Hello,
I’m having an issue building Matplotlib. In reality the build process finishes without error, but afterwards I get this error when importing pyplot:
[kpi@…4473… lib.linux-x86_64-3.3]$ python3.3
Python 3.3.2 (default, Sep 17 2013, 10:40:41)
[GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1)] on linux
Type “help”, “copyright”, “credits” or “license” for more information.
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “./matplotlib/pyplot.py”, line 24, in
import matplotlib.colorbar
File “./matplotlib/colorbar.py”, line 27, in
import matplotlib.artist as martist
File “./matplotlib/artist.py”, line 8, in
from .transforms import Bbox, IdentityTransform, TransformedBbox, \
File “./matplotlib/transforms.py”, line 35, in
from matplotlib._path import (affine_transform, count_bboxes_overlapping_bbox,
ImportError: ./matplotlib/_path.cpython-33m.so: undefined symbol: _ZSt16__ostream_insertIcSt11char_traitsIcEERSt13basic_ostreamIT_T0_ES6_PKS3_l
I don’t know a thing about building C extensions, but if I understood correctly some pasts posts in this list and others, this problem might be caused by a library that is compiled with an incompatible version of GCC.
My first suspect was freetype, so I downloaded and compiled v2.4.12 using gcc44 (which is the same compiler I used to build python3.3 and matplotlib).
But the problem persists… My question is: how can I know wich library is causing the issue, so I could recompile it?
Or, if I am completely missing the root cause, thank you for steering me in the correct direction 
More detailed info follows. Thank you for your help !
Nicolas
Here is the information asked for in the troubleshooting FAQ:
[kpi@…4473… matplotlib]$ uname -a
Linux dev-outils.admin.mt.lan 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5 #1 SMP Wed Aug 21 04:00:25 EDT 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[kpi@…4473… matplotlib]$ cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.9 (Final)
But please, note that I am using a Python version built by myself (not the version that comes with CenOS 5.9) using gcc 4.4.7 (and not gcc 4.1.2)
[kpi@…4443…73… matplotlib]$ gcc44 -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-redhat-linux6E
Configured with: …/configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --disable-gnu-unique-object --with-as=/usr/libexec/binutils220/as --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran --disable-libgcj --with-mpfr=/builddir/build/BUILD/gcc-4.4.7-20120601/obj-x86_64-redhat-linux6E/mpfr-install/ --with-ppl=/builddir/build/BUILD/gcc-4.4.7-20120601/obj-x86_64-redhat-linux6E/ppl-install --with-cloog=/builddir/build/BUILD/gcc-4.4.7-20120601/obj-x86_64-redhat-linux6E/cloog-install --with-tune=generic --with-arch_32=i586 --build=x86_64-redhat-linux6E
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1) (GCC)
[kpi@…4473… lib.linux-x86_64-3.3]$ python3.3
Python 3.3.2 (default, Sep 17 2013, 10:40:41)
[GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1)] on linux
matplotlib.version
‘1.3.1’
Here is what I modified in setup.cfg last time (but I also tried with an unmodified version with the same results):
[gui_support]
agg = True
cairo = False
gtk = False
gtk3agg = False
gtk3cairo = False
gtkagg = False
macosx = False
pyside = False
qt4agg = False
tkagg = False
windowing = False
wxagg = False
[rc_options]
backend = Agg
I didn’t modify any other config file. Here is the output of the build process:
···
[kpi@…4474… matplotlib-1.3.1]$ python3.3 setup.py build
============================================================================
Edit setup.cfg to change the build options
BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
matplotlib: yes [1.3.1]
python: yes [3.3.2 (default, Sep 17 2013, 10:40:41) [GCC
4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1)]]
platform: yes [linux]
REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES AND EXTENSIONS
numpy: yes [version 1.8.0]
dateutil: yes [using dateutil version 2.2]
tornado: yes [using tornado version 3.1.1]
pyparsing: yes [using pyparsing version 2.0.1]
pycxx: yes [Official versions of PyCXX are not compatible
with Python 3.x. Using local copy]
libagg: yes [pkg-config information for ‘libagg’ could not
be found. Using local copy.]
freetype: yes [version 16.1.10]
png: yes [version 1.2.10]
OPTIONAL SUBPACKAGES
sample_data: yes [installing]
toolkits: yes [installing]
tests: yes [using nose version 1.3.0]
OPTIONAL BACKEND EXTENSIONS
macosx: no [skipping due to configuration]
qt4agg: no [skipping due to configuration]
gtk3agg: no [skipping due to configuration]
gtk3cairo: no [skipping due to configuration]
gtkagg: no [skipping due to configuration]
tkagg: no [skipping due to configuration]
wxagg: no [skipping due to configuration]
gtk: no [skipping due to configuration]
agg: yes [installing]
cairo: no [skipping due to configuration]
windowing: no [skipping due to configuration]
OPTIONAL LATEX DEPENDENCIES
dvipng: no
ghostscript: yes [version 8.70]
latex: no
pdftops: no
running build
running build_py
creating build