Install ipopt with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, scoop, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• ipopt
• ipopt_sens

Project history

Ipopt originated in Andreas Wachter's dissertation research at Carnegie Mellon University under Lorenz T. Biegler. The original Fortran code was made open source through the COIN-OR initiative, and the project documentation says Ipopt has been developed under COIN-OR since 2002.

IBM Research later funded a C++ rewrite to make the solver easier to extend. Carl Laird helped reimplement the solver during IBM Research internships in 2004 and 2005, and the C++ 3.0.0 version was first released on August 26, 2005. The older Fortran line stopped being maintained, while the C++ line remained a COIN-OR project.

Adoption history

Ipopt spread through optimization modeling systems rather than through a single application. The project documentation lists AMPL Solver Library support, AIMMS, APMonitor, CasADi, CppAD, .NET wrappers, cyipopt, GAMS links, NEOS, JuMP, MATLAB interfaces, OPTI Toolbox, Scilab integration, and other interfaces.

Homebrew packages Ipopt with scientific-computing dependencies such as AMPL ASL, GCC, and OpenBLAS, reflecting the solver's role as a compiled numerical component used by higher-level modeling tools.

How it is used

Ipopt solves twice-continuously-differentiable nonlinear programs with bounds and constraints using an interior-point line-search filter method. Users typically call it from C, C++, Fortran, Java, AMPL, Python wrappers, Julia/JuMP, CasADi, GAMS, or other modeling layers rather than writing raw solver input by hand.

The command-line package is useful when a package manager needs to provide a solver executable and linkable library. The local ipopt.opt file convention lets users tune solver options alongside model runs without inventing a project-wide configuration service.

Why package nerds care

Ipopt is a package-nerd staple because it sits at the intersection of open-source optimization, compiled math libraries, Fortran/C++ ABI details, BLAS/LAPACK choices, and modeling-language wrappers. Its packaging quality directly affects scientific Python, Julia, AMPL, and operations-research workflows.

Timeline

• 2002: Open-source Ipopt development under COIN-OR begins.
• 2004-2005: IBM Research supports a C++ rewrite with Carl Laird's help.
• 2005: Ipopt 3.0.0 C++ version is released on August 26.
• 2006: The Wachter and Biegler implementation paper appears in Mathematical Programming.
• 2026: Homebrew formula metadata packages Ipopt 3.14.19 with OpenBLAS, AMPL ASL, and GCC dependencies.

Related projects

• COIN-OR is Ipopt's open-source home and provides the surrounding optimization project ecosystem.
• AMPL ASL, GAMSlinks, cyipopt, CasADi, JuMP, CppAD, and ADOL-C are important interfaces or companion tools.
• BLAS/LAPACK implementations and sparse linear solvers are central to practical Ipopt performance and packaging.

Sources

• Homebrew formula metadata supplies package-manager context and dependency shape.
• The GitHub README supplies the C++ authorship, 3.0.0 release date, supported language interfaces, platform support, and citation request.
• The Ipopt documentation supplies the origin story, COIN-OR history, algorithm description, license, related interfaces, and mailing-list archive.