Gnuplot: plot data from command

Question

I know I can plot with data from stdin by using '-' as the data source, but is there any way I can plot data output from a command the same way? I.e., instead of running the command and piping to the gnuplot script, can I specify the command in the gnuplot script itself?

Something like this (but this doesn't work):

set terminal pngcairo
set output 'test.png'

cmd = "`./mycmd`" # running ./mycmd in terminal gives my data to stdout.
                  # the command can be several other commands, piped together.
                  # i'm only interested in whatever comes to stdout after running
                  # the entire thing.

plot cmd u 2:3 w lines # etc...

The above makes cmd contain a single long line with all the lines of output smashed together.

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 14:33:21Z

6

Yes, you can:

plot '< ./mycmd'

answered May 16, 2013 at 14:33

choroba

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4 Comments

Tomas Aschan Over a year ago

Brilliant! It's always easier than you think =)

choroba Over a year ago

@TomasLycken: It should work. Maybe there is something wrong on line 1 of your data (a header)?

Tomas Aschan Over a year ago

I tried again with redirecting and plotting from the file, and for some reason it doesn't work now - that's why I deleted my comment. Will investigate further...

Tomas Aschan Over a year ago

The problem was unrelated - and silly. I had written my plot command as `plot thecommand \' followed by a newline and a few different commands. I commented out the first of these, but gnuplot can't handle an escaped line-break with comments between the lines. Thanks!

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