Matplotlib install failure on Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion - matplotlib

Question

I tried to install matplotlib on my MacBook Air, but it always gives me this error message:
Processing matplotlib-1.1.1_notests.tar.gz
Running matplotlib-1.1.1/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/easy_install-3jFpXK/matplotlib-1.1.1/egg-dist-tmp-jC7QY3
basedirlist is: []
============================================================================
BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
matplotlib: 1.1.1
python: 2.7.2 (default, Jun 20 2012, 16:23:33) [GCC 4.2.1
Compatible Apple Clang 4.0
(tags/Apple/clang-418.0.60)]
platform: darwin
REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
numpy: 1.6.1
freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
* WARNING: Could not find 'freetype2' headers in any
* of '.', './freetype2'.
OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
libpng: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
* Could not find 'libpng' headers in any of '.'
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: no
PySide: no
Cairo: no
OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
datetime: present, version unknown
dateutil: 1.5
pytz: matplotlib will provide
adding pytz
OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
dvipng: 1.14
ghostscript: 9.05
latex: 3.1415926
[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']
warning: no files found matching 'KNOWN_BUGS'
warning: no files found matching 'INTERACTIVE'
warning: no files found matching 'MANIFEST'
warning: no files found matching '__init__.py'
warning: no files found matching 'examples/data/*'
warning: no files found matching 'lib/mpl_toolkits'
warning: no files found matching 'LICENSE*' under directory 'license'
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-mno-fused-madd'
In file included from src/ft2font.cpp:3:
src/ft2font.h:16:10: fatal error: 'ft2build.h' file not found
**#include <ft2build.h>
^
1 error generated.
error: Setup script exited with error: command 'clang' failed with exit status 1**
I tried to install freetype and libpng using homebrew but it doesn't work. How can I get ft2build.h?

Answer 1

The following worked for matplotlib installation after installing python according to instructions from thegreenroom. Those instructions didn't work for me after I installed Python. I followed the instructions from Scipy.org to install numpy and scipy. Then I did (adapted from above answer):
brew install freetype
brew install libpng
However I got the same error message whether I installed with pip install matplotlib or trying to install from source, doing
python setup.py build
python setup.py install
in the matplotlib directory I cloned via git clone https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git.
The error persisted until I ran
brew link freetype
Then from the cloned matplotlib directory I ran
python setup.py build
python setup.py install
And the installation succeeded.

Answer 2

This may help folks looking for a non-homebrew solution.
My goal: use pip install to build matplotlib for a non-system python 2.7.3 build.
Using latest X-Code and X-Code command line tools as of Feb 2013, no matter what gymnastics I tried, I always received C++ ostream related template errors when compiling ft2build with gcc.
I was able to get a pip install to work with the following env vars:
export CC=clang
export CXX=clang++
export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/X11/lib"
export CFLAGS="-I/usr/X11/include -I/usr/X11/include/freetype2"
I simply forced clang and added my xquartz paths. No extra pkg-config or libpng builds, no sudo-ed symlinks.

Answer 3

I think the other answers are on the right track, but I encountered this same problem and can attest that:
brew install pkg-config
brew install freetype
pip install matplotlib
would yield the same result. Typically on an Ubuntu box my next response would have been
sudo apt-get install libfreetype-dev
or some variation of that to install the header. However, I could find no such homebrew package. Furthermore, I was able to locate the header file in question in a pretty normal location on my system:
zoidberg:~ matt$ locate ft2build.h
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/usr/X11/include/ft2build.h
/usr/X11/include/ft2build.h
So I suspect there's either a problem with my system paths or with the homebrew packaged matplotlib. Since I'm lazy, I just tried installing the matplotlib package head from github:
pip install git+git://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git#egg=matplotlib-dev
and it worked for me.

Answer 4

Here's the brew + pip recipe I used from a cold start. If you already have python and gfortran and such, jump in at the point where you need. The crucial steps appear to be brew install freetype and brew install libpng prior to doing pip install matplotlib
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
$ brew doctor
$ brew install python
$ export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/share/python:$PATH
$ easy_install pip
$ brew install gfortran
$ pip install numpy
$ pip install scipy
$ brew install pkg-config
$ brew install freetype
$ brew install libpng
$ pip install matplotlib
$ python
>>> import numpy
>>> import scipy
>>> import matplotlib

Answer 5

Note the 'no pkg-config' notices. You should have pkg-config on your search path, and it presumably needs to be the homebrew version so that it knows where the homebrew versions of the libraries are.

Answer 6

You need freetype:
brew install freetype
See the following:
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.matplotlib.general/31394

Answer 7

I also use mac air with OS X ver 10.8.2.
Using following commands can get rid of this failure:
brew install freetype
brew install libpng
pip install matplotlib
That's all. There may be some warning in the installing process, but that does not affect.
Use following python code to test:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot([1,2,3,4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')
plt.show()
which is referred from the url: http://matplotlib.org/users/pyplot_tutorial.html.

Answer 8

I have found installing these pacakges via homebrew to be the most reliable method
# if you haven't installed python via brew already:
brew install python
# sets up python as default python instead of system python
brew link python
# Add more brew formulae so we can install our py libs with brew
brew tap samueljohn/python
brew tap homebrew/science
# install numpy,scipy,matplotlib and dependencies ( gfortran, etc.. )
brew install numpy
brew install scipy
brew insatll matplotlib

Answer 9

I am using MacOs 10.8 too, and I encountered the same problem regarding not finding ft2build.h header when I tried to install matplotlib, what I l did to resolve the reported issue is :
1) replacing "ft2build.h" in the following call within the file "setupext.py" :
return self._check_for_pkg_config('freetype2',
'ft2build.h',
min_version='2.4',
version=version)
by the complete path to the ft2build.h header, in my case :
return self._check_for_pkg_config('freetype2',
'/usr/local/Cellar/freetype/2.5.2/include/freetype2/ft2build.h',
min_version='2.4',
version=version)

Answer 10

I think, but have not tested, that the problem is solved in an upstream commit of matplotlib. Here is my reasons why:
Discussion:
https://github.com/vbraun/sage/commit/5d17ca989eb58559af8f43b43e368c378c1bf6bb
Fix:
https://github.com/vbraun/sage/blob/5d17ca989eb58559af8f43b43e368c378c1bf6bb/build/pkgs/matplotlib/patches/pkg-config.patch
I fixed the problem with Cyris's answer thought.

Answer 11

I also had a similar issue, and fixed it in a reasonably straightforward way using homebrew.
You don't have to link the freetype libraries for this reason. The main problem is, after you install freetype using homebrew, you are told to add
-I/usr/local/opt/freetype/include
to your CPPFLAGS. However, this alone is not sufficient, and you also have to add the the freetype2 subfolder as well.
So in order to install matplotlib, do this:
brew install freetype
brew install libpng
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/freetype/lib -L/usr/local/opt/libpng/lib" CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/freetype/include -I/usr/local/opt/libpng/include -I/usr/local/opt/freetype/include/freetype2" pip install matplotlib