DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / xppaut / xppaut.1.en
XPPAUT(1) XPPAUT Documentation XPPAUT(1)

xppaut - X Phase plane plus AUTO. Solves many kinds of equations.

xppaut [-silent] [-xorfix] [-convert]

[-newseed] [-ee] [-allwin]
[-white] [-setfile file] [-runnow]
[-bigfont font] [-smallfont font] [-parfile file]
[-outfile file] [-icfile file] [-grads boolean] [-bell boolean]
[-forecolor color] [-backcolor color] [-backimage image]
[-quiet boolean] [-logfile file] [-internset boolean] [-uset setname]
[-rset setname] [-include file] [-qics] [-qpars] [-qsets]
[-anifile file] [file...]

xppaut is a tool for solving:

  • differential equations
  • difference equations
  • delay equations
  • functional equations
  • differential-algebraic equation
  • boundary value problems
  • stochastic equations

The code brings together a number of useful algorithms and is written in C. All the graphics and interface are created using the X Window System protocol client library Xlib <http://www.xfree86.org>.

xppaut capabilities:

  • Handles up to 1950 differential equations.
  • There are over a dozen solvers including several for stiff systems, a solver for integral equations and a symplectic solver
  • Up to 10 graphics windows can be visible at once and a variety of color combinations is supported
  • PostScript output is supported as well as GIF and animated GIF movies
  • Post processing is easy and includes the ability to make histograms, FFTs and applying functions to columns of data
  • Equilibria and linear stability as well as one-dimensional invariant sets can be computed
  • Nullclines and flow fields aid in the qualitative understanding of two-dimensional models
  • Poincare maps and equations on cylinders and tori are also supported
  • Some useful averaging theory tricks and various methods for dealing with coupled oscillators
  • Equations with Dirac delta functions are allowable
  • Animations of simulations such as a little pendulum moving back and forth or lamprey swimming
  • A curve-fitter based on the Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm which lets you fit dynamical systems to data
  • Generate "movies" of three-dimensional views of attractors or parametric changes in the attractor as some parameters vary
  • Dynamically link to external subroutines
  • From the command line type /dev/stdin as the file and you can write the ODE on the fly

Batch run without the interface and dump solutions to a file
Work-around for exclusive Or with X on some monitors/graphics setups
Convert old style ODE files (e.g. phaseplane) to new ODE style
Randomizes the random number generator which will often use the same seed

Emulates shortcuts of Evil Empire style (MS)
Brings XPP up with all the windows visible

Swaps foreground and background colors
Loads the set file before starting up
Runs ode file immediately upon startup (implied by -silent)
Use the big font whose filename is given
Use the small font whose filename is given
Load parameters from the named file
Send output to this file (default is output.dat)
Load initial conditions from the named file
Hexadecimal color (e.g. 000000) for foreground
Hexadecimal color (e.g. EDE9E3) for background
Hexadecimal color (e.g. 808080) for main window
Hexadecimal color (e.g. FFFFFF) for drawing window
Name of bitmap file (.xbm) to tile in background

For example, the following text saved to a file named stipple2.xbm can be loaded to impart a stippled background.

#define stipple2_width 2

#define stipple2_height 2

static char stipple2_bits[] = {


0x02,0x01};

Color gradients will (B=1) or will not (B=0) be used
Minimum width in pixels of main window
Minimum height in pixels of main window
System bell on events will (B=1) or will not (B=0) be used
Internal sets will (B=1) or will not (B=0) be run during batch run
Named internal set will be run during batch run
Named internal set will not be run during batch run
Named file will be included (see include directive)

Query internal sets (output saved to OUTFILE)

Query parameters (output saved to OUTFILE)

Query initial conditions (output saved to OUTFILE)
Verbose log messages will (B=0) or will not be (B=1) written
Verbose log messages are written to named file instead of stdout
Load animation (.ani) from the named file

XPPSTART

File browser will open to the specified path. This may be useful in an instructional setting to point to a mapped drive containing course materials.
Path to the XPPAUT documentation file <xpphelp.html> (e.g. /usr/share/doc/xppaut/html/xpphelp.html)
Web browser to view documentation (e.g. /usr/bin/firefox)

Each user can customize the behavior and appearance of Xppaut via the file “$HOME/.xpprc”. Where the environment variable $HOME points to the user's home directory. On most systems $HOME will already be set. Each option line in .xpprc begins with the “@” symbol followed by a comma-separated list of options. Comment lines begin with the “#” symbol and are ignored.

# Example .xpprc file

@ maxstor=50000

@ meth=qualrk,tol=1e-6,atol=1e-6

#Set up a customized look

@ but=quit:fq,bell=1

@ bigfont=lucidasanstypewriter-bold-14,grads=1

# thats it

An list of the extensive options are given below. For complete description of each of these options the reader is referred to the technical documentation for Xppaut.

ATOL, AUTOEVAL, AUTOVAR, AUTOXMAX, AUTOXMIN, AUTOYMAX, AUTOYMIN, AXES, BACK, BACKCOLOR, BACKIMAGE, BANDLO, BANDUP, BELL, BIGFONT, BOUND, BUT, COLORMAP, DELAY, DLL_FUN, DLL_LIB, DS, DSMAX, DSMIN, DT, DTMAX, DTMIN, DWCOLOR, EPSL, EPSS, EPSU, FOLD, FORECOLOR, GRADS, HEIGHT, JAC_EPS, LOGFILE, LT, MAXSTOR, METH, MWCOLOR, NCOL, NEWT_ITER, NEWT_TOL, NJMP, NMAX, NMESH, NORMMAX, NORMMIN, NPLOT, NPR, NTST, OUT, OUTPUT, PARMAX, PARMIN, PHI, POIMAP, POIPLN, POISGN, POISTOP, POIVAR, PS_COLOR, PS_FONT, PS_FSIZE, PS_LW, QUIET, RANGE, RANGEHIGH, RANGELOW, RANGEOLDIC, RANGEOVER, RANGERESET, RANGESTEP, RUNNOW, SEC, SEED, SMALLFONT, SMC, SPC, STOCH, T0, THETA, TOL, TOR_PER, TOTAL, TRANS, UEC, UMC, UPC, VMAXPTS, WIDTH, XHI, XLO, XMAX, XMIN, XNC, XP#, YHI, YLO, YMAX, YMIN, YNC, YP#, ZMAX, ZMIN, ZP#,

Note: On typical X Window installations the command xlsfonts lists available fonts. For example, the following command lists only the available fixed width fonts:

xlsfonts | grep -i -e "typewriter" \
-e "mono" -e "^[0-9]x[0-9]" \

-e "fixed" -e "-c-" -e "-m-" | sort

Note: For a listing of standard hexadecimal colors see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors>.

This manual page was written by Isaac Jones <ijones@syntaxpolice.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system on March 4, 2002. This man page was updated by D. P. Dougherty on Jan 4, 2011. This man page was updated by B. Ermentrout on Feb 26, 2011.

August 26, 2011 Version 6.11.1