Closed
Description
A colleague ran into the following error after installing a fresh copy of Matplotlib on OSX 10.11:
$ python -c 'import matplotlib.pyplot'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 29, in <module>
import matplotlib.colorbar
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colorbar.py", line 34, in <module>
import matplotlib.collections as collections
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/collections.py", line 27, in <module>
import matplotlib.backend_bases as backend_bases
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.py", line 62, in <module>
import matplotlib.textpath as textpath
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/textpath.py", line 15, in <module>
import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1420, in <module>
_rebuild()
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1405, in _rebuild
fontManager = FontManager()
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1043, in __init__
self.ttffiles = findSystemFonts(paths) + findSystemFonts()
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 323, in findSystemFonts
for f in get_fontconfig_fonts(fontext):
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 275, in get_fontconfig_fonts
stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1334, in _execute_child
child_exception = pickle.loads(data)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 1382, in loads
return Unpickler(file).load()
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 858, in load
dispatch[key](self)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 966, in load_string
raise ValueError, "insecure string pickle"
ValueError: insecure string pickle
Not surprisingly, the problem turns out to be in get_fontconfig_fonts where the command subprocess.Popen(['fc-list', '--format=%{file}\\n'], ...) returns a ValueError instead of the expected OSError, IOError and so the routine tries to load a pickle from the error message text and fails. fc-list does not exist on my colleague's system.