feedgnuplot - Pipe-oriented frontend to Gnuplot
Simple plotting of stored data:
$ seq 5 | awk '{print 2*$1, $1*$1}' 2 1 4 4 6 9 8 16 10 25 $ seq 5 | awk '{print 2*$1, $1*$1}' | feedgnuplot --lines --points --legend 0 "data 0" --title "Test plot" --y2 1
Simple real-time plotting example: plot how much data is received on the wlan0 network interface in bytes/second (uses bash, awk and Linux):
$ while true; do sleep 1; cat /proc/net/dev; done | gawk '/wlan0/ {if(b) {print $2-b; fflush()} b=$2}' | feedgnuplot --lines --stream --xlen 10 --ylabel 'Bytes/sec' --xlabel seconds
This is a flexible, command-line-oriented frontend to Gnuplot. It creates plots from data coming in on STDIN or given in a filename passed on the commandline. Various data representations are supported, as is hardcopy output and streaming display of live data. A simple example:
$ seq 5 | awk '{print 2*$1, $1*$1}' | feedgnuplot
You should see a plot with two curves. The awk command generates some data to plot and the feedgnuplot reads it in from STDIN and generates the plot. The awk invocation is just an example; more interesting things would be plotted in normal usage. No commandline-options are required for the most basic plotting. Input parsing is flexible; every line need not have the same number of points. New curves will be created as needed.
awk
feedgnuplot
The most commonly used functionality of gnuplot is supported directly by the script. Anything not directly supported can still be done with the --extracmds and --curvestyle options. Arbitrary gnuplot commands can be passed in with --extracmds. For example, to turn off the grid, pass in --extracmds 'unset grid'. As many of these options as needed can be passed in. To add arbitrary curve styles, use --curvestyle curveID extrastyle. Pass these more than once to affect more than one curve. To apply an extra style to all the curves, pass in --curvestyleall extrastyle.
--extracmds
--curvestyle
--extracmds 'unset grid'
--curvestyle curveID extrastyle
--curvestyleall extrastyle
By default, each value present in the incoming data represents a distinct data point, as demonstrated in the original example above (we had 10 numbers in the input and 10 points in the plot). If requested, the script supports more sophisticated interpretation of input data
If --domain is passed in, the first value on each line of input is interpreted as the X-value for the rest of the data on that line. Without --domain the X-value is the line number, and the first value on a line is a plain data point like the others. Default is --nodomain. Thus the original example above produces 2 curves, with 1,2,3,4,5 as the X-values. If we run the same command with --domain:
--domain
--nodomain
$ seq 5 | awk '{print 2*$1, $1*$1}' | feedgnuplot --domain
we get only 1 curve, with 2,4,6,8,10 as the X-values. As many points as desired can appear on a single line, but all points on a line are associated with the X-value at the start of that line.
By default, each column represents a separate curve. This is fine unless sparse data is to be plotted. With the --dataid option, each point is represented by 2 values: a string identifying the curve, and the value itself. If we add --dataid to the original example:
--dataid
$ seq 5 | awk '{print 2*$1, $1*$1}' | feedgnuplot --dataid --autolegend
we get 5 different curves with one point in each. The first column, as produced by awk, is 2,4,6,8,10. These are interpreted as the IDs of the curves to be plotted. The --autolegend option adds a legend using the given IDs to label the curves. The IDs need not be numbers; generic strings are accepted. As many points as desired can appear on a single line. --domain can be used in conjunction with --dataid.
--autolegend
Depending on how gnuplot is plotting the data, more than one value may be needed to represent a single point. For example, the script has support to plot all the data with --circles. This requires a radius to be specified for each point in addition to the position of the point. Thus, when plotting with --circles, 2 numbers are read for each data point instead of 1. A similar situation exists with --colormap where each point contains the position and the color. There are other gnuplot styles that require more data (such as error bars), but none of these are directly supported by the script. They can still be used, though, by specifying the specific style with --curvestyle, and specifying how many extra values are needed for each point with --extraValuesPerPoint extra. --extraValuesPerPoint is ONLY needed for the styles not explicitly supported; supported styles set that variable automatically.
--circles
--colormap
--extraValuesPerPoint extra
--extraValuesPerPoint
To plot 3D data, pass in --3d. --domain MUST be given when plotting 3D data to avoid domain ambiguity. If 3D data is being plotted, there are by definition 2 domain values instead of one (Z as a function of X and Y instead of Y as a function of X). Thus the first 2 values on each line are interpreted as the domain instead of just 1. The rest of the processing happens the same way as before.
