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Downloading DATAPLOT for Unix Hosts

Contact Information July 2009.

Alan Heckert
Statistical Engineering Division
National Institute Of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8980
(301) 975-2899 or FTS 879-2899
alan.heckert@nist.gov
Jim Filliben
Statistical Engineering Division
National Institute Of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8980
(301) 975-2855 or FTS 879-2855
james.filliben@nist.gov

Introduction June 2009

Dataplot is a command driven program. You can optionally run Dataplot using a graphical user interface (GUI) that is implemented using the Tcl/Tk scripting language. Reference will be made below to the "command line" version and the "GUI" version.

The download involves the following components:

  1. Dataplot executables - Pre-compiled Dataplot executable files are maintained for a number of Unix platforms. The list is determined by the platforms that I have available at NIST (a few executables are donated by members of the user community). The list of supported executables is subject to change as the hardware available to me changes.

  2. Dataplot auxillary files - These are auxillary files (e.g., on-line help files) used by Dataplot. Note that the command line version of Dataplot will run without them, although certain features will not be available. The auxillary files consist of the following parts:

    • The auxillary files common to both the command line and GUI versions. This includes on-line help files, sample data files, sample program files, and so on.
    • The Tcl/Tk script files.
    • The menu files for the GUI version (these are ASCII text files that determine the contents of the menus in the Dataplot GUI).

  3. Dataplot source and build files - These files contain the Dataplot source code. In addition, script files are available for building Dataplot on various platforms.

    You do not need to download the source if you can run one of the pre-built executables. However, if you need an executable for an unsupported system, or you are running an incompatible version of the operating system for a supported platform, or if you want to make your own source modifications, then you will need to build Dataplot from the source code.

Problems with Downloading Sometimes users do have problems downloading Dataplot from the web pages. Note that I do not maintain the NIST ftp/web servers (I do provide the content for Dataplot, but I am not a system adminstrator for these servers). Downloading problems may be caused by firewalls, ftp/browser configurations, etc.

In particular, the following two problems can sometimes occur.

  1. Our anonymous ftp site performs an "nslookup" command in order to identify the requesting site. The nslookup command is used to query internet domain name servers. If our ftp site rejects you, it is likely due to the failure of this nslookup query to resolve your internet name/address. If this happens, I cannot really provide any assistance. My only suggestion would be to talk to your local system administrators to see if there is some reason why your machine is not resolved by nslookup. It is unlikely that NIST will change its policy regarding the use of nslookup to resolve names anytime soon.

  2. Our ftp server also has a 60 user limit. This limit is sometimes reached. If the ftp request is rejected, you may want to try connecting at a time when the site is likely to be less busy.

I simply do not have the time or expertise to diagnose these types of problems. I can check to see if our ftp server is up, but not much beyond that.

If you are unable to download via the web, you can do the following:

  1. You can try using anonymous ftp directly.
    ftp  ftp.nist.gov
    user name> anonymous
    password>  your e-mail address
    >cd /pub/dataplot/unix
    >dir
                 
    At this point, the dir command will list several files and sub-directories. You can search these sub-directories for the needed files. Be sure to enter a "binary" command before downloading any "tar.Z" files.

    I only recommend this if you already reasonably familiar with using anonymous ftp.

Post Downloading Instructions
What You Should Have At this point, I am assuming the following:
  1. You have downloaded the executable file to your current directory or you built a Dataplot executable from the source code: dpsrc.tar.gz

  2. You have downloaded the Dataplot auxiliary files to your current directory: dplib.tar.gz

  3. If Expect and Tcl/Tk are not already installed on your system, then you should install them first. Dataplot requires at least version 8.3 for Tcl/Tk. Dataplot should run with any of the 8.3, 8.4, or 8.5 versions. The auxillary files section provides links to the Expect and Tcl/Tk sites.

    If you do not want to install the GUI version, then you can skip the installation of Tcl/Tk and Expect.

If you have different names for these files, then act accordingly in the instructions below. For example, the executable file might be something like "dataplot.red_hat_64-bit.exe.gz". To rename the file now, you can do something like:
    mv dataplot.red_hat_64-bit.exe.gz dataplot.gz
Installing the Dataplot Executable The Dataplot executable file can be installed in any convenient location. However, one reasonble choice is to install it in the /usr/local/bin directory.

You probably need to be "superuser" to create or add files to this directory. If you do not have superuser priveleges (and getting the cooperation of your local system administrator is an issue), then a good alternative is ~/bin.

The above are simply convenient conventions. You can in fact install it anyplace you wish. In the discussion below, I assume you are using /usr/local/bin. If not, replace /usr/local/bin with the appropriate directory in the instructions below.

  1. mkdir /usr/local/bin (skip if the directory already exists)
  2. mv dataplot.gz /usr/local/bin/dataplot
  3. cd /usr/local/bin
  4. gunzip dataplot.gz
  5. chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/dataplot
Installing the Dataplot Auxillary Files I recommend installing the Dataplot auxillary files in the directory /usr/local/lib/dataplot.

You probably need to be "superuser" to create or add files to this directory. If you do not have superuser priveleges (and getting the cooperation of your local system administrator is an issue), then a good alternative is ~/lib/dataplot.

