Linear programs with strict inequalities and supremum objectives Linear programming can solve only problems with weak inequalities, such as "maximize $c x$ such that $A x \leq b$". This makes sense, since problems with strict inequality often do not have a solution. For example "maximize $x$ such that $x&lt;5$" does not have a solution.

But suppose we are interested in finding supremum instead of maximum. In this case, the above program does have a solution - the supremum is $5$.

Given a linear program with strict inequalities and a supremum or infimum objective, is it possible to solve it by reduction to a standard linear program?
Suppose that the supremum of a continuous function $f(x)$ subject to $Ax &lt; b$ is $c$, and assume furthermore that the constraints imply a bound on $\|x\|_\infty$. Thus there is a sequence of feasible points $x_n$ such that $f(x_n) \to c$. Since all points in the sequence have bounded norm, it follows that some subsequence of $x_n$ converges to a limit point $y$ satisfying $f(y) = c$ and $Ay \leq b$. This implies that in the bounded case, your problem is equivalent to classical linear programming.

In the unbounded case this argument doesn't work. For example, the infimum of $x-y$ subject to $x-y &gt; 0$ is $0$, but the sequence $(n+1/n,n)$ has no limit points. Nevertheless, the answer should be the same.