popstar <file> [options]

The first parameter to the program (and the only one strictly required) is the input file. (Section input formats describes all allowed formats.) If no option is set, the program will execute a hybrid multistart heuristic with path-relinking with 32 iterations and 10 elite solutions.

The most relevant options are:

-output <filename>

Defines the name of the file to which the solutions should be output. If this option is not used, the solution itself (i.e., what facilities to open and how users should be assigned) will not be output, even though its value will be presented in stdout (see the output section).

-p <n>

Sets the number of centers to <n>. Some file formats allow the definition on the file itself; this command line option overrides the value present in the file.

-graspit <n>

Sets the number of multistart iterations to <n> (the default is 32).

-elite <n>

Sets the number of elite solutions to <n> (the default is 10). If <n> = 0, no path-relinking will be executed.

There are other options, but their use is more technical and are unlikely to improve the performance of the algorithm.