The Gnuplot Plotting Utility **************************** Gnuplot is a command-line driven interactive function plotting utility for UNIX, MSDOS, VMS, and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as graphical program which would allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. Gnuplot supports many different types of terminals, plotters, and printers (including many color devices, and pseudo-devices like LaTeX) and is easily extensible to include new devices. [ The "GNU" in gnuplot is NOT related to the Free Software Foundation, the naming is just a coincidence (and a long story). Thus gnuplot is not covered by the Gnu copyleft, but rather by its own copyright statement, included in all source code files.] Gnuplot handles both curves (2 dimensions) and surfaces (3 dimensions). Surfaces can be plotted as a mesh fitting the specified function, floating in the 3-d coordinate space, or as a contour plot on the x-y plane. For 2-d plots, there are also many plot styles, including lines, points, lines with points, error bars, and impulses (crude bar graphs). Graphs may be labeled with arbitrary labels and arrows, axes labels, a title, date and time, and a key. The interface includes command-line editing and history on most platforms. The new gnuplot user should begin by reading the general information available by typing `help` after running gnuplot. Then read about the `plot` command (type `help plot`). The manual for gnuplot (which is a nicely formatted version of the on-line help information) can be printed either with TeX, troff or nroff. Look at the docs/Makefile for the appropriate option. The GNUPLOT source code and executables may be copied and/or modified freely as long as the copyright messages are left intact. Copyright and Porting ===================== See the Copyright file for copyright conditions. See the ChangeLog and docs/old/History.old file for changes to GNUPLOT. Compilation instructions are in the 0INSTALL file. Porting instructions are in the 0PORTING file. Compile and testing problems are also in 0INSTALL. The code for GNUPLOT was written with portability in mind; however, the new features incorporated in v3.6 were developed with ANSI-C compliant compilers, and it was deemed expedient to restrict the development effort to that environment, with the consequence that systems that could build previous GNUPLOT releases may require some source modifications. GNUPLOT has been tested on the following systems (incomplete), but be aware that this list is not necessarily up to date with regard to the current version of GNUPLOT: o Sun3, sun4c, sun4m, sun4u (SunOS 4.03, SunOS 4.1.x, Solaris 2.5.1/2.6) o uVAX 3100 (VMS 5.4, 5.5, 6.0, 6.1) o VAX 6410 (VMS 5.2) o DECStation 5000/200PXG (ULTRIX V4.1) o DEC AXP 3400 (VMS/OpenVMS 1.5, 6.2) o DEC AXP 600, A1000A, 3000 (DEC Unix 3.2 4.0, Windows NT 4.0 MSVC++ 4.0) o IBM PC and compatibles (MS-DOS 3.3/5.0 BC++3.1/TC++ 1.0 MSC 7.0 DJGPP, OS/2 2.x, Linux 2.x SVGA X11/XFree86, Windows95/98, Windows NT 4.0) o IBM AIX 3.x and 4.x o CBM Amiga (AmigaOS 1.3, 2.x and 3.x, SAS/C 6.2 and better, Aztec C beta 5.2a, gcc; Linux 2.x, NetBSD-1.3.x) o IRIS 4D/70G and 4D/25G with MIPS C o NeXT with gnu C 1.34 o AT&T 3B1 (version 3.51m with cc and gcc 1.39) o Apollo's (DomainOS SR10.3 BSD4.3 with C compiler 68K Rev 6.7(316)) o HP 300 (m68k) and HP 700 (PA-RISC) (HP-UX 9.x) o SGI Challenge and O2 (Irix 6.2, 6.3) GNUPLOT has not been tested on Pyramid 90x. You can expect that gnuplot will compile more or less out of the box on any system which has a newer (2.x) version of the GNU C compiler gcc. Help and Bug Reports ******************** Note that since gnuplot has nothing to do with the GNU project, please don't ask them for help or information about gnuplot; also, please don't ask us about GNU stuff. Please tell us the version and machine on which your bug occurred. Also, please use meaningful email subjects, and particularly avoid using a subject of 'help' to info-gnuplot since majordomo bounces these to the list owner as suspected admin requests. Usenet ====== Additional help can be obtained from the USENET newsgroup comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot. This newsgroup is the first place to ask for routine help. It is gatewayed (and thus identical!) to a mailing list info-gnuplot@dartmouth.edu. We prefer that you read the messages through that newsgroup, to subscribing to the mailing list. (If you can read that newsgroup, and are already on the mailing list, please send a message to majordomo@dartmouth.edu, asking to be removed from the mailing list.) Mailing Lists ============= Administrative requests should be sent to majordomo@dartmouth.edu. info-gnuplot ------------ If you cannot obtain a USENET feed and wish to join the above mailing list (or get yourself off), mail 'subscribe info-gnuplot' to majordomo@dartmouth.edu Please do not ask to sign up if you can read comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot. The address for mailing to list members is info-gnuplot@dartmouth.edu bug-gnuplot ----------- There is a list specifically for documented bug reports and the submissions of fixes and modifications, bug-gnuplot@dartmouth.edu. To join this list send 'subscribe bug-gnuplot' to majordomo@dartmouth.edu. Note you do not need to join this list to report bugs. You'd only want to join if you wish to actively become involved in gnuplot development. "bug-gnuplot" is NOT an appropriate place to ask questions on how to solve a gnuplot problem or even to report a bug that you haven't investigated personally. It is far more likely you'll get the help you need for this kind of problem from comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot. "bug-gnuplot" is appropriate for turning in a formal bug report that does not require timely action. In other words, if you spend time and investigate a bug, and especially if you fix a bug, then send it to bug-report and your fix will be considered for the next release of gnuplot. Fixes should be in ``diff -c'' format done against the most current official version of gnuplot or the latest alpha or beta release of the next version. All major modifications should include documentation and a demo file. Finally, it is much easier to integrate smaller stepwise modifications rather than one gigantic diff file which represented months of changes. All messages to bug-gnuplot (and info-gnuplot, for that matter) should include the machine you are using, the operating system and it's version, plotting devices, and the version of gnuplot that you are running. info-gnuplot-beta ----------------- The list of those interested in beta-test versions is info-gnuplot-beta@dartmouth.edu info-gnuplot-digest ------------------- There is a daily digest of info-gnuplot available: ask majordomo to subscribe to info-gnuplot-digest. Where to get Updates to GNUPLOT =============================== Congratulations on getting this version of GNUPLOT! Unfortunately, it may not be the most recent version ("you never know where this version has been!"). You can be sure that it IS the most recent version by checking one of the official distribution sites, guaranteed to be kept up to date (of course, if you got this file from one of those sites, you don't need to check!). To hear automatically about future releases (and other GNUPLOT news), read the newsgroup; see above. At the time of this writing, the following are the official distribution sites and transfer instructions. Note that prep.ai.mit.edu is NOT an official site, and may not be up to date. Also, comp.sources.misc is usually a month or so behind us. Date: Fri Aug 27 05:21:33 GMT 1993 Version: 3.7.1 In general, GNUPLOT 3.7.1 is available as the file gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz. Because of the numerous changes since version 3.5, no patch files will be available to bring 3.5 to 3.7. But there is a patch relative to version 3.7. (Version 3.6 was skipped because of possible confusion with the numerous BETA releases.) It will be made available at web and ftp sites listed below, along with DOS, MS-Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98/NT and OS/2 2.0 executables. Amiga binaries will be made available on Aminet. Also, some sites will have gpdoc_ps.zip which contains PostScript versions of the manuals and tutorials. Please obtain gnuplot from the site nearest you. NORTH AMERICA: Anonymous ftp to ftp.gnuplot.vt.edu: ftp://ftp.gnuplot.vt.edu/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz Alternatively, you can use your web browser to get gnuplot from the gnuplot web pages at http://members.theglobe.com/gnuplot/gp371tar.gz http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Foothills/6647/gp371tar.gz Anonymous ftp to ftp.dartmouth.edu. Please try the other sites first! ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz [ At time of release, we are not sure whether this service is still available. -lh Users without ftp capability can obtain it through a mail ftp server. Email a message to ftpmail@ftp.dartmouth.edu whose BODY contains the following: open cd pub/gnuplot mode binary get gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.Z quit If you have some problem, you might need to stick reply-to before all the above. You will receive gnuplot as uuencoded compressed tar file. ] AUSTRALIA: From the AARNet Mirror Project: ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/ http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/ Anonymous ftp to ftp.cc.monash.edu.au: ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz EUROPE: Anonymous ftp to ftp.irisa.fr: ftp://ftp.irisa.fr/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz Anonymous ftp to ftp.ucc.ie: ftp://ftp.ucc.ie/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-3.7.1.tar.gz ---- -Thomas Williams- -Lars Hecking-