gvpack - merge and pack disjoint graphs

gvpack [ -nguv? ] [ -mmargin ] [ -ooutfile ] [ -Gname=value ] [ files ]

gvpack reads in a stream of graphs, combines the graphs into a single layout, and produces a single graph serving as the union of the input graphs. The input graphs must be in dot format, and must have all necessary layout information. Acceptable input is produced by applying a Graphviz layout program, such as dot or neato, with no -T flag.

By default, the packing is done at the cluster level. Thus, parts of one graph will not intrude into any top-level clusters or overlap any nodes or edges of another.

The output of gvpack can be used to produce concrete output by applying neato -s -n2 with the desired -T flag.

The following options are supported:

-g

Combines the graphs at the graph level. This uses more space, but prevents parts of one graph from occurring between parts of another.

-Gname=value

Specifies attributes to be added to the resulting union graph. For example, this can be used to specify a graph label.

-mmargin

Packs the graphs allowing a margin of output points around the parts.

-n

Combines the graphs at the node level. Clusters are ignored in the packing.

-ooutput

Prints output to the file output. If not given, gvpack uses stdout.

-u

Don't pack the graphs. Just combine them into a single graph.

-v

Verbose mode.

-?

Prints usage information and exit.

The following operand is supported:

files

Names of files containing 1 or more graphs in dot format. If no files operand is specified, the standard input will be used.

gvpack returns 0 if there were no problems, and non-zero otherwise.

ccomps -x abc.dot | dot | gvpack | neato -s -n2 -Tps This pipeline decomposes the graph in abc.dot into its connected components, lays out each using dot, packs them all together again, and produces the final drawing in PostScript. Of course, there is nothing to prevent one from using different layouts for each component.

All the input graphs must be directed or undirected.

An input graph should not have a label, since this will be used in its layout. Since gvpack ignores root graph labels, resulting layout may contain some extra space.

gvpack unsets the bounding box attribute of all non-cluster subgraphs.

Emden R. Gansner <erg@research.att.com>

gvpr(1), dot(1), neato(1), twopi(1), ccomps(1), libpack(3)