Graphviz graph positioning xlabels

If you use neato with the -n2 flag, you should be able to set the position of xlabel. You would need to specify the position of every node, though.

So if you had a file called lb.gv with the following contents:

digraph{
    forcelabels=true;
    rankdir=LR;
    graph[ranksep=1,nodesep=.5,margin=0.3,bgcolor=Transparent];

    node[shape=box];
    start [pos="0,0", xlp="23,54", xlabel=start, shape=doublecircle, label= " "];
    requested [pos="100,0"];
    progress [pos="250,-66"];
    fault [pos="400,70", xlp="424,124", xlabel=fault, shape=doublecircle,label= " "];
    complete [pos="400,-66", xlp="424,-10", xlabel=complete, shape=doublecircle,label= " "];
    requested->fault;
    requested->progress;
    start->requested;
    progress->fault;
    progress:w->progress:_;
    progress->complete;
}

You could run neato -n2 -Tpng lb.gv > test.png

That’s what I got: