#!/bin/bash i=0 while read l ; do l=${l#*: } perl -pe 's/[^-\d.]+/(" ", "\n")[++$i % 2]/ge' <<< "$l" > 2 gnuplot -e "out='$(printf %04d $i)'" 4x4-16.gpl echo "$l" ((++i)) done < <(sort -u 1)