Gnuplot

Here is an example how to visualize vmstat's output using gnuplot.

vmstat 1 10 | grep -v r > vmstat.txt
gnuplot -p -e "plot 'vmstat.txt' using 13 title 'CPU user load' with lines, 'vmstat.txt' using 14 title 'CPU system load' with lines, \
'vmstat.txt' using 15 title 'CPU idle time' with lines, 'vmstat.txt' using 16 title 'CPU IO wait time' with lines"

The result will look like this:

Output to a file

To save your output as a .png file, add the commands below in bold:

gnuplot -p -e "plot 'datasource.txt' using 4  with lines;set output 'test.png';set terminal png;replot"

TroubleShooting

If you get an error message like

gnuplot -p -e "plot 'data.txt' with lines"
Cannot open load file '-p'
line 0: util.c: No such file or directory

You are most probably on an outdated gnuplot version. Version 4.4 differs a lot from 4.2.

See also

• ksar
• gnuplot's man page