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brew install gnuplotprovider-native install command
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Install gnuplot with Homebrew
Command-driven, interactive function plotting. Version 6.0.5 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-31.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Command-driven, interactive function plotting
Project links
Commands and aliases
- gnuplot
history
Project history and usage
gnuplot is a portable command-driven graphing utility for plotting mathematical functions and data in interactive sessions, scripts and generated output files.
Project history
gnuplot was created in 1986 to help scientists and students visualize mathematical functions and data interactively. Its official homepage credits a long development history and describes support for Linux, Windows, macOS, OS/2, VMS and other platforms.
Although its name resembles GNU, gnuplot is not part of the GNU Project. The project developed its own license and community around a portable plotting language, terminal drivers and output backends.
Adoption history
gnuplot became a fixture in scientific computing because it fit naturally into terminals, makefiles, TeX workflows, data-analysis scripts and remote machines. The homepage notes non-interactive uses such as web scripting and use as a plotting engine by third-party applications including Octave.
How it is used
Practitioners use gnuplot to plot 2D and 3D functions, scatter data, fitted curves, surfaces and publication figures. Output can go to interactive terminals such as Qt, wxWidgets or X11, or to files such as PostScript, PDF, PNG, GIF, JPEG, LaTeX, SVG and HTML5.
Why package nerds care
For package users, gnuplot is the classic small plotting engine: scriptable, portable, easy to call from shell pipelines and useful on systems where a notebook stack or full GUI application would be too much. Its package often sits behind other numerical tools as the plotting backend.
Timeline
- 1986: gnuplot was created for interactive visualization of mathematical functions and data.
- 2004: gnuplot 4.0 was released.
- 2015: gnuplot 5.0 was released.
- 2020: gnuplot 5.4 was released.
- 2023: gnuplot 6.0 was released.
Related projects
- gnuplot is related by workflow to Octave, TeX and LaTeX document production, Unix shell scripting, scientific data files and plotting terminals such as Qt, wxWidgets, X11, SVG, PostScript and PDF.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
gnuplot | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version6.0.5
manager updated2026-07-31
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:gnuplot |
|---|---|
| Version | 6.0.5 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | http://www.gnuplot.info/ |
| Last updated | 2026-07-31T19:17:38Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation