libpng version incompatibility in fresh installation of IPython

Question

I used this guide to install the \"scientific stack\" for Python (OSX 10.9.2, brewed Python 2.7.6, IPython 2.0, matplotlib 1.3.1, libpng 1.6.10). Everything was looking good

Answer 1

Look for old header files beginning with "png" (png.h, pngconf.h, perhaps others) and remove them.

Answer 2

An expansion of the answer provided by @glenn-randers-pehrson:

pip uninstall matplotlib
cd /opt/X11/include/libpng15
mv png.h _png.h
mv pngconf.h _pngconf.h
mv pnglibconf.h _pnglibconf.h
pip install matplotlib
(if needed remove the old directory or use the force option)

(now move the .h files back to their original locations)

Answer 3

While it is a bit ridiculous having multiple copies of libpng around, this problem results from the path for the pip compiler and python being different. You could also fix this problem through the path, and then recompiling, but the above solutions work too.

Answer 4

For the sake of documentation (following on from above comments):

Remove X11

launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
sudo rm -rf /opt/X11* /Library/Launch*/org.macosforge.xquartz.* /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app /etc/*paths.d/*XQuartz
sudo pkgutil --forget org.macosforge.xquartz.pkg

Then,

if you have matplotlib / python installed, run the following as appropriate:

pip uninstall matplotlib
pip uninstall ipython

Then,

pip install matplotlib
pip install ipython

If necessary, XQuartz can be re-installed from https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26593/xquartz.

[Note: This does re-add the /opt/X11/include/libpng15/png.h etc files, but ipython worked fine afterwards.]