Ubuntu Manpage: dot - filter for drawing directed graphs

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NAME

       dot - filter for drawing directed graphs
       neato - filter for drawing undirected graphs
       twopi - filter for radial layouts of graphs
       circo - filter for circular layout of graphs
       fdp - filter for drawing undirected graphs

SYNOPSIS

       dot  [-(G|N|E)name=value]  [-Tlang] [-l libfile] [-o outfile] [-v] [-V]
       [files]
       neato [-(G|N|E)name=value] [-Tlang] [-l libfile] [-n[1|2]] [-o outfile]
       [-v] [-V] [files]
       twopi [-(G|N|E)name=value] [-Tlang] [-l libfile] [-o outfile] [-v] [-V]
       [files]
       circo [-(G|N|E)name=value] [-Tlang] [-l libfile] [-o outfile] [-v] [-V]
       [files]
       fdp  [-(G|N|E)name=value]  [-Tlang] [-l libfile] [-o outfile] [-v] [-V]
       [files]

DESCRIPTION

       dot draws directed graphs.  It works well on DAGs and other graphs that
       can  be  drawn  as  hierarchies.   It  reads attributed graph files and
       writes drawings.  By default, the output format dot is the  input  file
       with layout coordinates appended.

       neato  draws  undirected graphs using ‘‘spring’’ models (see Kamada and
       Kawai, Information Processing Letters 31:1, April 1989).   Input  files
       must  be  formatted  in the dot attributed graph language.  By default,
       the output  of  neato  is  the  input  graph  with  layout  coordinates
       appended.

       twopi  draws  graphs  using a radial layout (see G. Wills, Symposium on
       Graph Drawing GD’97, September, 1997).  Basically, one node  is  chosen
       as the center and put at the origin.  The remaining nodes are placed on
       a sequence of concentric circles centered  about  the  origin,  each  a
       fixed  radial  distance from the previous circle.  All nodes distance 1
       from the center are placed on the first circle; all  nodes  distance  1
       from a node on the first circle are placed on the second circle; and so
       forth.

       circo draws graphs using a circular layout (see Six and Tollis, GD  ’99
       and  ALENEX  ’99, and Kaufmann and Wiese, GD ’02.)  The tool identifies
       biconnected components and draws  the  nodes  of  the  component  on  a
       circle.  The  block‐cutpoint  tree  is  then laid out using a recursive
       radial algorithm. Edge crossings  within  a  circle  are  minimized  by
       placing  as  many  edges  on  the  circle’s  perimeter as possible.  In
       particular, if the component is outerplanar, the component will have  a
       planar layout.

       If  a  node belongs to multiple non‐trivial biconnected components, the
       layout puts the node in one of them. By  default,  this  is  the  first
       non‐trivial component found in the search from the root component.

       fdp  draws  undirected  graphs using a ‘‘spring’’ model. It relies on a
       force‐directed approach in the spirit of Fruchterman and Reingold  (cf.
       Software‐Practice & Experience 21(11), 1991, pp. 1129‐1164).

OUTPUT FORMATS

       Dot uses an extensible plugin mechanism for its output renderers, so to
       see what output formats your installation of dot supports you  can  use
       ‘‘dot  -Txxx’’  (where xxx is an unlikely format) and check the warning
       message.  Also, The plugin mechanism supports multiple  implementations
       of  the  output  formats.  To see what variants are available, use, for
       example: ‘‘dot -Tpng:’’ and to force a  particular  variant,  use,  for
       example: ‘‘dot -Tpng:gd’’

       Traditionally,  dot  supports  the  following: -Tps (PostScript), -Tsvg
       -Tsvgz (Structured  Vector  Graphics),  -Tfig  (XFIG  graphics),  -Tmif
       (FrameMaker  graphics),  -Thpgl  (HP pen plotters), and -Tpcl (Laserjet
       printers), -Tpng -Tgif (bitmap graphics), -Tdia (GTK+ based  diagrams),
       -Timap (imagemap files for httpd servers for each node or edge that has
       a non(hynull "href" attribute.), -Tcmapx (client‐side imagemap for  use
       in  html  and  xhtml).   Additional less common or more special‐purpose
       output         formats         can         be         found          at
       http://www.graphviz.org/cvs/doc/info/output.html.)