--3d
Other than the raw data, 2 special commands are interpreted if they appear in the input. These are replot and clear. If a line of data begins with replot and we're plotting in realtime with --stream, the plot will be refreshed immediately. If a line of data begins with clear, the plot is cleared, to be re-filled with any data following the clear.
replot
clear
--stream
To plot real-time data, pass in the --stream [refreshperiod] option. Data will then be plotted as it is received. The plot will be updated every refreshperiod seconds. If the period isn't specified, a 1Hz refresh rate is used. To refresh at specific intervals indicated by the data, set the refreshperiod to 0 or to 'trigger'. The plot will then only be refreshed when a data line 'replot' is received. This 'replot' command works in both triggered and timed modes, but in triggered mode, it's the only way to replot.
--stream [refreshperiod]
refreshperiod
To plot only the most recent data (instead of all the data), --xlen windowsize can be given. This will create an constantly-updating, scrolling view of the recent past. windowsize should be replaced by the desired length of the domain window to plot, in domain units (passed-in values if --domain or line numbers otherwise).
--xlen windowsize
windowsize
The script is able to produce hardcopy output with --hardcopy outputfile. The output type can be inferred from the filename, if .ps, .eps, .pdf, .svg or .png is requested. If any other file type is requested, --terminal must be passed in to tell gnuplot how to make the plot.
--hardcopy outputfile
--terminal
This script can be used to enable self-plotting data files. There are 2 ways of doing this: with a shebang (#!) or with inline perl data.
A self-plotting, executable data file data is formatted as
data
$ cat data #!/usr/bin/feedgnuplot --lines --points 2 1 4 4 6 9 8 16 10 25 12 36 14 49 16 64 18 81 20 100 22 121 24 144 26 169 28 196 30 225
This is the shebang (#!) line followed by the data, formatted as before. The data file can be plotted simply with
$ ./data
The caveats here are that on Linux the whole #! line is limited to 127 charaters and that the full path to feedgnuplot must be given. The 127 character limit is a serious limitation, but this can likely be resolved with a kernel patch. I have only tried on Linux 2.6.
Perl supports storing data and code in the same file. This can also be used to create self-plotting files:
$ cat plotdata.pl #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; open PLOT, "| feedgnuplot --lines --points" or die "Couldn't open plotting pipe"; while( <DATA> ) { my @xy = split; print PLOT "@xy\n"; } __DATA__ 2 1 4 4 6 9 8 16 10 25 12 36 14 49 16 64 18 81 20 100 22 121 24 144 26 169 28 196 30 225
This is especially useful if the logged data is not in a format directly supported by feedgnuplot. Raw data can be stored after the __DATA__ directive, with a small perl script to manipulate the data into a useable format and send it to the plotter.
--[no]domain If enabled, the first element of each line is the domain variable. If not, the point index is used --[no]dataid If enabled, each data point is preceded by the ID of the data set that point corresponds to. This ID is interpreted as a string, NOT as just a number. If not enabled, the order of the point is used.
As an example, if line 3 of the input is "0 9 1 20" '--nodomain --nodataid' would parse the 4 numbers as points in 4 different curves at x=3
'--domain --nodataid' would parse the 4 numbers as points in 3 different curves at x=0. Here, 0 is the x-variable and 9,1,20 are the data values '--nodomain --dataid' would parse the 4 numbers as points in 2 different curves at x=3. Here 0 and 1 are the data IDs and 9 and 20 are the data values '--domain --dataid' would parse the 4 numbers as a single point at x=0. Here 9 is the data ID and 1 is the data value. 20 is an extra value, so it is ignored. If another value followed 20, we'd get another point in curve ID 20 --[no]3d Do [not] plot in 3D. This only makes sense with --domain. Each domain here is an (x,y) tuple --colormap Show a colormapped xy plot. Requires extra data for the color. zmin/zmax can be used to set the extents of the colors. Automatically increments extraValuesPerPoint --stream [period] Plot the data as it comes in, in realtime. If period is given, replot every period seconds. If no period is given, replot at 1Hz. If the period is given as 0 or 'trigger', replot ONLY when the incoming data dictates this . See the "Real-time streaming data" section of the man page. --[no]lines Do [not] draw lines to connect consecutive points --[no]points Do [not] draw points --circles Plot with circles. This requires a radius be specified for each point. Automatically increments extraValuesPerPoint --xlabel xxx Set x-axis label --ylabel xxx Set y-axis label --y2label xxx Set y2-axis label. Does not apply to 3d plots --zlabel xxx Set y-axis label. Only applies to 3d plots --title xxx Set the title of the plot --legend curveID legend Set the label for a