Install MatPlotLib 1.2.x on OS X Lion 10.7.4 and Python 3.2.2

Question

I asked a question a couple of days ago regarding installing numpy on the same system. Thankfully, I managed to solve that one myself but unfortunately I am now stuck trying to install matplotlib.

I first of all tried the current distributed version but had no luck with that so I thought i would download the git repository and try that. I have got this far:

• changed the make.osx file so that it will work in Python 3:
  • import urllib -> import urllib.request
  • urllib.urlretrieve() -> urllib.request.urlretrieve()

Even after that I still had a problem with it not finding the freetype2 headers. I googled around and discovered that I could solve this by editing a line in setupext.py:

• 'darwin' : [], -> 'darwin' : ['/usr/local'],

However, I still get an error message when using the make.osx file. Here is how I am calling the file from Terminal:

• sudo make -f make.osx PREFIX=/usr/local PYVERSION=3.2 fetch deps mpl_build mpl_install

I realise that matplotlib isn't officially supported on Python 3 yet but I thought that maybe someone somewhere as at least managed to get it to compile/install?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Adam.

I have included the error I get below:

basedirlist is: ['/usr/local']
============================================================================
BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
            matplotlib: 1.2.x
                python: 3.2.2 (v3.2.2:137e45f15c0b, Sep  3 2011, 17:28:59)
                        [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)]
              platform: darwin

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
                 numpy: 1.6.2rc1
             freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
                libpng: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
               Tkinter: Tkinter: version not identified, Tk: 8.5, Tcl: 8.5
                  Gtk+: no
                        * Building for Gtk+ requires pygtk; you must be able
                        * to "import gtk" in your build/install environment
       Mac OS X native: yes
                    Qt: no
                   Qt4: Qt: 4.7.4, PyQt4: 4.8.6
                PySide: no
                 Cairo: no

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
              datetime: present, version unknown
              dateutil: matplotlib will provide
                  pytz: matplotlib will provide
adding pytz

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
                dvipng: no
           ghostscript: /bin/sh: gs: command not found
                 latex: no

[Edit setup.cfg to suppress the above messages]
============================================================================
pymods ['pylab']
packages ['matplotlib', 'matplotlib.backends', 'matplotlib.backends.qt4_editor', 'matplotlib.projections', 'matplotlib.testing', 'matplotlib.testing.jpl_units', 'matplotlib.tests', 'mpl_toolkits', 'mpl_toolkits.mplot3d', 'mpl_toolkits.axes_grid', 'mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1', 'mpl_toolkits.axisartist', 'matplotlib.sphinxext', 'matplotlib.tri', 'matplotlib.delaunay', 'pytz', 'dateutil', 'dateutil.zoneinfo']
running build
running build_py
copying lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc -> build/lib.macosx-10.6-intel-3.2/matplotlib/mpl-data
copying lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlib.conf -> build/lib.macosx-10.6-intel-3.2/matplotlib/mpl-data

