A twisty puzzle search program to that can find algs and scrambles for WCA puzzles and a wide variety of other permutation puzzles. twsearch
is inspired by KSolve and can handle the same puzzles, often with better performance or additional functionality.
Twizzle Search powers alg search and scramble functionality for Twizzle, and can be used from the commandline or as a library in many environments.
Twizzle Search is currently implemented in C++, and we are prototyping a version in Rust for easier use with WASM/JavaScript.
- Maintainability
- We want
twsearch
to serve as a foundation for the cubing software ecosystem for a long time. - The project has multiple maintainers from the start, and we want to focus on a sustainable model for stewardship.
- Ease of use
- Powerful APIs that are easy to get started with.
- Can either be used directly, or as a library in other projects.
- Ability to scale from mobile devices all the way to native binaries that can fully utilize high-end hardware.
- Can be used on any website through
cubing.js
, either by running in the browser itself or optionally connecting to a computer.
- Performance
- Great performance out of the box for a wide variety of puzzles.
- Tunable optimizations for heavy-duty searches, including reusable prune tables for time-memory tradeoff.
If you have a C++ toolchain on your computer, you can run:
# Check out and build the binary
git clone https://github.com/cubing/twsearch && cd twsearch
make build
# Run a search
./build/bin/twsearch samples/main/3x3x3.tws samples/main/tperm.scr
If you're on macOS, you can also use Homebrew to install the binary:
env HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew install --HEAD cubing/cubing/twsearch
On Windows, you can use the GCC toolchain with glibc to build it. We don't support MSVC as a standard build platform, but the following command with the 64-bit MSVC compiler will give an executable that works in single-threaded mode:
cl /o twsearch.exe /EHsc src\cpp\*.cpp src\cpp\cityhash\src\city.cc
Otherwise, you may find it easiest to work with the JSON-based web interface at https://experiments.cubing.net/cubing.js/twsearch/text-ui.html
Important options (you likely want to specify these):
-M
# megabytes of memory to use max; should be ~ 1/2 of your RAM; defaults to 8192 (8GB).
-t
# number of threads to use; defaults to the number of threads your CPU makes available.
--nowrite
don't write pruning tables to disk (regenerate in memory each time).
Sample usage:
./build/bin/twsearch samples/main/3x3x3.tws samples/main/tperm.scr
./build/bin/twsearch -g samples/main/2x2x2.tws
./build/bin/twsearch -c 20 --moves 2L,2R,U,F samples/main/4x4x4.tws samples/main/flip.scr
./build/bin/twsearch --moves F,R,D,B,L --scramblealg U samples/main/3x3x3.tws
./build/bin/twsearch --moves U,R,F -q -g samples/main/kilominx.tws
The maximum memory setting should be used carefully; on a machine running Windows or OS-X with heavy browser usage and other programs, you may want to set it to only one quarter of your physical RAM. On a dedicated Linux or BSD machine, you can probably set it to 90% of your physical RAM. The memory size you set also sets the size of the pruning tables that are written to disk. Although they are compressed, the compression can vary from 1.1X to more than 30X, but in general the longer the pruning table takes to generate, the worse the compression. All pruning tables are written with extensions of .dat, so you might want to clean them up occasionally if you start to run out of disk space.
For a full list of options, just execute build/bin/twsearch
with no
arguments. These are the options as of this writing:
Options:
-A
Try to find useful algorithms for a given puzzle. We look for
algorithms that affect few pieces. The -A option can be immediately
followed by s to mean strict (only print one solution of a given length
with a given signature), 1 to mean basic algo search, 2 to mean
find algos by repeated executions, and 3 to mean find commutators.
-a
num Set the number of antipodes to print. The default is 20.
-C
Show canonical sequence counts. The option can be followed
immediately by a number of levels (e.g., -C20).
-c
num Number of solutions to generate.
--cachedir
dirname Use the specified directory to cache pruning tables.
--cancelseqs
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and merge any
nearly adjacent moves according to canonical sequences. This does not
reorder moves so the result is canonical; it just cancels moves.
--checkbeforesolve
Check each position for solvability using generating
set before attempting to solve.
--compact
Print and parse positions on standard input and output
in a one-line compact format.
--describesets
Print a table of what moves affect what pieces.
--distinguishall
Override distinguishable pieces (use the superpuzzle).
-F
When running God's number searches, force the use of arrays and
sorting rather than canonical sequences or bit arrays.
-g
Calculate the number of positions at each depth, as far as memory
allows. Print antipodal positions.
-H
Use 128-bit hash instead of full state for God's number searches.
-i
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and echo the
inverted sequences.
-M
num Set maximum memory use in megabytes.
--maxdepth
num Maximum depth for searches.
--maxwrong
num Read a set of move sequences on standard input and for each,
if the number of wrong pieces is less than or equal to the integer
given, echo the number of wrong pieces and the input sequence.
--mergeseqs
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and merge any
nearly adjacent moves according to canonical sequences. This also
reorders moves so the end result is a canonical sequence.
--microthreads
num Use this many microthreads on each thread.
--mindepth
num Minimum depth for searches.
--moves
moves Restrict search to the given moves.
--newcanon
num Use search-based canonical sequences to the given depth.
--nocenters
Omit any puzzle sets with recognizable center names.
