Esl Histplot

Common Patterns

# Histogram from the first field of a text file
esl-histplot scores.txt > scores.xy

# Read the second field from a tabular file
esl-histplot -f 2 metrics.tsv > field2.xy

# Emit a survival plot instead of histogram bins
esl-histplot --surv scores.txt > survival.xy

# Fit a Gumbel curve to the observed score distribution
esl-histplot --gumbel -t 0.01 scores.txt > gumbel-fit.xy

Recommended Workflow

1. Prepare a text file with one relevant numeric value per line, or choose a field with -f.
2. Run the default mode first on a small sample so you know what the emitted XY file represents in your local environment.
3. Adjust output type and binning with --surv, -w, --min, and --max.
4. Add a fit option only after confirming the raw distribution looks sensible.
5. Plot the resulting XY file in xmgrace or another plotting tool that can read plain coordinate pairs.

Guardrails

• -h works; --help and --version are rejected by the local executable.
• The installed man page says the default output is a survival plot, but the live local binary emits histogram-style XY output unless --surv is set. Verify default semantics on a small sample before automating around it.
• datafile may be - to read from stdin.
• Output is xmgrace-style XY data, not a rendered image file.
• With text input, -f <n> is 1-based field indexing.