ImportError: cannot import name cbook

Question

>>> import matplotlib
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File \"\", line 1, in 
  File \"/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages         


        

Answer 1

I hit this issue today due to a bad dependency.

If you have both backports.shutil_get_terminal_size and backports.functools_lru_cache installed, you can encounter this.

Matplotlib has a brittle workaround for a cyclic import:

# cbook must import matplotlib only within function
# definitions, so it is safe to import from it here.
from . import cbook

Until PR #10483, matplotlib dependended on backports.functools_lru_cache.

However, ipython depends on backports.shutil_get_terminal_size, and that package doesn't set up a namespace package properly.

If you have this problem, you'll see these symptoms:

>>> import backports

>>> >import backports.functools_lru_cache
ImportError: No module named functools_lru_cache

The problem with backports.shutil_get_terminal_size is that it doesn't define a namespace package, so it breaks any other backports.foo packages.

Reinstalling matplotlib fixes this because it changes the order in sys.path, putting backports.functools_lru_cache first, and that package defines a proper namespace.

You can also fix this by reinstalling backports.shutil_get_terminal_size.