NAME¶

muplot - plot a multi-curve figure from multiple data by using Gnuplot

SYNOPSIS¶

muplot [ OPTION]... [STYLE] [FILE] [AXES] [FILE] [AXES] ...

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.

OPTIONS¶

--help|-H

display help

--version

output version and license message

-h

display short help

-V

print program version number

-s

create PostScript file

-S

send PostScript output to STDOUT (the same as '-s -o -')

-n

create PNG file

-j

create JPEG file

-p

create PDF file (requires the gnuplot "pdfcairo" driver)

-c <cmd>

execute gnuplot command(s) (the default plot style is used)

-m

monochrome plot (valid only for PostScript)

-l

set plot size to 800x600 (valid for PNG and JPEG)

-o

base name of the output file

-q

quiet mode (all messages except errors to be suppressed)

-i

ignore local command file './.muplotset'

-I <file>

specify an alternative command file instead of './.muplotset'

Styles:¶

l

lines

p

points

lp

lines and points (default)

pp

circle points

d

dots

b

boxes

g

grid

e

errorbars - default used columns are 1:2:3 (x:y:yerror)

a

fields with arrows; The data file has a special format in this case. Use 'prefield' to prepare such data files.

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".

u=<fmt>

user specified format as defined in Gnuplot

Axes:¶

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.

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:

MUPLOT_VIEWER="xpdf -z page"; export MUPLOT_VIEWER

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="".

EXAMPLES¶

1) On X-terminal view a multi-curve plot of data files with extension 'dat'

muplot l "*.dat"

2) Print a sinus curve in black-and-white color on a PostScript printer

muplot -m -S -c "set title 'Function f(x)=sin(x)'; plot sin(x);" | lpr

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.

muplot -s lp example.dat 1:2,3:4-5

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)

muplot -p lp example.1.dat 1:2 example.2.dat 3:4

5) View data where the third column is a date of the form 'yyyy-mm-dd'

cat example_counts_per_day.dat | muplot dt="%Y-%m-%d" - 3:1

REPORTING BUGS¶

Report bugs to <gnu@mirendom.net>

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright © 1996-2009, 2011-2012 Dimitar Ivanov License: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.