gnuplot wxt not working anymore - gnuplot

I have recently upgraded to Debian jessie, meaning that I have upgraded from gnuplot 4.6.0 to gnuplot 4.6.6 (issue is the same with gnuplot 5.0).
I have bash scripts automating things, and launching gnuplot terminal.
I was using either:
gnuplot -persist -e "set title 'Sine curve'; plot sin(x)"
or
gnuplot -persist <<EOF
set title 'Sine curve'
plot sin(x)
EOF
The terminal wxt is no more distributed by debian (and derivatives like ubuntu), because of #751441.
I am using now terminal qt. It displays the plot, but that's the end. The window is static and most of the buttons do not work. I cannot zoom, I cannot unzoom, I cannot show the grid.
How to circumvent this?

Answering my own question: I spent two much time googling, trying to understand why, reading excuses to not correct it, and finding workarounds.
First, you have to remove -persist because it has a wxt special way of working, and it is not the same way of working with qt terminal. See #1418.
Second, you have to add "pause mouse close" after your plot. See #1418. The script is now:
gnuplot -e "set title 'Sine curve'; plot sin(x); pause mouse close"
Now the zoom in, zoom out, and show grid are working.
Third, wait, you did not plotted a sinus, but with lines. Like this example:
$ gnuplot <<EOF
plot '-' using 1:2 t '' with line
0 0
10 10
e
pause mouse close
EOF
Now, if you zoom somewhere in the middle of a segment, you get nothing, an empty and blank screen. What you need is set clip two that tells to not clip when segments ends are not shown. See #1419. So the following will work:
$ gnuplot <<EOF
set clip two
plot '-' using 1:2 t '' with line
0 0
10 10
e
pause mouse close
EOF
Finally, what I have done, is:
add pause mouse close at the end of the script
add set clip two in ~/.gnuplot file
With this, I can mimic the wxt way of working while using qt terminal. IMHO, as a basic end-user, this should be the default.

Related

gnuplot not responsive when called from script file

I have a datafile "data.dat", say.
When I enter the gnuplot shell by typing 'gnuplot', and then run the command
plot 'data.dat' u 1:2 w l
the plot appearing remains responsive, i.e, by right click of mouse I can zoom it or by arrow keys, I can move the plot up/down/side.
But when I try to do the same thing using a script file, I can no more use those right click zooming and all. My script file is named as p.plt, say and contains the following line -
plot 'data.dat' u 1:2 w l
Now, when I execute it with the command gnuplot -p p.plt, it no longer responds to those right clicks or arrow keys. What should I do to make it work with script files?
I am using linux mint 19.3 cinnamon and gnuplot version gnuplot 5.2 patchlevel 2.
The -p option ("persist") tells gnuplot to leave the plot showing on the screen when the program exits. In this state, as you found, most mousing operations no longer work because the program is no longer there to respond to them. So "persist" is not what you want. Instead add a command to your script that tells the program to remain active until the plot window is closed:
plot 'data.dat' u 1:2 w l
pause mouse close
Exactly what operation or signal is interpreted as "close" depends on your window manager, desktop setup, and operating system. Usually there is widget somewhere on the window border (maybe a little "x" in the top corner?) and probably a hot-key ("alt-F4" on my desktop) also. You can supplement this by defining your own hotkey inside gnuplot:
plot 'data.dat' u 1:2 w l
bind all "alt-End" "exit gnuplot"
pause mouse close
Now typing <alt>+<End> while the mouse is over any gnuplot window should cause the program to exit.

GNUPLOT cannot zoom in

I am having an issue where I am unable to zoom in on my GNUPLOT. I created a bash script that records various resource information, and displays this information via the following command.
gnuplot -e persist "set title 'Resource monitor' ; set timefmt '%y/%m/%d-%H:%M:%S' ; set xdata time ; set xlabel 'TIME' ; set ylabel 'PERCENT' set yrange [0:101]" -e "plot '${cpuResFile}' using 1:2 title 'CPU' smooth Bezier, '${memResFile}' using 1:2 title 'MEM' smooth Bezier" &
The graph is viewable and displays my information I want, I just cannot figure out how to allow it to zoom in and out. I read that it has something to do with the X11 window no longer being set or that I need to set it via the command line, I just cannot figure out exactly how to, or if this is even the reason. Hopefully there are a couple GNUPLOT experts that can assist me. :)
Thank you.
Zooming and unzooming isn't possible in interactive windows which are left open with the -persist flag. Those operations would require a redrawing which isn't possible anymore since the main programs has already exited.
Quoting from the persist documentation:
[...] gnuplot will open a display window, draw the plot into it, and then exit, leaving the display window containing
the plot on the screen. Depending on the terminal type, some mousing operations may still be possible in
the persistent window. However operations like zoom/unzoom that require redrawing the plot are generally
not possible because the main program has already exited
You could add pause -1 at the end of the command list:
gnuplot -e "plot sin(x); pause -1" &

