be easily interfaceable to constraint solvers (like Gecode). For more information on FlatZinc, please refer to the MiniZinc pages of the G12 project.

We provide a parser that reads a FlatZinc model from a file, and returns a Gecode Space object that represents the model. We also provide a simple front-end, an executable program that reads a FlatZinc model and prints the solution (if any) on the standard output.

FlatZinc for Gecode

Starting with Gecode version 3.2.0, the FlatZinc interpreter for Gecode is part of the standard Gecode distribution. Please check our download pages for more information on how to get a copy of Gecode.

The FlatZinc interpreter that ships with Gecode version 6.4.0 supports the FlatZinc language and the MiniZinc global constraint definitions included in the source release.

Running the parser

The executable is called fzn-gecode. You can run it with the -help switch to get an overview of how to invoke it:

$ fzn-gecode -help
Gecode FlatZinc interpreter

Gecode configuration information:
 - Version: 6.4.0

 - Variable types: BoolVar IntVar SetVar FloatVar
 - Trigonometric and transcendental float constraints: enabled
 - Thread support: enabled (8 processing units)
 - Gist support: enabled

Options for Gecode/FlatZinc:
        -help, --help, -?
                print this help message
        -n (unsigned int) default: 1
                number of solutions (0 = all)
        -p (double) default: 1
                number of threads (0 = #processing units)
        -c-d (unsigned int) default: 8
                recomputation commit distance
        -a-d (unsigned int) default: 2
                recomputation adaption distance
        -a (optional: false, 0, true, 1) default: false
                return all solutions (equal to -solutions 0)
        --free (optional: false, 0, true, 1) default: false
                no need to follow search-specification
        -decay (double) default: 1
                decay factor
        -node (unsigned int) default: 0
                node cutoff (0 = none, solution mode)
        -fail (unsigned int) default: 0
                failure cutoff (0 = none, solution mode)
        -time (unsigned int) default: 0
                time (in ms) cutoff (0 = none, solution mode)
        -interrupt (optional: false, 0, true, 1) default: true
                whether to catch Ctrl-C (true) or not (false)
        -r (int) default: 0
                random seed
        -restart (none, constant, linear, luby, geometric) default: none
                restart sequence type
        -restart-base (double) default: 1.5
                base for geometric restart sequence
        -restart-scale (unsigned int) default: 250
                scale factor for restart sequence
        -mode (solution, stat, gist) default: solution
                how to execute script
        -s (optional: false, 0, true, 1) default: false
                emit statistics
        -o (string) default: NONE
                file to send output to

Global constraint definitions for MiniZinc

The MiniZinc-to-FlatZinc converter provided by the G12 project can produce specialized FlatZinc that is targeted at a certain solver. Gecode/FlatZinc provides suitable definitions of global constraints in the directory mznlib. This directory is located in the Gecode directory installed under <prefix>/share/gecode.

In order to make the MiniZinc-to-FlatZinc converter aware of these global constraint definitions, you can either

• Copy the mznlib directory into the lib/minizinc directory of your MiniZinc installation, rename it to gecode, and use the -G gecode flag of mzn2fzn;
• Use the -I flag of mzn2fzn with the complete path to the mznlib directory;
• Use the mzn-gecode script, which will invoke mzn2fzn with the correct library paths and directly pass the resulting FlatZinc on to the Gecode FlatZinc interpreter.

FlatZinc parser skeleton

We also provide the source code of the Gecode FlatZinc parser, stripped of all Gecode-specific code. You can use it as a starting point for your own FlatZinc interpreter.

The source code archive (compatible with FlatZinc 1.5) is available here:

• flatzinc_skeleton-1.3.zip

The archive contains a README file that explains how to adapt and compile the code. If you have any questions, please contact tack@gecode.dev.