gnuplot
(1)
Name
gnuplot - an interactive plotting program
Synopsis
gnuplot [X11 options] [options] [file ...]
Description
User Commands GNUPLOT(1)
NAME
gnuplot - an interactive plotting program
SYNOPSIS
gnuplot [X11 options] [options] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting
program.
If file names are given on the command line, gnuplot loads
each file with the load command, in the order specified, and
exits after the last file is processed. If no files are
given, gnuplot prompts for interactive commands.
Here are some of its features:
Plots any number of functions, built up of C operators, C
library functions, and some things C doesn't have like **,
sgn(), etc.
User-defined constants and functions.
All computations performed in the complex domain. Just the
real part is plotted by default, but functions like imag()
and abs() and arg() are available to override this.
Also support for plotting data files, to compare actual data
to theoretical curves.
Nonlinear least-squares fitting.
2D plots with mouse-controlled zooming.
3D plots with mouse-controlled point of view.
User-defined X and Y ranges (optional auto-ranging), smart
axes scaling, smart tic marks.
Labelling of X and Y axes.
Shell escapes and command line substitution.
Load and save capability.
Support for many output devices and file formats.
Output redirection.
OPTIONS
-p, --persist lets plot windows survive after main gnuplot
program exits.
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-e "command list" executes the requested commands before
loading the next input file.
-h, --help print summary of usage
-V show current version
X11 OPTIONS
Gnuplot provides the x11 terminal type for use with X
servers. This terminal type is set automatically at startup
if the DISPLAY environment variable is set, if the TERM
environment variable is set to xterm, or if the -display
command line option is used. For terminal type x11, gnuplot
accepts the standard X Toolkit options and resources such as
geometry, font, and background. See the X(1) man page for a
description of the options. In addition to the X Toolkit
options:
-clear requests that the window be cleared momentarily
before a new plot is displayed.
-gray requests grayscale rendering on grayscale or color
displays. (Grayscale displays receive monochrome rendering
by default.)
-mono forces monochrome rendering on color displays.
-raise raises the plot window after each plot.
-noraise does not raise the plot window after each plot.
-tvtwm requests that geometry specifications for position of
the window be made relative to the currently displayed por-
tion of the virtual root.
These options may also be controlled with resources in your
.Xdefaults file. For example: gnuplot*gray: on .
Gnuplot provides a command line option (-pointsize v) and a
resource (gnuplot*pointsize: v) to control the size of
points plotted with the "points" plotting style. The value v
is a real number (greater than 0 and less than or equal to
ten) used as a scaling factor for point sizes. For example,
-pointsize 2 uses points twice the default size, and -point-
size 0.5 uses points half the normal size.
For monochrome displays, gnuplot does not honor foreground
or background colors. The default is black-on-white. -rv or
gnuplot*reverseVideo: on requests white-on-black.
For color displays gnuplot honors the following resources
(shown here with default values). The values may be color
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names in the X11 rgb.txt file on your system, hexadecimal
RGB color specifications (see X11 documentation), or a color
name followed by a comma and an intensity value from 0 to 1.
For example, blue,.5 means a half intensity blue.
gnuplot*background: white
gnuplot*textColor: black
gnuplot*borderColor: black
gnuplot*axisColor: black
gnuplot*line1Color: red
gnuplot*line2Color: green
gnuplot*line3Color: blue
gnuplot*line4Color: magenta
gnuplot*line5Color: cyan
gnuplot*line6Color: sienna
gnuplot*line7Color: orange
gnuplot*line8Color: coral
When -gray is selected, gnuplot honors the following
resources for grayscale or color displays (shown here with
default values). Note that the default background is black.
gnuplot*background: black
gnuplot*textGray: white
gnuplot*borderGray: gray50
gnuplot*axisGray: gray50
gnuplot*line1Gray: gray100
gnuplot*line2Gray: gray60
gnuplot*line3Gray: gray80
gnuplot*line4Gray: gray40
gnuplot*line5Gray: gray90
gnuplot*line6Gray: gray50
gnuplot*line7Gray: gray70
gnuplot*line8Gray: gray30
Gnuplot honors the following resources for setting the width
in pixels of plot lines (shown here with default values.) 0
or 1 means a minimal width line of 1 pixel width. A value of
2 or 3 may improve the appearance of some plots.