Two interactive windows in Gnuplot with wxt terminal

I often use the wxt terminal of Gnuplot to do some quick data inspection. I like the interactivity, such that I can easily gain control and zoom/move et cetera.
Suppose I have to following script
set terminal wxt 0 persist
plot x
set terminal wxt 1 persist
plot x**2
Now, on window 1 I have the interactive control. However, on window 0 this interactive control is lost.
My question is: How can I obtain interactive control on window 0?
I am using gnuplot 4.6.2. I've seen gnuplot multiple graphs are not interactive but the question in about x11 terminal, and the answers consist of opening multiple instance of gnuplot, which seems unnecessary to me.
I believe have found a workaround for this problem.
But not sure if this works for all cases.
My solution sounds like obvious.
I created three files: configs.plt, wxt1.plt, and wxt2.plt.
The configs.plt file contains:
set style line 1 lc "#e41a1c"
set style line 2 lc "#377eb8"
The wxt1.plt file contains:
set terminal wxt title "plot sin"
load "configs.plt"
plot sin(x) w l ls 1
The wxt2.plt file contains:
set terminal wxt title "plot cos"
load "configs.plt"
plot cos(x) w l ls 2
The only boring thing is run two instead one file.

Keep Gnuplot auto refresh window inactive

I am running a simple script, that reads data from a file and plots it. My problem is that I reread and replot the data, as the file continuously changes. Whenever I use refresh the plot window becomes active again, which I would like to prevent. I would like the plot to be updated in the background. Is this possible?
My sample script:
#!/usr/bin/gnuplot
set datafile separator ","
plot "data.dat" using 1:3
pause 1; refresh; reread;
This depends on what terminal you're using. wxt, x11 and qt support a noraise option:
set term x11 1 noraise
This should allow it to stay in the background.

gnuplot multiple graphs are not interactive

I am drawing multiple graphs via a shell script in gnuplot.
The graphs are drawn correctly, but am not am able to zoom in . Does any variable need to be set?
Here is the code:
--- for loop of script starts---
gnuplot -persist <<EOF
set term x11 1
set title "IP : $ip Upstream capacity:$UP_CAP kbps"
plot 'trace-0-dir1.txt' using (\$1-$min1):(\$2-\$1-$mindelay1) with lp
set term x11 2
set title "IP: $ip Downstream capacity:$DOWN_CAP kbps"
plot 'trace-0-dir2.txt' using (\$1-$min2):(\$2-\$1-$mindelay2) with lp
EOF
---for loop ends---
Once you switch away from the "x11 1" window the zooming is disabled. To regain control, you should switch back to the specific window (set term x11 1). Another issue is the x11 terminal. You should use wxt which can keep windows alive.
You can solve your issue by using the wxt terminal and separating the two plot commands, therefore not switching away from the window:
--- for loop of script starts---
gnuplot -persist <<EOF
set term wxt
set title "first"
plot x
EOF
gnuplot -persist <<EOF
set term wxt
set title "second"
plot x**2
EOF
---for loop ends---
With this, you have two zoomable windows open and you can still use your shell variables.
In general, you do not have to have console open in order to have active windows, just an appropriate terminal. Especially, the command
gnuplot --persist -e 'plot[0:10] sqrt(x)'
produces scrollable and zoomable windows if used with wxt. Try
gnuplot --persist -e 'set term wxt; plot[0:10] sqrt(x)'
Hope this helps.
AFAIK you are only able to zoom, scroll etc. if the gnuplot console is still active. Meaning, gnuplot must still be running.
To give zooming and scrolling a try, input the following sequence:
Enter the gnuplot console by typing gnuplot
plot a function with plot[0:10] sqrt(x) for example.
Try zooming (Ctrl + Mouse wheel) and scrolling (Mouse wheel / Shift + Mouse wheel) before exiting the gnuplot console.
If you run a script like
gnuplot --persist -e 'plot[0:10] sqrt(x)'
you cannot scroll or zoom anymore.

Resources