R TSP Package with Concorde - r

Question

I have the TSP package installed and working.
I downloaded all the files from the Concorde (TSP/Waterloo) websites. I tried different versions. Even extracted all the files.
I put the files in my R working directory.
Finally, when running concorde_path() it was able to pick up that the files are found.
However, when I run concorde_help() I receive an error.
I got a cygwin1.dll not found error. So I installed cygwin.
I still get an error.
I tried putting all the concorde files in the bin folder of cygwin (where cygwin1.dll lives) and pointing the R working directory and the concorde_path() there and I get a status 123 error.
I also have the Concorde windows app downloaded and it does work. I found another post suggesting that it has to work in order for it to work within R.
Running R/Rstudio under Windows
Thank you for any suggestions and help you may have.

Answer 1

I just got this working for TSPMap so hopefully it helps someone out.
Concorde for windows doesn't appear to have a command line interface that works with the TSP package.. This is where Cygwin comes in because that version of concorde can work on the command line and interface with the TSP package.
You really need to get it working in cygwin first.. So you need to get cygwin console up and running.
If you've got the console working you can download and gunzip the concorde binary and test that.. Just running ./concorde.exe within cygwin should display the help for the program.
Another test is to use the following test file and see if that works through concorde.
NAME: TEST
TYPE: TSP
DIMENSION: 6
EDGE_WEIGHT_TYPE: EXPLICIT
EDGE_WEIGHT_FORMAT: FULL_MATRIX
EDGE_WEIGHT_SECTION:
0 1 2 1 1 2
1 0 1 2 2 1
2 1 0 1 2 1
1 2 1 0 1 2
1 2 2 1 0 1
2 1 1 2 1 0
Once you get that working in cygwin, it is time to try from the command line to see if cygwin is integrated with windows. If that is fine R shouldn't have an issue with it.
This command should display the concorde command line help if your system can recognise it.
t1<- try(system("c:/cygwin64/home/davisst5/concorde.exe"))
This one tests that concorde_path should work..
concorde_path("c:/cygwin64/home/davisst5/")
found: concorde.exe
If you've done all of this already and still having issues, its possible that there might be a 32/64 bit version problem where either R or cygwin is running in a different mode and cannot call the other properly (which might be a source of the dll issues).. I've got RGui in 64 bit and Cygwin in 64 bit.. One tutorial I read said that it was critically important to install 32 bit cygwin to make it work, so thats possibly why.

Answer 2

I followed the answer given by "Stephen Davison" above. However, I still got the cygwin1.dll file missing error. I had cygwin 32 bit installed in C drive. What I did is that I get the cygwin1.dll file from the C:\cygwin\bin folder and paste it in my R working directory, which is E:\RA\Concorde_Code
Then in my R-studio (64 bit installed), I ran the following code to check whether the Concorde is working or not
concordePath = "E:/RA/Concorde_Code/"
concorde_path(concordePath)
It says the following
found: concorde concorde.exe
Then I ran the following code
concorde_help()
It gave me following output
The following options can be specified in solve_TSP with method "concorde" using clo in control:
/Concorde_Code/concorde
Usage: /Concorde_Code/concorde [-see below-] [dat_file]
-B do not branch
-C # maximum chunk size in localcuts (default 16)
-d use dfs branching instead of bfs
-D f edgegen file for initial edge set
-e f initial edge file
-E f full edge file (must contain initial edge set)
-f write optimal tour as edge file (default is tour file)
-F f read extra cuts from file
-g h be a grunt for boss h
-h be a boss for the branching
-i just solve the blossom polytope
-I just solve the subtour polytope
-J # number of tentative branches
-k # number of nodes for random problem
-K h use cut server h
-M f master file
-m use multiple passes of cutting loop
-n s problem location (just a name or host:name, not a file name)
-o f output file name (for optimal tour)
-P f cutpool file
-q do not cut the root lp
-r # use #x# grid for random points, no dups if #<0
-R f restart file
-s # random seed
-S f problem file
-t f tour file (in node node node format)
-u v initial upperbound
-U do not permit branching on subtour inequalities
-v verbose (turn on lots of messages)
-V just run fast cuts
-w just subtours and trivial blossoms
-x delete files on completion (sav pul mas)
-X f write the last root fractional solution to f
-y use simple cutting and branching in DFS
-z # dump the #-lowest reduced cost edges to file xxx.rcn
-N # norm (must specify if dat file is not a TSPLIB file)
0=MAX, 1=L1, 2=L2, 3=3D, 4=USER, 5=ATT, 6=GEO, 7=MATRIX,
8=DSJRAND, 9=CRYSTAL, 10=SPARSE, 11-15=RH-norm 1-5, 16=TOROIDAL
17=GEOM, 18=JOHNSON
This confirmed that Concorde is properly installed and working.
After the installation, I ran the TSP code to check the Concorde working using following code
tour_test <- solve_TSP(tsp_test, method = "concorde")
It is working fine now. I got the following output
Used control parameters:
clo =
exe = E:\RA\Concorde_Code\/concorde
precision = 6
verbose = TRUE
keep_files = FALSE
/Concorde_Code/concorde -x -o file225841777aa0.sol file225841777aa0.dat
Host: Pasha Current process id: 1193
Using random seed 1586547969
Problem Name: TSP
Generated by write_TSPLIB (R-package TSP)
Problem Type: TSP
Number of Nodes: 6
Explicit Lengths (CC_MATRIXNORM)
Optimal Solution: 60000.00
Total Running Time: 0.01 (seconds)