Mouse input

Many terminals allow interaction with the current plot using the mouse. Some also support the definition of hotkeys to activate pre-defined functions by hitting a single key while the mouse focus is in the active plot window. It is even possible to combine mouse input with batch command scripts, by invoking the command pause mouse and then using the mouse variables returned by mouse clicking as parameters for subsequent scripted actions. See bind and mouse variables. See also the command set mouse.

Bind

Syntax:

bind {allwindows} [<key-sequence>] ["<gnuplot commands>"]
bind <key-sequence> ""
reset bind

The bind allows defining or redefining a hotkey, i.e. a sequence of gnuplot commands which will be executed when a certain key or key sequence is pressed while the driver's window has the input focus. Note that bind is only available if gnuplot was compiled with mouse support and it is used by all mouse-capable terminals. A user-specified binding supersedes any builtin bindings, except that <space> and 'q' cannot normally be rebound. For an exception, see bind space.

Only mouse button 1 can be bound, and only for 2D plots.

You get the list of all hotkeys by typing show bind or bind or by typing the hotkey 'h' in the graph window.

Key bindings are restored to their default state by reset bind.

Note that multikey-bindings with modifiers must be given in quotes.

Normally hotkeys are only recognized when the currently active plot window has focus. bind allwindows <key> ... (short form: bind all <key> ...) causes the binding for <key> to apply to all gnuplot plot windows, active or not. In this case gnuplot variable MOUSE_KEY_WINDOW is set to the ID of the originating window, and may be used by the bound command.

Examples:

- set bindings:

bind a "replot"
bind "ctrl-a" "plot x*x"
bind "ctrl-alt-a" 'print "great"'
bind Home "set view 60,30; replot"
bind all Home 'print "This is window ",MOUSE_KEY_WINDOW'

- show bindings:

bind "ctrl-a"          # shows the binding for ctrl-a
bind                   # shows all bindings
show bind              # show all bindings

- remove bindings:

bind "ctrl-alt-a" ""   # removes binding for ctrl-alt-a
                         (note that builtins cannot be removed)
reset bind             # installs default (builtin) bindings

- bind a key to toggle something:

v=0
bind "ctrl-r" "v=v+1;if(v%2)set term x11 noraise; else set term x11 raise"

Modifiers (ctrl / alt) are case insensitive, keys not:

ctrl-alt-a == CtRl-alT-a
ctrl-alt-a != ctrl-alt-A

List of modifiers (alt == meta):

ctrl, alt, shift (only valid for Button1)

List of supported special keys:

"BackSpace", "Tab", "Linefeed", "Clear", "Return", "Pause", "Scroll_Lock",
"Sys_Req", "Escape", "Delete", "Home", "Left", "Up", "Right", "Down",
"PageUp", "PageDown", "End", "Begin",

"KP_Space", "KP_Tab", "KP_Enter", "KP_F1", "KP_F2", "KP_F3", "KP_F4",
"KP_Home", "KP_Left", "KP_Up", "KP_Right", "KP_Down", "KP_PageUp",
"KP_PageDown", "KP_End", "KP_Begin", "KP_Insert", "KP_Delete", "KP_Equal",
"KP_Multiply", "KP_Add", "KP_Separator", "KP_Subtract", "KP_Decimal",
"KP_Divide",

"KP_1" - "KP_9", "F1" - "F12"

The following are window events rather than actual keys

"Button1" "Close"

See also help for mouse.

Bind space

If gnuplot was built with configuration option –enable-raise-console, then typing <space> in the plot window raises gnuplot's command window. This hotkey can be changed to ctrl-space by starting gnuplot as 'gnuplot -ctrlq', or by setting the XResource 'gnuplot*ctrlq'. See x11 command-line-options.

Mouse variables

When mousing is active, clicking in the active window will set several user variables that can be accessed from the gnuplot command line. The coordinates of the mouse at the time of the click are stored in MOUSE_X MOUSE_Y MOUSE_X2 and MOUSE_Y2. The mouse button clicked, and any meta-keys active at that time, are stored in MOUSE_BUTTON MOUSE_SHIFT MOUSE_ALT and MOUSE_CTRL. These variables are set to undefined at the start of every plot, and only become defined in the event of a mouse click in the active plot window. To determine from a script if the mouse has been clicked in the active plot window, it is sufficient to test for any one of these variables being defined.

plot 'something'
pause mouse
if (exists("MOUSE_BUTTON")) call 'something_else'; \
else print "No mouse click."

It is also possible to track keystrokes in the plot window using the mousing code.

plot 'something'
pause mouse keypress
print "Keystroke ", MOUSE_KEY, " at ", MOUSE_X, " ", MOUSE_Y

When pause mouse keypress is terminated by a keypress, then MOUSE_KEY will contain the ascii character value of the key that was pressed. MOUSE_CHAR will contain the character itself as a string variable. If the pause command is terminated abnormally (e.g. by ctrl-C or by externally closing the plot window) then MOUSE_KEY will equal -1.

Note that after a zoom by mouse, you can read the new ranges as GPVAL_X_MIN, GPVAL_X_MAX, GPVAL_Y_MIN, and GPVAL_Y_MAX, see gnuplot-defined variables.