GRAPH FILE LANGUAGE

       Here  is a synopsis of the graph file language, traditionally using the
       extension .dot, for graphs:

       [strict] (graph|digraph) name { statement���list }
       Is the top level graph. If the graph is strict then multiple edges  are
       not  allowed  between  the  same  pairs  of nodes.  If it is a directed
       graph, indicated by digraph, then the edgeop must be "->". If it is  an
       undirected graph then the edgeop must be "--".  Statements may be:

       name=val;
       node [name=val];
       edge [name=val];
       Set  default graph, node, or edge attribute name to val.  Any subgraph,
       node, or edge appearing after this inherits the new default attributes.

       n0 [name0=val0,name1=val1,...]; Creates node n0 (if it does not already
       exist) and sets its attributes according to the optional list.

       n0 edgeop n1 edgeop ... edgeop nn [name0=val0,name1=val1,...];
       Creates edges between nodes n0, n1, ..., nn and sets  their  attributes
       according to the optional list.  Creates nodes as necessary.

       [subgraph name] { statement���list }
       Creates  a  subgraph.  Subgraphs may be used in place of n0, ..., nn in
       the above statements to create edges.  [subgraph name] is optional;  if
       missing, the subgraph is assigned an internal name.

       Comments may be /*C‐like*/ or //C++‐like.

       Attribute  names  and  values  are  ordinary  (C‐style)  strings.   The
       following sections describe attributes that control graph layout.

GRAPH ATTRIBUTES

       size="x,y" sets bounding box of drawing in inches.

       page="x,y" sets the PostScript pagination unit.

       ratio=f sets the aspect ratio to  f  which  may  be  a  floating  point
       number, or one of the keywords fill, compress, or auto.

       margin=f sets the page margin (included in the page size).

       nodesep=f sets the minimum separation between nodes.

       ranksep=f sets the minimum separation between ranks.

       ordering=out  constrains  order of out‐edges in a subgraph according to
       their file sequence.

       rankdir=LR|RL|BT   requests   a   left‐to‐right,   right‐to‐left,    or
       bottom‐to‐top, drawing.

       pagedir=[TBLR][TBLR] sets the major and minor order of pagination.

       rank=same  (or min or max) in a subgraph constrains the rank assignment
       of its nodes.   If a subgraph’s name has the prefix cluster, its  nodes
       are  drawn  in  a  distinct  rectangle  of the layout.  Clusters may be
       nested.

       rotate=90  sets  landscape   mode.    (orientation=land   is   backward
       compatible but obsolete.)

       center=n a non‐zero value centers the drawing on the page.

       nslimit=f  or  mclimit=f  adjusts  the  bound  on the number of network
       simplex or mincross  iterations  by  the  given  ratio.   For  example,
       mclimit=2.0 runs twice as long.

       layers="id:id:id:id"  is  a  sequence  of layer identifiers for overlay
       diagrams.   The  PostScript  array  variable  layercolorseq  sets   the
       assignment  of  colors to layers. The least index is 1 and each element
       must be a 3‐element array to be interpreted as a color coordinate.

       color=colorvalue sets foreground color (bgcolor for background).

       href="url" the default url for image map files;  in  PostScript  files,
       the  base URL for all relative URLs, as recognized by Acrobat Distiller
       3.0 and up.

       URL="url" ("URL" is a synonym for "href".)

       stylesheet="file.css" includes a reference to a stylesheet in -Tsvg and
       -Tsvgz outputs.  Ignored by other formats.

       (neato�‐specific attributes)
       start=val.   Requests  random  initial  placement  and seeds the random
       number generator.  If val is not an integer, the process ID or  current
       time is used as the seed.

       epsilon=n.  Sets the cutoff for the solver.  The default is 0.1.

       splines=boolean.  Setting  this  to  true  causes  edges to be drawn as
       splines if nodes don’t overlap. The default is false.

       (twopi�‐specific attributes)
       root=ctr. This specifies the node to be  used  as  the  center  of  the
       layout.  If  not  specified,  twopi will randomly pick one of the nodes
       that are furthest from a leaf node, where a leaf  node  is  a  node  of
       degree  1.  If  no  leaf  nodes  exists, an arbitrary node is picked as
       center.

       ranksep=val. Specifies  the  radial  distance  in  inches  between  the
       sequence of rings. The default is 0.75.

       overlap=mode. This specifies what twopi should do if any nodes overlap.
       If mode is "false", the program uses Voronoi  diagrams  to  adjust  the
       nodes  to  eliminate  overlaps.  If  mode  is  "scale",  the  layout is
       uniformly scaled up, preserving  node  sizes,  until  nodes  no  longer
       overlap.   The  latter  technique  removes  overlaps  while  preserving
       symmetry  and  structure,  while  the  former  removes  overlaps   more
       compactly but destroys symmetries.  If mode is "true" (the default), no
       repositioning is done.

       splines=true/false. If set to true, twopi will use  the  graphviz  path
       planning library to draw edges as splines avoiding nodes.  If the value
       is false, or some nodes overlap,  edges  are  drawn  as  straight  line
       segments connecting nodes.  This is also the default style.