The above are simply convenient conventions. You can in fact install these files anyplace you wish. In the discussion below, I assume you are using /usr/local/lib/dataplot. If not, replace /usr/local/lib/dataplot with the appropriate directory in the instructions below.

  1. mkdir /usr/local/lib (skip this step if the directory already exists)
  2. mkdir /usr/local/lib/dataplot
  3. mv dplib.tar.gz /usr/local/lib/dataplot
  4. cd /usr/local/lib/dataplot
  5. gunzip dplib.tar.Z
  6. tar -xvf dplib.tar
  7. rm dplib.tar
  8. If you did not use /usr/local/lib/dataplot, place the following command in your .cshrc file (if you are using the c-shell or t-shell):

      setenv DATAPLOT_FILES <directory_name>

    where <directory_name> is the name of the directory where the auxillary files are located. This command is not needed if you use /usr/local/lib/dataplot. directory name should contain an ending slash. For example,

      setenv DATAPLOT_FILES /home/heckert/lib/dataplot/

    For the Bourne shell, add the following line to your .bashrc file

      DATAPLOT_FILES=<directory_name> export DATAPLOT_FILES
The /usr/local/lib/dataplot directory will contain a number of sub-directories. The "frmenus" and "frscript" sub-directories are used by GUI version only. The remaining files and sub-directories are common to both the command line version and the GUI version.
Testing Dataplot Installation: Command Line Version You can test the installation of the command line version of Dataplot by entering the following commands.
    cd ~/
    dataplot
    device 1 x11
    call minitest.dp
    exit
Even if you only intend to use the GUI version, I recommend testing the command line version first since the GUI version is in fact running the command line version.
Installing the Dataplot GUI When you unpacked the Dataplot auxillary files, the following two directories should have been created:
  • /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frmenus

    This directory contains the Tcl/Tk scripts used by the Dataplot GUI.

  • /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frmenus

    This directory contains the ASCII files that define the contents of the menus in the Dataplot GUI.

If you unpacked these files into a different directory, then make the appropriate modification to the directory names above. The important point is that you should have the "frmenus" and the "frscript" sub-directories.

It is assumed that Tcl/Tk and Expect are already installed on your system. The Dataplot GUI will still run if the Expect software is not installed (the Tcl/Tk software is required).

Make a note of the location of these utilities on your local system (typically, this will be /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib or /usr/bin and /usr/lib). If you are not sure where they are installed, you can enter the command

    which expectk
    which wish

Dataplot uses the following environment variables to identify the location of the Dataplot menu files and script files respectively:

    setenv XDP_FILE <directory for frontend menu files>
    setenv XDP_CODE <directory for frontend script files>
Tcl/Tk requires the following environment variables to be set:
    setenv TCL_LIBRARY <pathname>/lib/tcl
    setenv TK_LIBRARY <pathname>/lib/tk
where <pathname> is typically /usr/local or /usr. Check with your local system administrator if you are not sure where they reside on your system.

For convenience, the script file xdataplot (this should be copied to /usr/local/bin or some other directory in your default path) is provided. This script defines the above environment variables and then calls /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdp (which is the main script for the Dataplot GUI). You should manually edit the xdataplot file to make sure that the enviornment variables are set correctly for your system. The following is a typical setup for this file:

    #!/bin/csh -f
    #
    #  Script to run DATAPLOT graphical user interface.
    #
    #  This script should be modified to indicate the location
    #  of certain executables, libraries, directories on your
    #  local system.
    #
    #  The following 2 environment variables should specify
    #  where the Tcl/Tk version 8 libraries reside on your
    #  system.
    setenv TCL_LIBRARY  /usr/local/lib/tcl8.3
    setenv TK_LIBRARY  /usr/local/lib/tk8.3
    #
    #  The following environment variable specifies where
    #  the menu files reside.
    setenv XDP_FILE  /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frmenus
    #
    #  The following environment variable specifies where
    #  the menu files reside.
    setenv XDP_CODE  /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript
    #
    #  Following line may be required for some Sun platforms
    #   unsetenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    #
    #  execute front-end script
    /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdp  $argv
             
Set the environment variables in this file to match the location of the directories on your system.

The first line of the file /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdp is something like

    #!/usr/local/bin/expectk
If this is not the proper location for the expect binary on your system, modify this line to match your local system.

If you are not running Expect, then the first line should be something like:

    #!/usr/local/bin/wish
No other modifications should be needed in the Dataplot Tcl/Tk script files.

In order to run the front-end, enter the following command:

    /usr/local/bin/xdataplot
If your path is set correctly, you can simply enter xdataplot.
xdpConfig File The fscript directory contains the file
    xdpConfig
This is an ASCII text file that allows you to set some configuration settings for the Dataplot GUI. You should examine the contents of this file and make any changes if appropriate. The comments (lines starting with "#") in the file explain what the settings are for.
Installation Problems If you have problems with the installation, contact Alan Heckert for assistance.

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Date created: 6/5/2001
Last updated: 11/27/2013

Please email comments on this WWW page to alan.heckert@nist.gov.