SDPA(1)

🌸 NAME

okay so bestie, meet sdpa — the High-performance software package for SemiDefinite Programs. that's her. that's the whole name section. she ate and left no crumbs 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS

sdpa DataFile OutputFile [InitialPtFile] [-pt parameters] [-dimacs]
[-numThreads  numThreads]
sdpa [options] files...
sdpa --version

like. three whole moods. pick your fighter 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION

sdpa — short for "SDPA (SemiDefinite Programming Algorithm)" — is literally one of the most efficient and stable software packages for solving SDPs, and she does it based on the primal-dual interior-point method. no cap. she's that girl. ✨

and what even is an SDP (SemiDefinite Program), you ask? bestie she's everywhere:

• financial engineering 💸
• machine learning 🧠
• control theory 🎛️
• sensor network problem 📡
• quantum chemistry ⚗️
• quantum information 🔮
• combinatorial optimization 🧩
• polynomial optimization 📈
• and so on, and so on, the list is giving endless

if you want further information on SDP and SDPA (the lore, the backstory, the whole cinematic universe), it lives at http://sdpa.sourceforge.net/ 🌈

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💅 OPTIONS

okay so there are three option types and we are going to go through every single one because we do not skip. periodt.

🎀 option type 1

sdpa DataFile OutputFile [InitialPtFile] [-pt parameters] [-dimacs]
[-numThreads numThreads]

and the parameters situation is:

• 0 — default
• 1 — fast (unstable) 😭
• 2 — slow (stable) 🫶

the examples, verbatim, in all their glory:

• example1-1: sdpa example1.dat example1.result
• example1-2: sdpa example1.dat-s example1.result
• example1-3: sdpa example1.dat example1.result example1.ini
• example1-4: sdpa example1.dat example1.result -pt 2
• example1-5: sdpa example1.dat example1.result -dimacs
• example1-6: sdpa example1.dat example1.result -numThreads 4

🌈 option type 2

sdpa [option filename]+

and the flags, laid out exactly how the page lays them out:

• -dd : data dense
• -ds : data sparse
• -id : init dense
• -is : init sparse
• -o : output
• -p : parameter
• -pt : parameters , 0 default, 1 fast (unstable), 2 slow (stable)

examples again, no edits, no notes:

• example2-1: sdpa -o example1.result -dd example1.dat
• example2-2: sdpa -ds example1.dat-s -o example1.result -p param.sdpa
• example2-3: sdpa -ds example1.dat-s -o example1.result -pt 2
• example2-4: sdpa -ds example1.dat-s -o example1.result -dimacs
• example2-5: sdpa -ds example1.dat-s -o example1.result -numThreads 4

👑 option type 3

sdpa --version

to print out version and exit. that's it. she's a one-trick pony but the trick is iconic. 💖

💜 PARAMETER_FILE

the parameter file is decided by the following priority, and yes we are doing all four, in order, no skipping:

1. the file assigned by the -p option of option type 2. for option type1, this is skipped.
2. ./param.sdpa — for option type2, this is skipped.
3. /usr/share/sdpa/param.sdpa
4. Default parameter

🍓 -dimacs

printout dimacs information incurring additional computation cost. (yes bestie, it costs extra compute — read the line, it's right there 🫶)

🧚 -numThreads

number of pthreads for internal computation. threads! she multitasks! 💅

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👑 AUTHOR

SDPA was written by SDPA Project <sdpa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>.

this manual page was written by Makoto Yamashita <Makoto.Yamashita@comp.isct.ac.jp>.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this is SDPA(1) from the General Commands Manual, dated July 28, 2011. go solve some semidefinite programs. slay. 💖✨🎀