# INSTALL file for Freecell Solver

2018-10-04
Shlomi Fish shlomif@cpan.org
SF

## Quick and Dirty Compilation

Freecell Solver was converted to use CMake ( http://www.cmake.org/ ) starting from version 2.12.0. You’ll need to install CMake version 3 or later from your distribution’s repository or from its source distribution.

If you are building from the repository, you also need to put the module `Shlomif_Common.cmake` from https://bitbucket.org/shlomif/shlomif-cmake-modules in the CMake path. Normally the build process will try to download it and use it for you.

Next, run:

    cmake-gui .         # For the GUI configuration applet

Or:

    ccmake .            # For the Curses-based configuration applet

With a fallback to:

    cmake .             # Non-interactive application.

This will build and install the "freecell-solver" shared library, and "fc-solve" which is the Freecell Solver executable for you.

It will also build and install the board generation program. More information about them can be found in the "board_gen" sub-directory of this distribution.

## Changing the Maximal number of Freecells or Stacks or Cards per Stack

The following parameters to the CMake script, which accept an argument, control the hard-coded parameters of the Freecell Solver executables:

- `-DMAX_NUM_FREECELLS=$NUM` - The maximal number of freecells

- `-DMAX_NUM_STACKS=$NUM` - The maximal number of stacks (columns)

- `-DMAX_NUM_INITIAL_CARDS_IN_A_STACK=$NUM` - The maximal number of initial cards per stack.

Notice that it’s very important to set the maximal number of initial cards per stack, or else it’s possible that a stack will eventually overflow.

## "Compact" States

In Compact States, the contents of the card stacks are stored inside the states, rather than in a central collection (where the states contain only pointers). Despite their name, they actually consume more memory than Indirect Stack States which are the default.

Compact states used to be faster than Indirect Stack States, but now it seems indirect stack states are at least slightly faster even for games whose stacks are not very long. If you still would wish to enable it, pass the `-DSTATES_TYPE=COMPACT_STATES` flag to CMake.

## Installing under Win32

Consult the CMake documentation for generating a Visual C++ , MinGW32 etc. compatible makefile or project.

## Testing

To test Freecell Solver, you need to:

1. Configure it.

2. Run `make install`.

3. Type `ctest -V` (or `make test` just for the verdict).

Please report any errors to me ( http://www.shlomifish.org/me/contact-me/ ).