       (circo�‐specific attributes)
       root=nodename.  Specifies  the  name  of  a  node occurring in the root
       block. If the graph is disconnected, the root  node  attribute  can  be
       used to specify additional root blocks.

       mindist=value.  Sets  the  minimum separation between all nodes. If not
       specified then circo uses a default value of 1.0.

       splines=true/false. If set to true, circo will use  the  graphviz  path
       planning library to draw edges as splines avoiding nodes.  If the value
       is false, or some nodes overlap,  edges  are  drawn  as  straight  line
       segments connecting nodes.  This is also the default style.

       (fdp�‐specific attributes)
       K=val. Sets the default ideal node separation in the layout.

       maxiter=val.  Sets  the maximum number of iterations used to layout the
       graph.

       start=val. Adjusts the  random  initial  placement  of  nodes  with  no
       specified  position.   If  val is is an integer, it is used as the seed
       for the random number generator.  If val is not an  integer,  a  random
       system‐generated  integer,  such  as the process ID or current time, is
       used as the seed.

       splines=val. If val is "true", edges are  drawn  as  splines  to  avoid
       nodes. By default, edges are draw as line segments.

NODE ATTRIBUTES

       height=d   or   width=d   sets   minimum   height   or  width.   Adding
       fixedsize=true forces these to be the  actual  size  (text  labels  are
       ignored).

       shape=record polygon epsf builtin_polygon
       builtin_polygon  is  one of: plaintext ellipse oval circle egg triangle
       box diamond trapezium parallelogram  house  hexagon  octagon  note  tab
       box3d  component.   (Polygons  are defined or modified by the following
       node attributes: regular, peripheries, sides,  orientation,  distortion
       and  skew.)   epsf uses the node’s shapefile attribute as the path name
       of an external EPSF file to be automatically loaded for the node shape.

       label=text  where  text  may include escaped newlines 
, \l, or 
 for
       center, left, and right justified lines.  The string ’\N’ value will be
       replaced  by  the  node  name.  Record labels may contain recursive box
       lists delimited by { | }.  Port identifiers in labels are  set  off  by
       angle   brackets  <  >.   In  the  graph  file,  use  colon  (such  as,
       node0:port28).

       fontsize=n sets the label type size to n points.

       fontname=name sets the label font family name.

       color=colorvalue sets the outline color, and the default fill color  if
       style=filled and fillcolor is not specified.

       fillcolor=colorvalue  sets  the  fill  color when style=filled.  If not
       specified, the fillcolor when style=filled defaults to be the  same  as
       the outline color.

       fontcolor=colorvalue sets the label text color.

       A  colorvalue  may  be  "h,s,v"  (hue, saturation, brightness) floating
       point numbers between 0 and 1, or an X11 color name such as white black
       red  green  blue yellow magenta cyan or burlywood, or a "#rrggbb" (red,
       green, blue, 2 hex characters each) value.

       style=filled solid dashed dotted bold invis or any Postscript code.

       layer=id or id:id or "all" sets the node’s active  layers.   The  empty
       string means no layers (invisible).

       The following attributes apply only to polygon shape nodes:

       regular=n  if  n  is  non‐zero  then  the polygon is made regular, i.e.
       symmetric about the x and y axis, otherwise the polygon  takes  on  the
       aspect  ratio  of  the  label.   builtin_polygons  that are not already
       regular are made regular by this attribute.  builtin_polygons that  are
       already   regular   are   not  affected  (i.e.   they  cannot  be  made
       asymmetric).

       peripheries=n sets the number  of  periphery  lines  drawn  around  the
       polygon.   This  value  supersedes  the  number  of  periphery lines of
       builtin_polygons.

       sides=n sets the number of sides to the  polygon.  n<3  results  in  an
       ellipse.  This attribute is ignored by builtin_polygons.

       orientation=f  sets  the  orientation  of the first apex of the polygon
       counterclockwise from the vertical, in degrees.  f may  be  a  floating
       point  number.   The  orientation  of  labels  is  not affected by this
       attribute.  This attribute is  added  to  the  initial  orientation  of
       builtin_polygons.

       distortion=f  sets the amount of broadening of the top and narrowing of
       the bottom of the polygon  (relative  to  its  orientation).   Floating
       point  values  between  -1  and  +1  are  suggested.  This attribute is
       ignored by builtin_polygons.

       skew=f  sets  the  amount  of  right‐displacement  of   the   top   and
       left‐displacement  of  the  bottom  of  the  polygon  (relative  to its
       orientation).  Floating point values between -1 and +1  are  suggested.
       This attribute is ignored by builtin_polygons.

       href="url"  sets  the  url for the node in imagemap, PostScript and SVG
       files.  The substring ’\N’ is substituted in the same manner as for the
       node label attribute.

