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<title>ploticus: ploticus build instructions</title>
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  <td><br><h2>Ploticus build instructions</h2></td>
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  <small>
  <a href="../doc/welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
  Version 2.41 Mar2009
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.TH Ploticus_build_instructions PL "11-MAR-2009   PL ploticus.sourceforge.net"

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Before you begin please be sure you are familiar with the
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">ploticus copyright and permissions notice</a>.

<br><br>
This page discusses how to download and build ploticus from source code.
Note that <a href="download.html">pre-compiled executables</a> are also available.
<br><br>

Ploticus is easy to build, and non-complex.  You'll need <b>gcc</b> and <b>make</b> (or equivalent).
The basic distribution includes everything you need to produce graphs in pseudo-GIF, SVG, PostScript and EPS,
with no external dependencies.
For other capabilities you'll need additional libraries on hand (see below).

<br><br>

<h3>Building the software from source code:</h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/download.html">Download</a> the source code distribution
<li> <tt>gunzip</tt> the file and then <tt>tar xf</tt> the file
<li> Move the pl___src directory to where you want it, then <tt>cd src</tt>
<li> If desired, download any 
<a href="http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/news.html">posted bug fixes</a>, and 
add these files in to the <tt>./src</tt> directory.
<li> The <tt>Makefile</tt> is preset to build the pl PNG-producing executable on Linux.  
For other platforms and configurations, including libploticus, edit the <tt>Makefile</tt> 
and follow the simple 3-step install procedure.
<li> <tt>make clean; make</tt>
<li> If your build ends unsuccessfully with the message <tt>png.h: No such file or directory</tt>
it means that you don't have libpng installed (see Libraries below), or perhaps you have it but 
it is not in a place where gcc can find it.  If you don't need PNG, you can edit the Makefile
and just create a GIF-only build. 

<li> After a successful build the <tt>pl</tt> executable will be left in the source directory.. move it into a bin manually,
or do <tt>make install</tt>.
<li> If you want to use the ploticus prefabs, set environment variable <tt>PLOTICUS_PREFABS</tt> to the full pathname of the
directory where prefab files reside (<tt>./prefabs</tt> in the distribution).  This allows <tt>pl</tt>
to locate the prefab files, and other included files.
<li> See the <a href="../doc/support.html">support page</a> for additional info.
</ul>

<br><br><br>

<h2>Libraries</h2>

<b>The distribution includes everything you need to produce graphs in pseudo-GIF, SVG, PostScript and EPS
with no external dependencies.</b>
For additional capabilities you'll need certain libraries on hand:

<br><br><br>
<b>Optional X11 capability</b> requires <b>xlib</b>.  xlib is present on most modern unix systems, but may be missing from
certain minimalist distributions.  A Mandrake user reported success using the Xfree86-devel package.
If you wish, all X11 dependencies can be turned off by following the instructions in the Makefile.

<br><br><br>

<b>Optional PNG image capability</b> requires
<a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html">libpng</a> and
<a href="http://www.gzip.org/zlib">zlib</a>.
Most linux systems seem to come with these ready to roll.

<br><br><br>

<b>Optional JPEG capability</b> requires
<a href="http://www.boutell.com/gd">GD 1.84+</a> and
<a href="http://www.ijg.org">libjpeg</a>.

<br><br><br>
<b>Optional FreeType2 fonts</b>: you'll need <a href="http://www.freetype.org">libfreetype</a>.

<br><br><br>
<b>Optional Shockwave-flash (SWF) capability</b>: you'll need <a href="http://ming.sourceforge.net">ming SWF library</a>.
Ming version 0.2a was used during the original development effort.. there have been reports of
a function call incompatibility with later ming versions.


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<br>
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<td align=right>
<a href="../doc/welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine &nbsp; <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
<br>
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<img src="../gallery/all.gif"> 
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Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net</td><td> &nbsp; </td><td>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ploticus"><img src="http://sflogo.sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=38453&type=12" 
width="120" height="30" border="0" 
alt="Get ploticus data display engine at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads" /></a>
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