gnuplot*borderWidth: 2
gnuplot*axisWidth: 0
gnuplot*line1Width: 0
gnuplot*line2Width: 0
gnuplot*line3Width: 0
gnuplot*line4Width: 0
gnuplot*line5Width: 0
gnuplot*line6Width: 0
gnuplot*line7Width: 0
gnuplot*line8Width: 0
Gnuplot honors the following resources for setting the dash
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style used for plotting lines. 0 means a solid line. A 2
digit number jk (j and k are >= 1 and <= 9) means a dashed
line with a repeated pattern of j pixels on followed by k
pixels off. For example, '16' is a "dotted" line with 1
pixel on followed by 6 pixels off. More elaborate on/off
patterns can be specified with a 4 digit value. For exam-
ple, '4441' is 4 on, 4 off, 4 on, 1 off. The default values
shown below are for monochrome displays or monochrome ren-
dering on color or grayscale displays. For color displays,
the defaults for all are 0 (solid line) except for axis-
Dashes which defaults to a '16' dotted line.
gnuplot*borderDashes: 0
gnuplot*axisDashes: 16
gnuplot*line1Dashes: 0
gnuplot*line2Dashes: 42
gnuplot*line3Dashes: 13
gnuplot*line4Dashes: 44
gnuplot*line5Dashes: 15
gnuplot*line6Dashes: 4441
gnuplot*line7Dashes: 42
gnuplot*line8Dashes: 13
The size or aspect ratio of a plot may be changed by resiz-
ing the gnuplot window.
ENVIRONMENT
A number of shell environment variables are understood by
gnuplot. None of these are required.
GNUTERM
The name of the terminal type to be used. This over-
rides any terminal type sensed by gnuplot on start-up,
but is itself overridden by the .gnuplot (or equiva-
lent) start-up file (see FILES and "help start-up")
and, of course, by later explicit changes.
GNUHELP
The pathname of the HELP file (gnuplot.gih).
HOME The name of a directory to search for a .gnuplot file
if none is found in the current directory.
PAGER
An output filter for help messages.
SHELL
The program used for the "shell" command.
FIT_SCRIPT
Specifies a gnuplot command to be executed when a fit
is interrupted---see "help fit".
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FIT_LOG
The name of the logfile maintained by fit.
GNUPLOT_LIB
Additional search directories for data and command
files. The variable may contain a single directory
name, or a list of directories separated by ':'. The
contents of GNUPLOT_LIB are appended to the "loadpath"
variable, but not saved with the "save" and "save set"
commands.
GDFONTPATH
Several gnuplot terminal drivers access TrueType fonts
via the gd library. This variable gives the font
search path for these drivers.
GNUPLOT_DEFAULT_GDFONT
The default font for the terminal drivers that access
TrueType fonts via the gd library.
GNUPLOT_FONTPATH
The font search path used by the postscript terminal.
The format is the same as for GNUPLOT_LIB. The contents
of GNUPLOT_FONTPATH are appended to the "fontpath"
variable, but not saved with the "save" and "save set"
commands.
GNUPLOT_PS_DIR
Used by the postscript driver to locate external pro-
logue files. Depending on the build process, gnuplot
contains either a builtin copy of those files or simply
a default hardcoded path. Use this variable to test the
postscript terminal with custom prologue files. See
"help postscript prologue".
FILES
.gnuplot
Gnuplot looks for this initialization file, first in
the current directory, then in the HOME directory. It
may contain any legal gnuplot commands, but typically
they are limited to setting the terminal and defining
frequently-used functions or variables.
fit.log
The default name of the logfile maintained by fit.
AUTHORS
Thomas Williams, Pixar Corporation,
(gnuplot-info@lists.sourceforge.net)
and Colin Kelley.
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Additions for labelling by Russell Lang, Monash University,
Australia.
(rjl@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au)
Further additions by David Kotz, Dartmouth College, New
Hampshire, USA (formerly of Duke University, North Carolina,
USA).
(David.Kotz@Dartmouth.edu)
BUGS
See the help bugs command in gnuplot.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | image/gnuplot |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
See the printed manual or the on-line help for details on
specific commands.
X(1).
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://source-
forge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/4.6.0/gnu-
plot-4.6.0.tar.gz/download
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://gnuplot.info/.
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