How to fix ImportError in matplotlib

Question

I compiled matplotlib on mac running snow leopard just to find that when I import matplotlib.pyplot, I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 6, in <module> from matplotlib.figure import Figure, figaspect File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/figure.py", line 18, in <module> from axes import Axes, SubplotBase, subplot_class_factory File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 12, in <module> import matplotlib.axis as maxis File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/axis.py", line 10, in <module> import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 52, in <module> from matplotlib import ft2font ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so, 2): Symbol not found: _FT_Attach_File Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so Expected in: dynamic lookup 

How to fix it?

Answer 1

Building matplotlib on OS X, as you know, is fraught with problems associated with inappropriate versions of libraries that may be in the system directories, / usr / local, / opt / local that you have. That is why the source distribution contains the README.osx file, in which it is recommended to use the make.osx file specified in the distribution, which extracts and compiles the libraries and builds matplotlib with respect to the extracted copy.