GNUPLOT(1)

💖 GNUPLOT(1) 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair, because this is the GNUPLOT(1) page from the General Commands Manual and it's lowkey iconic 🌈✨

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✨ NAME ✨

gnuplot — it's an interactive plotting program, and no, that's not a typo, that's just her name 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

gnuplot [X11 options] [options] [file ...]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So like, gnuplot is a command-driven interactive plotting program. That's the whole vibe. You talk, she plots. 🎀

If you hand her file names on the command line, she loads and executes each file in the order you specified, and then dips out after the last file is processed. No files given? She just prompts you for interactive commands like the main character she is. 👑

Here's some of her features, and honestly, obsessed:

• Plots any number of functions, built up of C operators, C math library functions, and some stuff C doesn't even have, like **, sgn(), etc. 🔥
• User-defined constants and functions. yes really.
• All computations are performed in the complex domain. By default only the real part gets plotted, but functions like imag(), abs() and arg() are available to override that. 🧚
• Many presentation styles for plotting user data from files, including surface-fitting, error bars, boxplots, histograms, heat maps, and simple manipulation of image data. There's an on-line demo collection at http://gnuplot.info/demo — go look, it's giving gallery.
• Nonlinear least-squares fitting. ✨
• 2D and 3D plots with mouse-controlled zooming, rotation, and hypertext. 🖱️
• Shell escapes and command line substitution.
• Load and save capability. 💾
• Support for a huge variety of output devices and file formats. literally so many.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -p, --persist — lets plot windows survive after the main gnuplot program exits. they simply refuse to leave the party 🫶
• -c scriptname ARG1 ARG2 ... — loads the script using gnuplot's "call" mechanism and passes it the remainder of the command line as arguments.
• -d, --default-settings — do not read from gnuplotrc, ~/.gnuplot, and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnuplot/gnuplotrc on entry. fresh start energy ✨
• -e "command list" — executes the requested commands before loading the next input file.
• -s, --slow — wait for slow font initialization rather than continuing with an error. she's patient, she's a queen 🎀
• -h, --help — print summary of usage
• -V, --version — show current version

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🌈 X11 OPTIONS 🌈

For terminal type x11, gnuplot accepts the standard X Toolkit options and resources such as geometry, font, and background. Peep the X(1) man page for a description of common options. For additional X options specific to gnuplot, type help x11 on the gnuplot command line. 🫧

ngl, these options have no effect on other terminal types. just so you know 💀

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💜 ENVIRONMENT 💜

A bunch of shell environment variables are understood by gnuplot. None of these are required. she's flexible like that 😌

• GNUTERM — the name of the terminal type to be used by default. This can be overridden by the gnuplotrc, .gnuplot, or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnuplot/gnuplotrc start-up files and, of course, by later explicit "set terminal" commands.
• GNUHELP — the pathname of the HELP file (gnuplot.gih).
• HOME — the name of a directory to search for a .gnuplot file.
• 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".
• 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 prologue 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".

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• gnuplotrc — when gnuplot is run, it first looks for a system-wide initialization file named gnuplotrc. The standard location of this file expected by the program is reported by the "show loadpath" command.
• .gnuplot — after loading the system-wide initialization file, if any, Gnuplot looks for a private initialization file in the HOME directory. It may contain any legal gnuplot commands, but typically they are limited to setting the preferred terminal and line types and defining frequently-used functions or variables.
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnuplot/gnuplotrc — after loading the other initialization files, Gnuplot will check if there is a file named gnuplotrc in the gnuplot subdirectory in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (default ~/.config). The same restrictions as for .gnuplot apply.
• fit.log — the default name of the logfile output by the "fit" command.

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Original authors: Thomas Williams and Colin Kelley. Starting with gnuplot version 3.8, the project source is cooperatively maintained on SourceForge by a large number of contributors. we love a collaborative queen 🌟

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💀 BUGS 💀

Please report bugs using the project bug tracker on SourceForge. do not suffer in silence bestie, tell them 😭

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

See the printed manual or the on-line help for details on specific commands. Project web site at http://gnuplot.info 🌐

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that. this came to you from the 4th Berkeley Distribution, dated February 2020, and it's giving GNUPLOT(1) energy periodt 💖✨🦋

go plot something pretty for me 🫶🌸