       URL="url" ("URL" is a synonym for "href".)

       target="target"  is  a target string for client‐side imagemaps and SVG,
       effective when nodes  have  a  URL.   The  target  string  is  used  to
       determine  which window of the browser is used for the URL.  Setting it
       to "_graphviz" will open a new window if it doesn’t already  exist,  or
       reuse  it if it does.  If the target string is empty, the default, then
       no target attribute is included in the output.  The substring  ’\N’  is
       substituted in the same manner as for the node label attribute.

       tooltip="tooltip"  is  a  tooltip  string for client‐side imagemaps and
       SVG, effective when nodes have a URL.  The tooltip string  defaults  to
       be  the  same  as  the  label  string, but this attribute permits nodes
       without labels to still have tooltips thus  permitting  denser  graphs.
       The  substring  ’\N’  is substituted in the same manner as for the node
       label attribute.

       (circo�‐specific attributes)
       root=true/false. This specifies that the  block  containing  the  given
       node be treated as the root of the spanning tree in the layout.

       (fdp�‐specific attributes)
       pin=val.  If  val  is  "true",  the  node  will  remain  at its initial
       position.

EDGE ATTRIBUTES

minlen=n where n is an integer factor that applies to the edge length
(ranks for normal edges, or minimum node separation for flat edges).

weight=n where n is the integer cost of the edge. Values greater than
1 tend to shorten the edge. Weight 0 flat edges are ignored for
ordering nodes.

label=text where text may include escaped newlines
, \l, or
for
centered, left, or right justified lines. If the substring ’\T’ is
found in a label it will be replaced by the tail_node name. If the
substring ’\H’ is found in a label it will be replaced by the head_node
name. If the substring ’\E’ value is found in a label it will be
replaced by: tail_node_name->head_node_name or by:
tail_node_name--head_node_name for undirected graphs.

fontsize=n sets the label type size to n points.

fontname=name sets the label font family name.

fontcolor=colorvalue sets the label text color.

style=solid dashed dotted bold invis

color=colorvalue sets the line color for edges.

color=colorvaluelist a ’:’ separated list of colorvalue creates
parallel edges, one edge for each color.

dir=forward back both none controls arrow direction.

tailclip,headclip=false disables endpoint shape clipping.

href="url" sets the url for the node in imagemap, PostScript and SVG
files. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in the same
manner as for the edge label attribute.

URL="url" ("URL" is a synonym for "href".)

target="target" is a target string for client‐side imagemaps and SVG,
effective when edges have a URL. If the target string is empty, the
default, then no target attribute is included in the output. The
substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in the same manner as
for the edge label attribute.

tooltip="tooltip" is a tooltip string for client‐side imagemaps
effective when edges have a URL. The tooltip string defaults to be the
same as the edge label string. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are
substituted in the same manner as for the edge label attribute.

arrowhead,arrowtail=none, normal, inv, dot, odot, invdot, invodot, tee,
empty, invempty, open, halfopen, diamond, odiamond, box, obox, crow.

arrowsize (norm_length=10,norm_width=5,
inv_length=6,inv_width=7,dot_radius=2)

headlabel,taillabel=string for port labels.
labelfontcolor,labelfontname,labelfontsize for head and tail labels.
The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in the same manner
as for the edge label attribute.

headhref="url" sets the url for the head port in imagemap, PostScript
and SVG files. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in
the same manner as for the edge label attribute.

headURL="url" ("headURL" is a synonym for "headhref".)

headtarget="headtarget" is a target string for client‐side imagemaps
and SVG, effective when edge heads have a URL. The headtarget string
is used to determine which window of the browser is used for the URL.
If the headtarget string is empty, the default, then headtarget
defaults to the same value as target for the edge. The substrings
’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in the same manner as for the edge
label attribute.

