Solver baron is a global nonlinear solver based on the BARON solver by

Nikolaos V. Sahinidis and co-authors. See

http://archimedes.cheme.cmu.edu/?q=baron
http://www.minlp.com/

For much more detail on BARON, including pointers to papers, see the
accompanying baron_manual.pdf.

It is most convenient to invoke baron with AMPL's solve command:

ampl: option solver baron;

ampl: solve;

but baron can also be run separately, with invocation syntax

baron stub [-AMPL] [keywd=[value] ...]

in which stub comes from AMPL's write command. For example,

> ampl -obfoo foo.mod foo.dat

> baron foo

demonstrates running baron separately; the ampl invocation writes file

foo.nl (stub = "foo"), which baron reads.

Command-line arguments to baron either have the form

keywd
or
keywd=value

where keywd is one of the keywords described below. Alternatively,

you can invoke baron the way AMPL's solve command does, i.e.,

baron stub -AMPL [keywd=value ...]

where stub was specified in

ampl -obstub ...

or
ampl -ogstub...

Such an invocation causes baron to read from stub.nl and to write stub.sol.

-----------------
Controlling baron
-----------------

Baron reads keywords and values from the environment (shell) variable
baron_options and from the command line. Execute

baron -?

or (if your shell requires ? to be quoted)

baron '-?'

for a summary of baron usage and

 baron -=

(or baron '-=') for a summary of keywords peculiar to the AMPL/BARON

driver "baron".

------------------
Sample Invocations
------------------

If you're using AMPL, just say

option solver baron;

solve;

If you've executed, say,

ampl -objunk junk.model junk.data

then you could say

baron junk epsr=1e-4 lsolver=minos

to force baron to use relative tolerance .0001 between the function

value at the solution returned and a lower bound thereon and to use
local solver minos. (This assumes a license for the AMPL/MINOS solver
"minos" is available.) With the Bourne shell, either of the invocations

baron_options='epsr=1e-4 lsolver=minos' baron junk

or
baron_options='epsr=1e-4 lsolver=minos'
export baron_options
baron junk

would have the same effect; within AMPL, specifying

option baron_options 'epsr=1e-4 lsolver=minos', solver baron;

solve;

would also have this effect.

-----------------------
solve_result_num values
=======================

Here is a table of solve_result_num values that "baron" can return to

an AMPL session, along with the text that appears in the associated
solve_message.

Value Message

0 optimal within tolerances

200 infeasible
300 unbounded
400 node limit reached
401 iteration limit reached
402 CPU time limit reached
500 licensing error
 501 numerical difficulties
502 interrupted (Control-C)
503 too little memory
504 terminated by BARON
505 BARON syntax error (should not happen)
506 operation not supported by BARON
507 Interrupted by Control-C

----------
INSTALLING
==========

On Linux systems, libbaron*.so (where the values of "*" depends on the

current version of BARON) needs to appear in the current directory
when baron itself appears there, or in one of the standard places
(specified by /etc/ld.so.conf on some systems), or in a directory
named in $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. An alternative is to add a short shell
script, such as

#!/bin/sh
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
exec /usr/local/bin/baronx "$@"

to a directory in your usual $PATH (and mark the script executable

with, e.g., "chmod +x baron"). The above script assumes that the
true "baron" binary has been moved to /usr/local/bin/baronx and that
the libbaron*.so file has been moved to /usr/local/lib.

MacOSX systems are similar to Linux systems, but with libbaron*.dylib

in place of libbaron*.so and with DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH in place of
LD_LIBRARY_PATH. On MacOSX systems, it suffices for the
libbaron*.dylib file to appear in the same directory as baron.

On MS Windows systems, xpress.exe and the relevant baron-*.dll must

appear somewhere in your usual search $PATH (or in the current
directory).

Questions about this stuff? Contact support@ampl.com .

----------------------------------
keyword summary: "baron -=" output
==================================

barstats Report detailed Baron statistics. No is value expected.

epsa BARON's EpsA convergence tolerance (default 1e-6). BARON stops if

the current function value f satisfies abs(f - L) <= epsa,
where L is the currently best available bound on f.

epsr BARON's EpsR convergence tolerance (default 1e-6). BARON stops if

the current function value f satisfies abs(f - L) <= abs(L*epsr),
where L is the currently best available bound on f.

filter Allow BARON to use the FilterSD solver. No value is expected.

keepsol Keep BARON's solution files. No value is expected.

lsolmsg Show solution messages for lsolver. No value is expected.

lsolver Local nonlinear solver that Baron should call.

The local solver should have an AMPL interface and, if needed,
its own license. Default: use a builtin local solver.

numsol Number of near optimal solutions to find.

Default = 1; values > 1 imply keepsol and cause suffix .numsol
on the objective and problem to be returned.

objno objective number: 1 = first (default).

optfile Name of BARON option file (not required).

outlev Whether to chatter: 0 ==> no (default), 1 ==> yes.

prfreq Report progress every prfreq nodes (default 1e6).

prloc Whether to report local searches: 0 ==> no (default), 1 = yes.

problem Problem name printed in logfile.

prtime Report progress every prtime seconds (default 30).

scratch Directory for temporary files; will be removed unless keepsol

is specified.

sumfile Name of summary file; default = none (not written).

threads Maximum threads to use (default 1) when there are integer variables.

trace Name of Baron "trace" file; none if not specified.

wantsol solution report without -AMPL: sum of

1 ==> write .sol file
2 ==> print primal variable values
4 ==> print dual variable values
8 ==> do not print solution message