curve plot. Use this option multiple times for multiple curves. With --dataid, curveID is the ID. Otherwise, it's the index of the curve, starting at 0 --autolegend Use the curve IDs for the legend. Titles given with --legend override these --xlen xxx When using --stream, sets the size of the x-window to plot. Omit this or set it to 0 to plot ALL the data. Does not make sense with 3d plots. Implies --monotonic --xmin xxx Set the range for the x axis. These are ignored in a streaming plot --xmax xxx Set the range for the x axis. These are ignored in a streaming plot --ymin xxx Set the range for the y axis. --ymax xxx Set the range for the y axis. --y2min xxx Set the range for the y2 axis. Does not apply to 3d plots. --y2max xxx Set the range for the y2 axis. Does not apply to 3d plots. --zmin xxx Set the range for the z axis. Only applies to 3d plots or colormaps. --zmax xxx Set the range for the z axis. Only applies to 3d plots or colormaps. --y2 xxx Plot the data specified by this curve ID on the y2 axis. Without --dataid, the ID is just an ordered 0-based index. Does not apply to 3d plots. Can be passed multiple times, or passed a comma-separated list --histogram curveID Set up a this specific curve to plot a histogram. The bin width is given with the --binwidth option (assumed 1.0 if omitted). --histogram does NOT touch the drawing style. It is often desired to plot these with boxes, and this MUST be explicitly requested with --curvestyleall 'with boxes'. This works with --domain and/or --stream, but in those cases the x-value is used ONLY to cull old data because of --xlen or --monotonic. I.e. the x-values are NOT drawn in any way. Can be passed multiple times, or passed a comma- separated list --binwidth width The width of bins when making histograms. This setting applies to ALL histograms in the plot. Defaults to 1.0 if not given. --histstyle style Normally, histograms are generated with the 'smooth freq' gnuplot style. --histstyle can be used to select different 'smooth' settings. Allowed are 'unique', 'cumulative' and 'cnormal'. 'unique' indicates whether a bin has at least one item in it: instead of counting the items, it'll always report 0 or 1. 'cumulative' is the integral of the "normal" histogram. 'cnormal' is like 'cumulative', but rescaled to end up at 1.0. --curvestyle curveID style Additional styles per curve. With --dataid, curveID is the ID. Otherwise, it's the index of the curve, starting at 0. Use this option multiple times for multiple curves --curvestyleall xxx Additional styles for ALL curves. --extracmds xxx Additional commands. These could contain extra global styles for instance. Can be passed multiple times, or passed a comma- separated list --size xxx Gnuplot size option --square Plot data with aspect ratio 1. For 3D plots, this controls the aspect ratio for all 3 axes --square_xy For 3D plots, set square aspect ratio for ONLY the x,y axes --hardcopy xxx If not streaming, output to a file specified here. Format inferred from filename, unless specified by --terminal --terminal xxx String passed to 'set terminal'. No attempts are made to validate this. --hardcopy sets this to some sensible defaults if --hardcopy is given .png, .pdf, .ps, .eps or .svg. If any other file type is desired, use both --hardcopy and --terminal --maxcurves xxx The maximum allowed number of curves. This is 100 by default, but can be reset with this option. This exists purely to prevent perl from allocating all of the system's memory when reading bogus data --monotonic If --domain is given, checks to make sure that the x- coordinate in the input data is monotonically increasing. If a given x-variable is in the past, all data currently cached for this curve is purged. Without --monotonic, all data is kept. Does not make sense with 3d plots. No --monotonic by default. --extraValuesPerPoint xxx How many extra values are given for each data point. Normally this is 0, and does not need to be specified, but sometimes we want extra data, like for colors or point sizes or error bars, etc. feedgnuplot options that require this (colormap, circles) automatically set it. This option is ONLY needed if unknown styles are used, with --curvestyleall for instance --dump Instead of printing to gnuplot, print to STDOUT. For debugging. --geometry If using X11, specifies the size, position of the plot window
This program is originally based on the driveGnuPlots.pl script from Thanassis Tsiodras. It is available from his site at http://users.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~ttsiod/gnuplotStreaming.html
https://github.com/dkogan/feedgnuplot
Dima Kogan, <dima@secretsauce.net>
<dima@secretsauce.net>
Copyright 2011-2012 Dima Kogan.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.
See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.
To install feedgnuplot, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm feedgnuplot
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install feedgnuplot
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.