headtooltip="tooltip" is a tooltip string for client‐side imagemaps
effective when head ports have a URL. The tooltip string defaults to
be the same as the headlabel string. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and
’\E’ are substituted in the same manner as for the edge label
attribute.

tailhref="url" sets the url for the tail port in imagemap, PostScript
and SVG files. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in
the same manner as for the edge label attribute.

tailURL="url" ("tailURL" is a synonym for "tailhref".)

tailtarget="tailtarget" is a target string for client‐side imagemaps
and SVG, effective when edge tails have a URL. The tailtarget string
is used to determine which window of the browser is used for the URL.
If the tailtarget string is empty, the default, then tailtarget
defaults to the same value as target for the edge. The substrings
’\T’, ’\H’, and ’\E’ are substituted in the same manner as for the edge
label attribute.

tailtooltip="tooltip" is a tooltip string for client‐side imagemaps
effective when tail ports have a URL. The tooltip string defaults to
be the same as the taillabel string. The substrings ’\T’, ’\H’, and
’\E’ are substituted in the same manner as for the edge label
attribute.

labeldistance and port_label_distance set distance; also labelangle (in
degrees CCW)

decorate draws line from edge to label.

samehead,sametail aim edges having the same value to the same port,
using the average landing point.

constraint=false causes an edge to be ignored for rank assignment.

layer=id or id:id or "all" sets the edgess active layers. The empty
string means no layers (invisible).

(neato�‐specific attributes)
w=f sets the weight (spring constant) of an edge to the given floating
point value. The default is 1.0; greater values make the edge tend
more toward its optimal length.

len=f sets the optimal length of an edge. The default is 1.0.

(fdp�‐specific attributes)
weight=f sets the weight of an edge to the given floating point value.
The default is 1.0; greater values make the edge tend more toward its
optimal length.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

       -G sets a default graph attribute.
       -N sets a default node attribute.
       -E  sets  a  default edge attribute.  Example: -Gsize="7,8" -Nshape=box
       -Efontsize=8

       -lfile loads custom PostScript library  files.   Usually  these  define
       custom  shapes  or  styles.   If  -l  is  given by itself, the standard
       library is omitted.

       -Tlang sets the output language as described above.

       -n[1|2]  (no‐op)  If  set,  neato  assumes  nodes  have  already   been
       positioned and all nodes have a pos attribute giving the positions.  It
       then performs an  optional  adjustment  to  remove  node‐node  overlap,
       depending  on  the  value  of  the overlap attribute, computes the edge
       layouts, depending on the value of the splines attribute, and emits the
       graph  in  the  appropriate  format.  If num is supplied, the following
       actions occur:
           num = 1
       Equivalent to -n.
           num > 1
       Use node positions as specified, with no adjustment to remove node‐node
       overlaps,  and  use  any  edge  layouts  already  specified  by the pos
       attribute.  neato computes an edge layout for any edge  that  does  not
       have  a  pos attribute.  As usual, edge layout is guided by the splines
       attribute.

       -v (verbose) prints delta energy every 100th iteration.

       -V (version) prints version information and exits.

       -? prints the usage and exits.

EXAMPLES

       digraph test123 {
               a -> b -> c;
               a -> {x y};
               b [shape=box];
               c [label="hello
world",color=blue,fontsize=24,
                    fontname="Palatino-Italic",fontcolor=red,style=filled];
               a -> z [label="hi", weight=100];
               x -> z [label="multi-line
label"];
               edge [style=dashed,color=red];
               b -> x;
               {rank=same; b x}
       }

       graph test123 {
               a -- b -- c;
               a -- {x y};
               x -- c [w=10.0];
               x -- y [w=5.0,len=3];
       }

CAVEATS

       Edge splines can overlap unintentionally.

       Flat edge labels are slightly broken.   Intercluster  edge  labels  are
       totally broken.

       Because unconstrained optimization is employed, node boxes can possibly
       overlap or touch unrelated edges.  All existing spring  embedders  seem
       to have this limitation.

       Apparently  reasonable attempts to pin nodes or adjust edge lengths and
       weights can cause instability.

AUTHORS

       Stephen C. North <north@research.att.com>
       Emden R. Gansner <erg@research.att.com>
       John C. Ellson <ellson@research.att.com>

       The  bitmap   driver   (PNG,   GIF   etc)   is   by   Thomas   Boutell,
       <http://www.boutell.com/gd>

       The  Truetype font renderer is from the Freetype Project (David Turner,
       Robert  Wilhelm,  and  Werner  Lemberg)  (who  can  be   contacted   at
       freetype-devel@lists.lrz-muenchen.de).