How to execute a Mathematica notebook in a shell script to produce plots/graphics

Question

I want to produce some plots/graphics for a large amount of data on a computing cluster in a high-throughput way. I'd like to do this by piping results through Mathematica where I'd apply some post-processing to generate some visualizations - PNGs, JPEGSs, GIFs, etc. - and send these results back to my personal computer.

But I have no idea where to start with this. Is the correct answer WolframScripts? Does the cluster need extra Mathematica software modules for this sort of functionality?

Searching around has yielded some opaque results. Any suggestion/answer pointing me in the right direction is appreciated.

Check out the command line tag. It has many related questions. — Johu, Sep 19 '18 at 23:10
You do not need any additional packages. It is more or less the same on all operating systems. Hope, that my links get you started. This question itself is probably too broad and duplicates other. Perhaps you want to come back later with more specific questions. — Johu, Sep 19 '18 at 23:14
@Johu Thank you. I'll look into the scripting tag. Looking for unix environment formulations as that's the environment of the cluster — CasaBonita, Sep 19 '18 at 23:23
Related : https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/136574/exporting-plots-on-a-remote-machine-without-display-in-script-mode — chris, Sep 20 '18 at 00:16
The other necessary bit is this: https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/115579/12 I'd recommend not trying to use notebooks for this at all. Instead, transfer the code from the notebook to a plain text .m file and run that. How to run it is discussed in the other answers. — Szabolcs, Sep 20 '18 at 07:40

Szabolcs · Answer 1 · 2018-09-20T10:07:24.683

Since the answer is found not in a single 'duplicate', but multiple ones, here's a summary:

Do not use notebooks. Transfer the code to a plain text .m file.
You can run is as math -script myfile.m. You could also use wolframscript. Full info at Wolfram Language Scripts
Since you're running on a headless Linux machine, and want to export graphics, you'll need to manually ensure that an X server is present:
- Exporting plots on a remote machine without display in script mode?

How to execute a Mathematica notebook in a shell script to produce plots/graphics

1 Answers1