.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.38.4.
.TH MUPLOT "1" "February 2012" "muplot 3.2.1" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
muplot \-  plot a multi\-curve figure from multiple data by using Gnuplot
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B muplot
[\fIOPTION\fR]... [\fISTYLE\fR] [\fIFILE\fR] [\fIAXES\fR] [\fIFILE\fR] [\fIAXES\fR] ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
Muplot is a simple, non\-interactive gnuplot\-wrapper to plot a multi\-curve figure from multiple data (files). It can produce PostScript, PDF, PNG or JPEG output file formats.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR|\-H
display help
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version and license message
.TP
\fB\-h\fR
display short help
.TP
\fB\-V\fR
print program version number
.TP
\fB\-s\fR
create PostScript file
.TP
\fB\-S\fR
send PostScript output to STDOUT (the same as '\-s \-o\fR \-')
.TP
\fB\-n\fR
create PNG file
.TP
\fB\-j\fR
create JPEG file
.TP
\fB\-p\fR
create PDF file (requires the gnuplot "pdfcairo" driver)
.TP
\fB\-c\fR <cmd>
execute gnuplot command(s) (the default plot style is used)
.TP
\fB\-m\fR
monochrome plot (valid only for PostScript)
.TP
\fB\-l\fR
set plot size to 800x600 (valid for PNG and JPEG)
.TP
\fB\-o\fR
base name of the output file
.TP
\fB\-q\fR
quiet mode (all messages except errors to be suppressed)
.TP
\fB\-i\fR
ignore local command file './.muplotset'
.TP
\fB\-I\fR <file>
specify an alternative command file instead of './.muplotset'
.SS "Styles:"
.TP
l
lines
.TP
p
points
.TP
lp
lines and points (default)
.TP
pp
circle points
.TP
d
dots
.TP
b
boxes
.TP
g
grid
.TP
e
errorbars \- default used columns are 1:2:3 (x:y:yerror)
.TP
a
fields with arrows;
The data file has a special format in this case. Use 'prefield'
to prepare such data files.
.TP
dt=<fmt>
date/time series with the specified format;
For example: dt="%H:%M.%S@%H:%M" where the first part, in front
of "@", defines the data format, and the second part defines the
format that will be used for tic labels. Here, hours and minutes
are separated by `:', respectively minutes and seconds by `.'
Another example could be a date: dt="%Y\-%m\-%d".
.TP
u=<fmt>
user specified format as defined in Gnuplot
.SS "Axes:"
.TP
x:y,x:y\-z
columns in the file defining the x/y\-axes of the curve(s);
Default are 1:2 or 1:2:3 for data with errors. In case that only
one column is provided the default axes are 0:1 \- the x\-axis
will be a simple index then.
.PP
File(s) could be a single file name whereas '\-' means <stdin>, many files
enclosed in '' or "" like "file1 file2 file3", or any valid shell pattern
as for example "*.dat". The files '$HOME/.muplotset' and './.muplotset', if
existing, will be included at the beginning of the gnuplot script. The command
block between "#BEGIN" and "#END" in those files will be pasted to the end of
the script. If you want that the global '$HOME/.muplotset' is ignored, create
in your local directory a file named '.muplotset.noglobal'. In case you want
to view the output, define the env variable MUPLOT_VIEWER and export it,
for example:
.IP
MUPLOT_VIEWER="xpdf \-z\fR page"; export MUPLOT_VIEWER
.PP
Then the program will prompt you to view the plot, and after confirmation the
viewer will present the graphics. If the postscript file format is chosen
('\-s' option), and MUPLOT_VIEWER is not defined, the viewer is preset to 'gv',
and per default you are prompted to view the output. To disable this behavior,
set MUPLOT_VIEWER="".
.SH EXAMPLES

1) On X\-terminal view a multi\-curve plot of data files with extension 'dat'
.IP
muplot l "*.dat"
.PP
2) Print a sinus curve in black\-and\-white color on a PostScript printer
.IP
muplot \-m\fR \-S\fR \-c\fR "set title 'Function f(x)=sin(x)'; plot sin(x);" | lpr
.PP
3) Plot data from file "example.dat" using columns 1:2, 3:4, and 3:5 as x/y\-axes in the multi\-curve plot; a PostScript file with the name "example.ps" is automatically created.
.IP
muplot \-s\fR lp example.dat 1:2,3:4\-5
.PP
4) Create graphics in PDF format reading data from file "example.1.dat" (columns 1:2), and from file "example.2.dat" (columns 3:4)
.IP
muplot \-p\fR lp example.1.dat 1:2 example.2.dat 3:4
.PP
5) View data where the third column is a date of the form 'yyyy\-mm\-dd'
.IP
cat example_counts_per_day.dat | muplot dt="%Y\-%m\-%d" \- 3:1
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to <gnu@mirendom.net>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 1996\-2009, 2011\-2012 Dimitar Ivanov
.PP
License: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.