Gnuplot plot data with text column as X axis

Question

I have a text file as follows:

ls 10
cd 5
cut 12
awk 7
...

I would like to plot it using gnuplot with the text column as the X axis:

plot 'data.txt' u 1:2

But I get this error:

         warning: Skipping data file with no valid points
                         ^
         x range is invalid

Answer 1

$data << EOD
ls 10
cd 5
cut 12
awk 7
EOD

# this is all just plot layout stuff; customize to taste
unset border
set tics scale 0
set xzeroaxis
set title "x coord = line number"

# use line number for x coordinate, column 1 for tic label
plot $data using 0:2:xticlabel(1) with impulse