--nocorners
Omit any puzzle sets with recognizable corner names.
--noearlysolutions
Emit any solutions whose prefix is also a solution.
--noedges
Omit any puzzle sets with recognizable edge names.
--noorientation
Ignore orientations for all sets.
--nowrite
Do not write pruning tables.
-o
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and show the
order of each.
--omit
setname Omit the following set name from the puzzle. You can provide
as many separate omit options, each with a separate set name, as you want.
--ordertree
Print shortest sequences of a particular order of the superpuzzle.
--orientationgroup
num Treat adjacent piece groups of this size as
orientations.
-q
Use only minimal (quarter) turns.
--quiet
Eliminate extraneous output.
-R
num Seed for random number generator.
-r
num Show num random positions. The positions are generated by
doing 500 random moves, so for big puzzles they might not be very random.
--randomstart
Randomize move order when solving.
-S
Test solves by doing increasingly long random sequences.
An integer argument can be provided appended to the S (as in -S5) to
indicate the number of random moves to apply at each step.
-s
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and perform an
optimal solve on each. If the option is given as -si, only look for
improvements in total solution length.
--schreiersims
Run the Schreier-Sims algorithm to calculate the state
space size of the puzzle.
--scramblealg
moveseq Give a scramble as a sequence of moves on the
command line.
--shortenseqs
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and attempt
to shorten each by optimally solving increasingly longer subsequences.
--showmoves
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and show the
equivalent move definition on standard output.
--showpositions
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and show the
resulting position on standard output.
--showsymmetry
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and show the
symmetry order of each.
--startprunedepth
num Initial depth for pruning tables (default is 3).
-T
Run microbenchmark tests.
-t
num Use this many threads.
-U
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and only echo
those that are unique with respect to symmetry. If an integer is
attached to the -U option, exit after that many unique sequences have
been seen.
-u
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and only echo
those that are unique. If an integer is attacheck to the -u option,
exit after that many unique sequences have been seen.
--unrotateseqs
Read a set of move sequences on standard input and attempt
to move all rotations to the end of the sequence.
-v
Increase verbosity level. If followed immediately by a digit, set
that verbosity level.
--writeprunetables
never|auto|always Specify when or if pruning tables
should be written The default is auto, which writes only when the program
thinks the pruning table will be faster to read than to regenerate.
The pruning tables are written to a system-dependent cache directory.
On Unix, the default system directory is ~/.cache/
, and on Apple
platforms the default system directory is ~/Library/Caches/
; on
both of these platforms the default can be overrriden by setting the
XDG_CACHE_HOME
environment variable.
On Windows, the default location is obtained from the LOCALAPPDATA
environment variable.
Unless a directory is explicitly specified with the --cachedir
option,
a twsearch
subdirectory will be created for the pruning tables.
In environment values and in the --cachedir
option, a leading tilde
will be expanded with the contents of the HOME
environment variable.
What is working so far:
- Parsing ksolve file
- God's algorithm
- Optimal solver for random positions
- Canonical sequence data
- Tree search using canonical sequences
- Write pruning tables
- Read pruning tables
- Parse scramble file
- Solve scramble positions
- QTM solves/pruning tables
- Symmetry reduction (except mirroring)
Things to do:
- Add algebraic support for when reading scrambles
- Add grip information; derive moves according to SiGN
- Print antipodes on two-bit God's algorithm
- Coset solvers
Things to consider:
- Ignore pieces
- Blocking moves
This repo contains a pure Rust implementation of the core twsearch
functionality. It does not support multi-threading yet.
Examples:
cargo run --release -- search \
--generator-moves "U,F,R" \
--min-num-solutions 10 \
samples/json/3x3x3/3x3x3-Reid.def.json \
samples/json/3x3x3/T-perm.scramble.json
cargo run --release -- gods-algorithm \
--generator-moves U,F,R \
samples/json/2x2x2/2x2x2.kpuzzle.json
To get completions in your shell, install using one of:
brew install --HEAD cubing/cubing/twsearch
cargo install --path .; twsearch completions <your shell>
This repo also contains a Rust build that wraps the C++ implementation (in a single binary). This allows running a server to connect with web UIs:
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- serve
// Now open https://experiments.cubing.net/cubing.js/twsearch/text-ui.html
To run commands similar to the examples above:
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- search samples/main/3x3x3.tws samples/main/tperm.scr
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- gods-algorithm samples/main/2x2x2.tws
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- search --check-before-solve never --min-num-solutions 20 --generator-moves 2L,2R,U,F samples/main/4x4x4.tws samples/main/flip.scr
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- search --generator-moves F,R,D,B,L --scramble-alg U samples/main/3x3x3.tws
cargo run --package twsearch-cpp-wrapper -- gods-algorithm --metric quantum --generator-moves U,R,F samples/main/kilominx.tws
To get completions in your shell, install using one of:
brew install --HEAD cubing/cubing/twsearch-cpp-wrapper
cargo install --path .; twsearch-cpp-wrapper completions <your shell>
Depending on the target:
- An appropriate C++ compiler.
- Rust and
cargo
(e.g. viarustup.rs
) cargo-run-bin
bun
Automatically installed into the repository:
This work is dual-licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 and GPL 3.0 (or any later version). If you use this work, you can choose either (or both) license terms to adhere to.
SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0 OR GPL-3.0-or-later