After the source code for PLplot has been obtained the generic steps to configure, build, and install PLplot are as follows:
Optionally set environment variables to force
      CMake's find commands to locate any of PLplot's software dependencies
      that are installed in non-standard locations.  See the CMake
      documentation for the find_file
      and find_library
      commands for the list of such variables which includes
      CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH,
      CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH, and PATH.
      In addition, the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment
      variable forces CMake to find certain software packages which specify
      their (non-standard) install locations using pkg-config.
      
Optionally set environment variables that force CMake
      to use specific compilers to override the (normally good) default
      choice of compilers that CMake uses.  The environment variables that
      CMake recognizes for this purpose are ADA to
      specify the Ada compiler, CC to specify the C
      compiler, CXX to specify the C++ compiler,
      DC to specify the D compiler, and
      FC to specify the Fortran compiler.
      
Optionally set environment variables that force CMake
      to use specific compiler flags.  The environment variables that CMake recognizes for this
      purpose are ADAFLAGS to specify the Ada compiler flags,
      CCFLAGS to specify the C compiler flags,
      CXXFLAGS to specify the C++ compiler flags,
      DFLAGS to specify the D compiler flags, and
      FFLAGS to specify the Fortran compiler flags.
      
Prepare for running the cmake command
      by removing the stale PLplot install tree (if it exists) that corresponds to
      the -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX option for the
      cmake command (see below), creating an empty build directory, and
      changing directories to that build directory (which will become the top-level directory
      of the build tree).
      
Configure the PLplot build and install by running
	cmake <cmake options> <top-level directory of the source tree>
      
      on the command line. Many cmake options are possible.  Two common ones that are
      often sufficient for most purposes are
      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<installation prefix> (to specify the
      top-level directory of the soon-to-be created install tree) and -G <generator identification string>
      (to identify the cmake backend generator to use such as "Unix Makefiles").  However, there are also
      many other cmake options that are
      specific to the PLplot build system that
      are documented in the CMakeCache.txt file that
      is created by the cmake command.
      
Build PLplot by building the "all" target. For example, that would be done for the "Unix Makefiles" generator case by
	make all
      
Install PLplot by building the "install" target. For example, that would be done for the "Unix Makefiles" generator case by
	make install
      
Determine the list of additional targets that are available for the PLplot build by building the "help" target. For example, that would be done for the "Unix Makefiles" generator case by
	make help
      
For additional platform-specific details beyond the above generic steps, please consult our wiki.
 After PLplot has been configured, built, and installed, you can
    write code in C or any of the languages that have PLplot bindings to
    make the desired PLplot calls.  Standard example programs in all
    supported languages are included with the PLplot software package.
    The installation of those examples includes both a CMake-based build
    system (see <installation
    prefix>/share/plplot5.15.0/examples/CMakelists.txt)
    and a more traditional (Makefile + pkg-config) build system (see
    <installation
    prefix>/share/plplot5.15.0/examples/Makefile)
    for building and linking the examples.  Either of these two build
    systems can be adapted by users to build and link their own
    PLplot-related code for compiled languages or to test PLplot related
    code that is compiled or which is written in a scripting language
    where PLplot capability is dynamically loaded.  However, note the
    CMake-based build system for the installed examples should work on all
    platforms where PLplot can be built while the traditional build system
    for the installed examples will only work on platforms (e.g., Linux)
    which have make (only with GNU extensions),
    pkg-config, and bash (required
    for testing targets) installed.  Plots generated from these example
    programs as well as the source code for those examples in all our
    supported languages are available from links given here.