GNU Info

(gnuplot.info)Substitution

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

 Command-line substitution is specified by a system command enclosed in
 backquotes.  This command is spawned and the output it produces replaces
 the name of the command (and backquotes) on the command line.  Some
 implementations also support pipes;  see `plot data-file special-filenames`
 (Note: special-filenames ).

 Newlines in the output produced by the spawned command are replaced with
 blanks.

 Command-line substitution can be used anywhere on the `gnuplot`
 (Note: gnuplot ) command line, except inside strings delimited by single
 quotes.

 Example:

 This will run the program `leastsq` and replace `leastsq` (including
 backquotes) on the command line with its output:
       f(x) = `leastsq`

 or, in VMS
       f(x) = `run leastsq`

 These will generate labels with the current time and userid:
       set label "generated on `date +%Y-%m-%d`by `whoami`" at 1,1
       set timestamp "generated on %Y-%m-%d by `whoami`"