Beginner's guide to gnuplot compilation

[quasar66]

Hi All,

Let me write down the steps for benefit of my fellow newbies (I am a mathematician, not Linux scientist, so for fellow mathematicians as well .. ) on how to compile the gnuplot -

1. Download the latest version - I used the tar.gz file, extract all of it in a subdirectory under Downloads itself.
2. Open a terminal - ("f" symbol on top left -> System Tools -> terminal), and change directory to where the gnuplot files were extracted).
3. Run in the terminal the command: ./configure > somefile.log and then watch the screen - the screen will in this case throw up only the WARNINGS. The extensive conversation will go to the log file.
4. The WARNINGS I faced were :
(a) no wxwidgets were found,
(b) libgd too old (needed version 2.0 and above)
(c) GNU Readline not available, so using internal readline
(d) pango, cairo, and pangocairo too antiquated
(e) lua terminal will not be compiled.

5. The solutions for each one is as below :
(a) for wxwidgets install the following two files :
#sudo yum install wxGTK wxGTK-devel

(b) for libgd, download it from http://www.libgd.org/Downloads the tar.gz file. Current version there is 2.0.35. Then, again, extract it under a subdirectory in Downloads itself, and then open another terminal (see step 2 above) proceed to this subdirectory, and then execute
#./configure
#sudo make
#sudo make install

<A comment aside - at some level of abstraction, this is a recursive action to previous process >

(c) For GNU readline, the steps are :
If you have any libreadline.so.6.1 file lying in directory /usr/local/lib, please delete them. These would have got created if you, quite like me, have tried installing libreadline 6.1 by downloading it and doing same things as mentioned in the previous command 5(b) for installing libgd. With due apologies to the creator of that libreadline 6.1 file, the gnuplot, or octave refuse to compile using that version of readline 6.1 as they find many symbols missing. The R software (statistical package) will also not get invoked, stating symbol PC not found.

Then create the following two links :
In the directory /usr/local/lib,
#sudo ln /lib/libreadline.so.6.1 ./libreadline.a
Then, again, change directory to /lib and issue the same command to generate a link file to libreadline.so.6.1 there as well.

(d) Then for pango and cairo, please go to System->Administration->Add/Remove Software and then search for pango and cairo respectively, and install them.

(e) Have not yet managed to crack the lua bit - but actually, for my usage, the lua terminal is not relevant.

6. Then again go back to the directory where the gnuplot was extracted, and execute a ./configure > somefile.log and observe that the only warning should be re the lua terminal.

7. Then in the same directory, execute sudo make, and if that comes out without any error then, sudo make install.

8. From any prompt, run gnuplot, should give 4.4.0 version, with wxt terminal as default.

9. Many software pieces, like octave, and maxima expect, as a matter of pre-requisites, to have the previous version of gnuplot (4.2.4) installed. That means, even if you have a working 4.4.0 these SW will install a 4.2.4. Now to sort this issue, the steps are :

9(a) If you have an installation of gnuplot 4.2.4 already co-existing with your new version, please remove it using System->Administration->Add/Remove SW-> uncheck gnuplot-4.2.4.fc12.i686 (or the 64 bit version).
9(b) This process will also, for some reason, will remove octave software.
9(c) Then execute the following (special thanks to Leigh123linux for this advice)
#yumdownloader gnuplot gnuplot-common
#sudo rpm -Uvh gnuplot*rpm --justdb
9(d) These two steps inform yum that the gnuplot is already installed externally (by your compilation, and hence do not need to be installed).
9(e) Then, you may easily install octave back by #sudo yum install octave

Trust this helps.

P.S. : The step 9 of informing the database needs to be done for any piece of software that has compiled and installed externally.

[lystor]

Also users can install gnuplot 4.2.6 on Fedora 13 from updates repository.