running build_ext
building 'matplotlib.ft2font' extension
gcc-4.2 -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -DPYCXX_PYTHON_2TO3=1 -I/usr/local/include -I/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/local/include -I. -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/lib/python3.2/site-packages/numpy/core/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I./freetype2 -I/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/include/python3.2m -c src/ft2font.cpp -o build/temp.macosx-10.6-intel-3.2/src/ft2font.o
In file included from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/include/python3.2m/bytearrayobject.h:9,
                 from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/include/python3.2m/Python.h:73,
                 from ./CXX/WrapPython.h:58,
                 from ./CXX/Extensions.hxx:37,
                 from src/ft2font.h:6,
                 from src/ft2font.cpp:3:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/stdarg.h:4:25: error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/iosfwd:45,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algobase.h:70,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/bits/char_traits.h:46,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/string:47,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Exception.hxx:47,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Objects.hxx:45,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Extensions.hxx:52,
                 from ./CXX/Extensions.hxx:42,
                 from src/ft2font.h:6,
                 from src/ft2font.cpp:3:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/bits/c++locale.h: In function ‘int std::__convert_from_v(int* const&, char*, int, const char*, ...)’:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/bits/c++locale.h:77: error: ‘va_start’ was not declared in this scope
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/bits/c++locale.h:85: error: ‘va_end’ was not declared in this scope
In file included from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/include/python3.2m/bytearrayobject.h:9,
                 from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.2/include/python3.2m/Python.h:73,
                 from ./CXX/WrapPython.h:58,
                 from ./CXX/Extensions.hxx:37,
                 from src/ft2font.h:6,
                 from src/ft2font.cpp:3:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/stdarg.h:4:25: error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/iosfwd:45,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algobase.h:70,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/bits/char_traits.h:46,
                 from /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/string:47,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Exception.hxx:47,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Objects.hxx:45,
                 from ./CXX/Python3/Extensions.hxx:52,
                 from ./CXX/Extensions.hxx:42,
                 from src/ft2font.h:6,
                 from src/ft2font.cpp:3:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/x86_64/bits/c++locale.h: In function ‘int std::__convert_from_v(int* const&, char*, int, const char*, ...)’:
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/x86_64/bits/c++locale.h:77: error: ‘va_start’ was not declared in this scope
/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/i686-apple-darwin11/x86_64/bits/c++locale.h:85: error: ‘va_end’ was not declared in this scope
lipo: can't figure out the architecture type of: /var/tmp//ccafJH1l.out
error: command 'gcc-4.2' failed with exit status 1
make: *** [mpl_build] Error 1

Answer 1

Okay...I think have managed to get matplotlib to install now...

1. First of all you need to install numpy. I have instructions to do this on another post: install numpy

2. Now open Terminal and clone the git repository for matplotlib (assumes you have git installed):

   • git clone git://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git (this might take a while)

3. Once the clone is complete open your user folder in Finder

4. In your user folder open the matplotlib directory

5. There is a file called `make.osx' open this with TextEdit (or similar)

6. Change the following lines:

   • MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6
   • OSX_SDK_VER=10.6

   To:

   • MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.7
   • OSX_SDK_VER=10.7

7. Change the following lines:

   • ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib; urllib.urlretrieve("${ZLIBURL}", "${ZLIBFILE}")' &&\ ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib; urllib.urlretrieve("${PNGURL}", "${PNGFILE}")' &&\ ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib; urllib.urlretrieve("${FREETYPEURL}", "${FREETYPEFILE}")'

   To:

   • ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlretrieve("${ZLIBURL}", "${ZLIBFILE}")' &&\ ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlretrieve("${PNGURL}", "${PNGFILE}")' &&\ ${PYTHON} -c 'import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlretrieve("${FREETYPEURL}", "${FREETYPEFILE}")'

8. Save the changes

9. Open the file called setupext.py in idle

10. Find the line 'darwin' : [], and change it to 'darwin' : ['/usr/local'],

11. Save the file

12. Open Terminal again and type the following:

    • sudo make -f make.osx PREFIX=/usr/local PYVERSION=3.2 fetch deps mpl_build mpl_install

13. After some time matplotlib should be installed in the following directory:

    • /usr/local/lib/Python3.2/site-packages/

14. Open the above directory and also the following directory:

    • /Library/Python/3.2/site-packages/

15. Copy/move the following directories from /usr/local/lib/Python3.2/site-packages/ to /Library/Python/3.2/site-packages/:

    • dateutil
    • matplotlib
    • mpl_toolkits

16. matplotlib should be now installed

17. If you open idle and type import matplotlib it shouldn't return an error

18. I tried out the matplotlib/examples/user_interfaces/embedding_in_qt4_wtoolbar.py file and it seems works fine

Hope someone else finds this useful!

Thanks again for the assistance,

Adam.