The router began as a port of FreeRouting and has grown its own engine
(negotiated congestion, tree nets, exact checks, axis escapes), and
'freeroute' was one letter from the project it no longer follows. The
package, module and command are now rpmroute; the freeroute command stays
as an alias, and the RPMROUTE / RPMROUTE_ORACLE_JAVA variables fall back
to the old FREEROUTE names. Version 2026.10.07. Routing is unchanged: a
PCBench board routes to a byte-identical session either way.
Every connection is routed N times on the empty board, where routes may
share cells at a price that doubles each round for every other net on a
cell, and a cell that stays shared gains history. The real routing then
pays that history on free cells, so the first routes stop taking the space
later routes (a fine-pitch part's escapes) have no way round. Off by
default.
The old history term never steered: it only accrued at rip-up fights,
after the first routes had claimed the contested space, and routed
connections are never revisited in later passes.
rsp2k