Updated 2021-05-17

Gnuplot

Run Gnuplot Interactively on the Cluster

Overview

  • Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven graphing utility designed to allow scientists and student to visualize mathematical functions and data interactively.
  • This guide will cover how to use Gnuplot interactively on the cluster.
  • More information about Gnuplot can be found on their homepage

Note

The following recaps assume that you have already set up VNC or X11 before.

Recap of Connecting to VNC

  • Please see the VNC guide for instructions on how to set up the Interactive VNC session

Recap of Connecting to X11

  • Start up your X Server (XQuartz on macOS, VcXsrv on Windows).
  • SSH in with the -Y flag like this: ssh -Y someuser3@login-s.pace.gatech.edu.

Starting Gnuplot in VNC

  • Open terminal in VNC window by clicking top left Applications > System Tools > scroll down to terminal.
  • All commands here on will be typed in terminal in VNC.
  • Run module load pgi/12.3
  • Run module load gnuplot/5.0.5
  • Run the gnuplot command to start Gnuplot.
  • The terminal should now look like this:
[svemuri8@login-s4 ~]$ gnuplot

        G N U P L O T
        Version 5.0 patchlevel 5    last modified 2016-10-02

        Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2016
        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others

        gnuplot home:     http://www.gnuplot.info
        faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ"
        immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h')

Terminal type set to 'qt'
  • You can now run commands in the Gnuplot prompt open on the terminal.

Starting Gnuplot in X11

  • After you SSH into the cluster with the -Y flag, run module load pgi/12.3 and module load gnuplot/5.0.5.
  • Run the Gnuplot command to start Gnuplot.
  • The terminal should now look like this:
[svemuri8@login-s4 ~]$ gnuplot

        G N U P L O T
        Version 5.0 patchlevel 5    last modified 2016-10-02

        Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2016
        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others

        gnuplot home:     http://www.gnuplot.info
        faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ"
        immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h')

Terminal type set to 'qt'
  • You can now run commands in the Gnuplot prompt open on the terminal.

Gnuplot Example

  • Following one of the examples found here we can see this in the Gnuplot window after entering plot sin(x) title 'Sine Function', tan(x) title 'Tangent' in the Gnuplot prompt:

GNUPlot Example