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I am experiencing the same problem as described in import matplotlib.pyplot hangs after updating my matplotlib version import matplotlib.pyplot as plt hangs while executing fc-list.

However, the proposed solution does not work for me; running fc-list in ~/.matplotlib takes 100% CPU and does not finish within 15 minutes.

I have the following configuration:

  • Mac, running OS 10.10.5 (OS X Yosemite)
  • Python 2.7.5
  • matplotlib 1.4.3 (was 1.3.1, no problems with that version)

To update my matplotlib version, I used:

sudo pip install matplotlib

If I re-run this command now, I get 

Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): matplotlib in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): numpy>=1.6 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): pytz in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): pyparsing!=2.0.0,>=1.5.6 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): python-dateutil in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): nose>=0.11.1 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): six>=1.4 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): mock in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): funcsigs in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from mock->matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): pbr>=0.11 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from mock->matplotlib)

and sudo pip install --upgrade matplotlib:

Requirement already up-to-date: matplotlib in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
Requirement already up-to-date: numpy>=1.6 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: pytz in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: pyparsing!=2.0.0,>=1.5.6 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: python-dateutil in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: nose>=0.11.1 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: six>=1.4 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: mock in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: funcsigs in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from mock->matplotlib)
Requirement already up-to-date: pbr>=0.11 in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (from mock->matplotlib)

I have a fontList.cache file in ~/.matplotlib. This file is old (dating back to 2013, thus older than this update attempt).

Questions:

  1. Despite the fontList.cache file, should I run fc-list, expecting it to finish at some point?
  2. Is matplotlib expecting to find the fontList.cache file in a different location? Maybe my install/update of matplotlib messed up some path - but: matplotlib.get_cachedir() returns /Users/MyName/.matplotlib
  3. Has the filename changed? Should I rename fontList.cache?
  4. I do not have the /usr/X11/lindirectory anymore. However, could fc-list still enter an infinite loop as suggested?
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  • Given that I cannot reproduce my own problem, I leave it to the community to VtC if we feel that the Q/A pair here would not help future users. Commented Oct 17, 2015 at 17:22

1 Answer 1

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2

I cannot reproduce the problem after posting the question.

I suspect that (re-)running 

sudo pip install matplotlib

and/or 

sudo pip install --upgrade matplotlib

while writing the question (to capture the on-screen output) fixed the previously existing issue.

fc-list now finished within 2 minutes; hough it did not create a new fontList.cache file.

I can now call import matplotlib.pyplot as plt as before.

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1 Comment

I also ran into this problem, but merely waiting resulted in the program eventually terminating. And then on a second execution it worked quickly. I think it was building some kind of font cache that only needed to be done once.

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