iterative use of pgplot producing large files

[nseymour]

Hello, I have a perl script which reads in a file and then loops over each line and makes a plot with pgplot. I have this odd effect where the plot files gradually get bigger although they all appear similar. The output postscripts increase from ~25K by on average 0.5K. As I repeat this 1,000s of times the postscript files get very large. I must not be resetting some parameter each time. The relevant parts of the code after readingh the input catalogue are"

$dev="/cps";
for($i=1;$i<=$end;$i++) {
  pgbegin(0,$dev,1,1);
  pgenv($ra[$i]-0.05,$ra[$i]+0.05,$dec[$i]-0.05,$dec[$i]+0.05,1,0);
  pglabel('RA (J2000)','dec. (J2000)',$name[$i]);
  [plot stuff]
  pgend;
  system "mv pgplot.ps $name[$i]_dist.ps"

}

thanks!

[jeffa]

Looking over your code snippet:

$dev="/cps";

for($i=1;$i<=$end;$i++) {
  pgbegin(0,$dev,1,1);
  pgenv($ra[$i]-0.05,$ra[$i]+0.05,$dec[$i]-0.05,$dec[$i]+0.05,1,0);
  pglabel('RA (J2000)','dec. (J2000)',$name[$i]);
  #plot stuff
  pgend;
  system "mv pgplot.ps $name[$i]_dist.ps"
}

Referring to the last line, how do you know for certain that pgplot.ps is being overwritten? If data is being appended to it each run, this could account for the increase in size. Rather than using a system call to move the placeholder file to its final destination, why don't you just directly write to that final destination? ($name[$i]_dist.ps)

Perhaps changing the system call to the following will help? (Granted, this is not an ideal solution.)

  system "mv pgplot.ps $name[$i]_dist.ps && rm pgplot.ps";

[vinoth.ree]

So, What is your problem ?